Which graphics card ventilation style do you like best?

[Vegasus]

I'm going to buy a graphics card soon and I'm wondering what the tradeoffs are between blower, open air fans and ducted fans. My CPU is a Skylake i5 so that won't make much heat. The case will have an intake fan for positive air pressure. The case also has a big side vent.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I'm going to buy a graphics card soon and I'm wondering what the tradeoffs are between blower, open air fans and ducted fans. My CPU is a Skylake i5 so that won't make much heat. The case will have an intake fan for positive air pressure. The case also has a big side vent.

Blower for me, but really unless you've got a SFF system or a case with extremely poor airflow, pick which we one you like better.

 

[railven]

I've now a devout AIC+Blower. If you can't go full water kit, AICs are just the best. Quiet, cool, and barely any heat stays in the case.

 

[biostud]

CLC

 

[imported_bman]

Open air since they have far better acoustics. Though I like what we are now seeing with closed loop designs and the various kits for after market GPU water cooling via closed loops.

 

[Newbian]

How big is the case?

Also with just one intake does that mean no exhaust?

If you have so little airflow a blower may work better as with better air flow last I checked open air coolers will work better.

I prefer open air coolers myself as I use decent airflow, at least one in and one out for smaller cases and 2 of each for a normal sized case, and they work better and are quieter.

 

[Borealis7]

another vote for Blower. i game with headphones (baby's aleep) so i don't hear the fan (but perhaps the baby does... )

 

[cbn]

Blower.

 

[SPBHM]

I think I prefer open fans because they are easier to clean, simpler and work pretty well as long as the case is well ventilated

 

[littleg]

I prefer open air. Have a couple of nice big fans for intake and exhaust to provide decent airflow and keep the noise down.

 

[MongGrel]

I like open air myself, depends on how well ventilated your case is I guess.

I stopped buying blowers over a decade ago.

 

[Yakk]

If I'm not water cooling I go for blower.

 

[crisium]

Open air massive heatsink and giant fans. What I have now.

 

[Dribble]

Open air works better unless you have airflow problems (e.g. tiny case/SLi). Any decent desktop case will have multiple 120mm fans venting air out case heat isn't too much of an issue.

 

[Rifter]

open air, blowers are way to loud.

 

[Vegasus]

CLC

What's this?

How big is the case?

16" tall, 7" wide, 15" deep.

Also with just one intake does that mean no exhaust?

There's a 92mm vent in front low, a 92mm vent in back high, the power supply above that, and a side vent large enough to put a 120mm fan, maybe larger. I just bought a Noctua NF-A9 PWM 92mm which I'm thinking of putting in front low for intake.

The motherboard has one four pin fan connector on it. I've thought of buying two fans, but I've heard the intake should go faster than the exhaust to prevent dust buildup, but I'm not sure how to control that. I like the idea of fan speeds varying to match the heat being generated, so I imagine the ideal setup would allow both fans to run at variable speeds with the intake always going faster than the exaust. I could maybe live with both fans spinning at a constant speed as long as I could still make their speeds different from each other, but I haven't heard how to do that through a Molex connector.

The PC is an Asus Vivo PC M32CD, if that helps.

I'm leaning towards buying an RX 480 at stock clocks. From what I've read that won't make a tremendous amount of heat.

 

[thesmokingman]

In a single card it doesn't matter much as long as you have good air movement thru the case.

 

[Bacon1]

What's this?

I'm guessing Closed Loop Cooler.

I go open air or AIO if its there, I don't buy little cases with airflow problems

 

[GoodRevrnd]

In a single card it doesn't matter much as long as you have good air movement thru the case.

What about dual? Stuck with a blower since they're so close to each other?

 

[thesmokingman]

What about dual? Stuck with a blower since they're so close to each other?

Yea, blower is better for multi gpu. That way you reduce the % that they are regurgitating hot air from the other card. It's also easier to feed in cool air and make sure it exhausts instead of regurgitating for lack of a better word atm.

 

[Headfoot]

Wow a lot of people supporting blowers even though open air cooled aftermarket cards are objectively better at cooling and quieter in a normal case.

The real question to ask isn't "what do you prefer?" It's "which is better?"

The answer, assuming a normal desktop case with a couple intake fans and a couple exhaust fans and just 1 video card, is 1. CLC cooler, 2. multi-fan open air, 3. blower. Blowers are a little better if you have 2 cards, but even then open air coolers are still usually better.

OP. Just look at data on the topic and you'll find the conclusion

 

[amenx]

Have heard the argument over many years that blowers keep case cooler vs open air but have not found that to be true in my experience (3 cases, several GPUs, both cooler types). The theory is spot on, it makes perfect sense, that the hot air is expelled from the case and therefore the case is cooler. Never have seen that to actually happen though. So open air always for me since keeps card significantly cooler and quieter.

 

[Piroko]

Between the options you presented I usually pick open air, but I also have 3 slow spinning case fans in my foam dampened case to keep temperatures in check. That beats every blower configuration I have ever tested in temperatures and noise.

Though I have to say that a CLC easily beats that as well, to the point where I start to hear the background white noise from my speakers when they're on.

 

[Bacon1]

Never have seen that to actually happen though. So open air always for me since keeps card significantly cooler and quieter.

I think its because most cases have good airflow anyway, and since the open air coolers are generally much much better at keeping the card cool so the ambient air stays cooler overall.

 

[sxr7171]

If not hybrid then open. Always quieter and got better temps.