Gainward's new water cooled vid-card

[Senater_Cache]

Stumbled upon this while doing some routine catch-up

here

[AngryAlpaca]

They just had to use the innovatek... That probably boosted the price of the product by 300+... 480W? Is it just me or have VC's become worse over time? (Price, requirements, etc.) "quiet 5" fan." And tell me, THG, where are we going to put this? Now we have to modify cases, give up one PCI slot, and deal with watercooling (and a high price tag) JUST to get a video card?

The fluid provides better heat dissipation

WTF is the matter with people?

it maxed out at 70°C. A GeForce 6800 Ultra with NVIDIA's reference cooler climbed to 77°C and 82°C

12 degrees under stock... Congrats.

[firtol88]

BFG has been offering one for awhile as well.

http://www.bfgtech.com/6800.html

Koolance...

[Cathar]

You know that something's wrong in the nVidia video card universe when water-cooling solutions start being offered as bundled packages with their cards.

[Joe]

Why? they run cooler than the ATi cards. I would have to say the Nvidia folks made a card thats pretty OC'able and had the foresight to cach in on that and sell one with the cooling to handle it.

And also... who would want to buy anything from french canadians anyway?!

[Joe]

Wonder if these new kits are any of BladeRunners influence

[Etacovda]

Originally Posted by Joe

Why? they run cooler than the ATi cards.

Tested from where? ive seen some pretty dodgy bs on the net about them...

A guy from another forum said just that to me, and proceeded to show me an article to 'prove' it, and they were measuring the temperature off the back of the card, on the hold down.... seems like taking a cars engine temperature off the bonnet to me.

I'll see if i can find the 'review'.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/135/4/

There it is. If im not mistaken, some kind of insulation will be between that plate and the pcb, will it not?

[Joe]

warpath, our very own Pro/Chat hardware buying freak. Owns a x800 and a 6800GT and he has claimed a number of times that his 6800 is cooler by a margin than the x800.

[BalefireX]

I think that has something to do with the cooling solutions though - ATI is using a much smaller (1/2 the size) heatsink. If it runs only slightly hotter with a much smaller heatsink, that suggests lower heat output. Don't remember the exact stats, but someone measured power consumption on X800 and 6800 cards - under load the 6800 was pulling ~50w more than the X800.

[AngryAlpaca]

Ok, Joe, but what's the point? They'll have different points of instability/artifacting. Pretty useless test. Also, what's the wattage? No one cares about temperature, as it is meaningless.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by AngryAlpaca

Ok, Joe, but what's the point? They'll have different points of instability/artifacting. Pretty useless test. Also, what's the wattage? No one cares about temperature, as it is meaningless.

Dude I dont ****ing know. I dont own one, I dont read hardware sites, I dont care is the final answer.

I just heard War talking about it, and figure "that sounds right" and there was some supporting comments on the topic also from what I have read. I also have a heavy nV bias against ATI... damn french canadians...

And really who cares. like people buy these pre-done water cooled setups cause they NEED them on their cards... sorry but I know enough people with air cooled GT's that run just fine. So its hardly about whats needed, and since facts dont pertain to the "need more bling" or what ever it is, getting in a huff about which is hotter or not from an absolute standpoint is ... pointless

[Cathar]

Originally Posted by Joe

And really who cares. like people buy these pre-done water cooled setups cause they NEED them on their cards... sorry but I know enough people with air cooled GT's that run just fine. So its hardly about whats needed, and since facts dont pertain to the "need more bling" or what ever it is, getting in a huff about which is hotter or not from an absolute standpoint is ... pointless

Perhaps you missed the point of this product. The card is a GF6800U in stock form. True, it doesn't need water-cooling, but the card is advertised to run at 450MHz core clock, or at the now infamous "Ultra Extreme" core speeds, and this is why the water-cooling is on it.

It's quite odd that a few months ago Gainward and BFG were reported to be apparantly both on the preferred supplier short-list for manufacturer's who would be able to provide 450MHz "Ultra Extreme" speeds, and there were reports from these companies that they could not even reliably do this on air-cooling even with bin-split GPU parts from nVidia.

A short while after the X800XT got reviewed the whole story changed and nVidia denied that such "Ultra Extreme" products were ever on the cards, yet here we are - a few months later, with the original suspects offering exactly what was slated to be offered.

My comment about "needing" water-cooling was an indirect reference to the 450MHz "Ultra Extreme" core speeds. Yes - I know that there are people achieving this with air-cooling, but it's not a guarantee.

Joe - could you perhaps try to be a little less defensive about it? No one was saying that nVidia needed water-cooling to run their cards at stock, but it is apparant that they need it to run their cards reliably at core speeds that were once slated to be a possible product, was cancelled, yet here it is now in an "unofficial" and water-cooled capacity.

[Joe]

I wasnt defensive, just pointing out that my comments were based on hearsay just as I said in the begining and I really dont care about the temps on the cards I was just passing on some info I heard

I just find it rather silly that mfg's are selling water coolers on the cards stock. or "stock" as in out of the box.

Oh well... I am just gunna wait and buy an Ultra I think... Dual DVI goodness... the only reason I dont buy a GT!

[jaydee]

Some of the best words I ever heard from Toms is the first sentance in that article.

Things arguably begin to get out of hand once the graphics card costs as much as an average midrange PC

I think I will just give up gaming. Just to expensive for what I get out of it which isn't much lately.

[firtol88]

Originally Posted by jaydee116

Some of the best words I ever heard from Toms is the first sentance in that article.


I think I will just give up gaming. Just to expensive for what I get out of it which isn't much lately.

It is getting pretty pathetic, you can buy either top-end console for less than a third of the price of a top-end video card. Problem is I just don't like consoles

Guess this round will be the last time I bother as like yourself I'm getting less joy per buck spent.

[Joe]

I think you guys miss the point. You cant do jack shit on a console, its more useless than a Mac. Which is saying a lot!

the ability to work on 4 monitors worth of PHP or Spreadsheets or hard core porn then on the same machine be killing baddies, or racing hard core in some race sim is worth it alone.

Consoles have their place, but really the only reason I would ever own one is to open it up and see what makes it work, and mod it into a file server. Since thats all the Xbox is good for. Also you get stuck playing down sampled games that the rest of the community will get to love in top end quality. ie: Doom3

THe quality of the Xbox shots looked like ASS compared to what a 6800 can render D3 at. So you are paying to grow your quality of gaming at the bleeding freak'n edge of video technology. With a console you are just happy to use technology thats 4 years old and play the quality you are handed, and have no control over. not me thanks.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by Joe

I think you guys miss the point. You cant do jack shit on a console, its more useless than a Mac. Which is saying a lot!

Na, when I said:

I think I will just give up gaming.

I ment just that. That includes consoles. Unless they come out with some new "good" 4x4 sims like EVO 1 and 2 or even the half assed Cabela's Off Road Adventure Series then I am out. Even that new Colin McRae Rally game doesn't get it going for me. Just can't justify spending $50 a game plus over $500 in hardware upgrades just to play a few hours a month. Guess my hardcore gaming days are over. :shrug:

[firtol88]

Originally Posted by firtol88

...Problem is I just don't like consoles...

looks like you started your own argument...

Anyway things will only get worse