Does the "ACX" cooler on GTX 780 really make sense?

[Aikouka]

Well, I have to disagree here. I just spent all day putting my parts in my 550D (so much more pleasant to work with than my Cosmos 1000), and my CPU idle/load temps have dropped by 5-10°C. After running P95 for twenty minutes my CPU averages about 75°C and peaks at 78°. That's with a Core i7 930 at 4.2GHZ, 1.35V. I've got two front 120mm intakes and one 140mm rear exhaust. The side and top vents are both closed.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6676/antec-gx700-case-review-just-what-you-can-get-for-5999/5

The Anandtech tests don't agree!

Personally, I haven't gone through and tested it, but my system is a little bit louder than I'd like it to be. I did replace some of the fans with quieter variants (e.g. Scythe Kaze 12), but it's close to the wall, has a 660Ti that's pushing air into the case, and doesn't have a fan on the side. Although, it does have one of the AIO watercoolers on the CPU, and I think I replaced that stock fan with an Enermax Magma.

To be fair, I did look up the 900D again, and it actually did better than I recalled. I'm actually tempted to get one, because the nerd in me really wants to try real water cooling!

It's also much quieter than my Cosmos setup was!

The 550D does have quite a bit of silencing foam!

 

[Borealis7]

after reading this: http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?area=en&tid=wh_positive

i would prefer the blower type coolers since i keep positive static pressure in my case.

 

[blastingcap]

after reading this: http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?area=en&tid=wh_positive

i would prefer the blower type coolers since i keep positive static pressure in my case.

I am a big fan of Silverstone even though I can't afford most of their gear. The Silverstone gear I do have works well though. And I have seen Silverstone's fog machine tests where they show you visually how air moves through their cases, but not this video, so thanks for the link!

I'm a big fan (no pun intended) of positive air pressure as well and have structured all my cases to have powerful intake fans in the front and sides. Sometimes also the bottom if appropriate. So long as your intake fans are stronger than your exhaust fans and are mounted correctly (e.g., side fans should be mounted to blow cool air into the case), you will get have a positive-pressure case.

I can vouch for the Corsair 300R being a good cooling case even if it can get a little loud... this is in line with Anandtech's review of the 300R which basically said the same thing: good cooling but not exactly silent.

That said, I think if you have a good-cooling case you can get away with one axial-fan video card. But with two cards, I would go with at least one blower. If your case airflow isn't that good, I would go with two blowers.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

When I use to run dual 5870's in my 800D I placed a fan on top of one of the cards to help cool off the North Bridge and the CPU as-well. If things get hot you might want to try something like this to help exhaust the hot air out the back of the case.

 

[Smartazz]

I don't have a GTX 780, but I had two 7950s which dumped heat into my case. It honestly wasn't that much of a problem with my Antec 1200.

 

[UaVaj]

acx cooler. axial flow design needs minimum 1 slot space for proper static pressure.
reference cooler. centrifugal flow design works better when that 1 slot space is not available.

single card, and dual sli - definitely get the acx.
tril sli and quad sli - definitely get the reference.

as for ambient temperature.
open bench/case - you are covered.
closed case - make sure air flow is excellent expecially with acx.

-----

IMHO - only time to consider an axial flow cooler is (1) open bench/case with (2) one or two gpu max. any other senario - reference wins.

 

[KingGlade]

Would the ACX model or reference be better in a Fractal Design Define R4 with 2 140's in the front and one in the back. Both of the top vents and side are covered with moduvent(sound deadening foam).

 

[aigomorla]

single card, and dual sli - definitely get the acx.
tril sli and quad sli - definitely get WATER

fixed.

Watercooling these cards net a reduction in 1/2 on the load temps.
So ur titansLE on tri and quad would not even break 50C under heavy load on all 3-4 gpu's if done correctly.

With that many video cards as an investment, i dont see why u wont invest in another 500 to protect that type of value in hardware.

 

[Nate_007]

I have been holding out and waiting for this cooler as well. Cannot find them anywhere here. I think my case could handle the heat production just fine, plus I have this dual slot air cooling thing installed http://images.highspeedbackbone.net/itemdetails/T925-2260/thermal.jpg

 

[24601]

fixed.

Watercooling these cards net a reduction in 1/2 on the load temps.
So ur titansLE on tri and quad would not even break 50C under heavy load on all 3-4 gpu's if done correctly.

With that many video cards as an investment, i dont see why u wont invest in another 500 to protect that type of value in hardware.

If they plan on just running them stock, 3 year or lifetime warrantee should be plenty for the kind of person that buys 3-4 $650 or $1000 video cards at once.

Only people who want to overclock and/or value quiet running at 100% load at $500+ would be interested in water cooling.

I really don't know why companies don't come out with a cast aluminum (with copper only at the GPU interface) full block with machining only in the important bits for water cooling at a more reasonable $30-50 price point.
Water blocks really don't have to be all that much metal, all they have to do is provide an efficient interface between water and the GPU die (VRM and Ram should do just fine on aluminum as directly part of the block).

 

[UaVaj]

fixed.

Watercooling these cards net a reduction in 1/2 on the load temps.
So ur titansLE on tri and quad would not even break 50C under heavy load on all 3-4 gpu's if done correctly.

With that many video cards as an investment, i dont see why u wont invest in another 500 to protect that type of value in hardware.

good point if 50c tickles your feathers.

for some of us - could care less if it runs hot - as long as it does not throttle. even if its life is reduce by 1/2 due to running hot. chances are it will be time for an upgrade before it ever dies. major bonus. keeping it stock and should it die due to heat. warranty kicks in.

water - do so at your own risk.

 

[Stuka87]

With the way nVidia does its throttling, I would want the card with the best cooling period. Add another case fan if you need to. But heat = slow for nVidia.

 

[Headfoot]

I looked at some pictures of your case.

I would get the ACX for sure as long as you have the top exhaust fans running and the one bottom intake fan running. You won't even need the side fan as long as you're using decent fans that pull some air

 

[Fx1]

i have never seen the point in paying extra for these coolers. They often cost a fortune on top of the reference card. They offer no real benefit given that i have often clocked lower on these cards than the reference cards. I gave up on them when i got a windforce and it offered a few degrees cooler than reference but clocked ALOT lower. People say that they can come with all these great VRMs and Caps but i have never seen the benefit over the reference design. Its just a GPU lottery. Get the cheapest one you can and put the money on something with real benefits.

 

[biostud]

I would prefer ASUS DCII.

 

[PCJake]

With the way nVidia does its throttling, I would want the card with the best cooling period. Add another case fan if you need to. But heat = slow for nVidia.

Yeah, that's true.

I looked at some pictures of your case.

I would get the ACX for sure as long as you have the top exhaust fans running and the one bottom intake fan running. You won't even need the side fan as long as you're using decent fans that pull some air

Well, I can't use top fans because of my cat. I've got a Noctua NF-A14 as a rear exhaust, another NF-A14 as a bottom intake, and two NF-S12As as front intakes. I'm not using side fans, but I've got the side fan cover off for extra ventilation.

The ACX cooler would blow hot air straight down; the bottom intake would blow cool air straight up - I don't see any logic here. My philosophy is to isolate and remove the heat from components as directly as possible; so, for example, my NH-D14 cooler pushes the hot air from my CPU directly towards the rear of the case, and the NF-A14 fan pulls it out of the case immediately. Similarly, my PSU pulls cool air in from below the case, and exhausts it directly out the rear of the case. The reference cooler on my GTX 580 pulls cool air in from the bottom intake fan and exhausts it directly out the rear of the case. In this way, virtually every warm component in my case is isolated from everything else.

Of course, I can see how the ACX would absolutely keep the GTX 780 itself cooler than the reference cooler would - but I have a problem with the concept blowing hot air at an intake fan. So this is my dilemma :whiste:

 

[blackened23]

i have never seen the point in paying extra for these coolers. They often cost a fortune on top of the reference card.

780SC ACX is 10$ more? Looks like you're wrong.

They offer no real benefit given that i have often clocked lower on these cards than the reference cards.

Reviews have also proven this wrong. From the MSI lightning and Asus DC2 from prior gen cards, and now the 780 ACX in particular - they all have clear and tangible benefits over reference. Is aftermarket for everyone? Certainly not. But they certainly overclock better and have better noise levels than reference - assuming you have a case with good air flow. Now that said, there are certain valid reasons to get reference (small form factor case, SLI) but if you have a large roomy case with good air flow, aftermarket is fine and has clear benefits.

I won't bother linking 780GTX ACX reviews proving how much better than reference it is. I'm guessing you threw your opinion out there while being completely oblivious to existing reviews. No offense, but this isn't surprising based on your track record.

 

[wand3r3r]

I have a similar setup except I have a fan for the top fan location too. 1 on every side I guess, plus an extra one to blow on the cards if needed just inside the case.

The 690 is hotter and louder than the DCUII, Twin Frozr VI etc. in my case (granted it probably had higher TDP heat to distribute, so it's not exactly a straightforward comparison).

I think you are going to regret either decision because you take this long to make up you mind. What if it were cooler or quieter or faster etc. You have about all the info people can give you without anyone actually owning 2x 780's to directly compare one by one in a similar case with similar fans.

 

[UaVaj]

Reviews have also proven this wrong. From the MSI lightning and Asus DC2 from prior gen cards, and now the 780 ACX in particular - they all have clear and tangible benefits over reference.

do note. reviews are based on open air bench install. put that into a case and totally different game. enough said.

can only wonder how many here are running open bench.

 

[Smartazz]

If I end up getting a 780 it will most certainly be an ACX 780.

 

[PCJake]

I think you are going to regret either decision because you take this long to make up you mind. What if it were cooler or quieter or faster etc. You have about all the info people can give you without anyone actually owning 2x 780's to directly compare one by one in a similar case with similar fans.

Nah, they're all out of stock; I can't get one now, so I'll use this time to make my decision.

 

[blackened23]

do note. reviews are based on open air bench install. put that into a case and totally different game. enough said.

can only wonder how many here are running open bench.

This is purely anecdotal evidence, but myself and many of my friends have used aftermarket cards for many years - Open air certainly is not required, of all of the aftermarket cards i've used (generally, i've used mostly Asus DC2 and MSI lightning) the temps have been without question and without exception, better than reference with far better overclocking to boot. As an example, I used a single MSI lightning 680 when it was first released (I later purchased another for SLI) and my temperatures were shockingly much better than the reference 7970s and 680s which I used prior. It also overclocked past 1300mhz/7000mhz out of the box without overvoltage, and went even further than that with overvoltage.

Before you counter with an expected argument - I know exactly what you will say. I *know* that reference has merits for some people - in smaller form factors and in certain situations, such as SLI, reference is certainly preferable. Heck, I would use reference for SLI 100% of the time especially for more than 2-way. Reference has very valid reasons for use and i'm not saying that aftermarket is for everyone.

 

[UaVaj]

blackened

already explained above on post #31 - obviously you and your buddy ensure excellent case air flow. good for you.

 

[blackened23]

blackened

already explained above on post #31 - obviously you and your buddy ensure excellent case air flow. good for you.

Yes. Obviously good for me. Thank you! Just for your information, it's sometimes hard to interpret what you're actually stating since you don't bother with grammar or punctuation -- When you do that on a forum, people make judgement calls about whether a post is an intelligent one worth reading or an barely-intelligible pile of nonsensical garbage. When you throw punctuation out the window - readers have a tendency to either ignore everything you say and/or make judgement calls on intelligence level of the poster in question. No offense, I just don't understand 75% of your posts due to the complete disregard for punctuation, proper context, grammar, complete sentences, coherency, or spelling. You may have explained it (your reasons for preferring reference) but I usually don't go to great lengths to decipher poorly worded posts. I'm not saying you should change anything, or defend it - by all means keep doing what you're doing. I really don't care at all. Maybe you're on a smartphone which greatly limits the amount of input you're able to do in a forum like this, which is understandable. I'm just explaining why someone may not actually put any effort into reading the meaning or intent behind the great majority of your posts. I didn't actually catch anything other than some reviewers using an open test bench, which is true for some reviewers but not all. Besides that fact, there are obviously many single card aftermarket users which have reported temps far lower than reference as anecdotal evidence.

 

[SeanJ76]

I didn't notice higher processor temps with the ACX, I'm running 2x 770 SC ACX Sli in a Antec 300 which is a mid-tower. It's much quieter than radial coolers, but I don't like how the heat is dumped on my Psu. ACX seems to be the fad.....for at least this year.