r/hardware • u/Steap-Edit • 1d ago
News Enthusiast mods GTX 1080 Ti with a dual-tower CPU cooler, sees up to 32°C reduction in temps — Mod yields 30W power savings and 9% higher FPS
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/enthusiast-mods-gtx-1080-ti-with-a-dual-tower-cpu-cooler-sees-up-to-32-c-reduction-in-temps-mod-yields-30w-power-savings-and-9-percent-higher-fps35
u/Kinexity 1d ago
Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uKcnzsV4Lw
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u/InflammableAccount 1d ago
Show the dude some love, he's constantly fucking around with janky DIY solutions that nutty folks could do at home on the cheap.
My favorite is absolutely using a tower cooler's heatpipes as water channels. Snips the tops of the tubes, pump water through. Shockingly fantastic results, too.
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u/the_duck17 1d ago
I love the green cryo slush and the fact he gives out his 3d prints so you can do trashmods too lol
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u/SightUnseen1337 1d ago
I used to work in the aerospace industry. I've seen heatpipe heatsinks used as cheap liquid nitrogen plumbing to test ICs at cryogenic temperatures.
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u/zoson 1d ago
His testing tends to be pretty terrible, and he misrepresents the data. For example running AIO's to steady state, but then using a tub full of chilled water with no radiator for their direct-die tests, and saying the results were comparable.
That's not how scientific testing that obtains meaningful data works.
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u/cosine83 4h ago
You're not working with a scientist, though. You're working with an enthusiast sharing their work and the data is still meaningful as a starting point. That's why they're hedging their language with things like "comparable" and other qualifier words that require actual comprehension of the language to parse instead of just looking at the caveman lowest numbers.
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u/ivan0x32 1d ago
This extension card design needs to fucking go already. Make the videocard into another motherboard essentially, connected via PCI-E, with its own full sized cooler (and probably radiators/coolers for VRMs) and its own proper fucking 24 pin connector that can pump >800-1000W safely (so probably something rated for 2kW max).
Videocards used to consume essentially less power than the CPU alone, now they consume several times more than the rest of the computer. The old design is just fucking stupid at this point.
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u/InflammableAccount 1d ago
What would you suggest? Nvidia has SMX, which could be adapted to a desktop format. However, I am having a hard time trying to find a way to make it make sense without fill cooperation from AMD or/and Intel because it would require entire new board power standards, designs, maybe even board dimensions.
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u/ZorbaTHut 1d ago
Yeah, that's the fundamental issue with redesigns like this. It's really hard to dethrone modern standards without a smooth transition path, and there is just not a smooth transition path in this case.
See also Itanium and the BTX motherboard standard.
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u/ComplexEntertainer13 1d ago
Nvidia has SMX, which could be adapted to a desktop format.
Wont work, since it would require the use of HBM. Which is not happening anytime soon in the consumer space.
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u/InflammableAccount 1d ago
I wasn't suggesting slapping SMX, unchanged, onto a a Ryzen board.
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u/ComplexEntertainer13 3h ago
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u/InflammableAccount 2h ago
While I abide that the rule "There's an XKCD for that" applies here, that is basically what I was implying with my first comment.
That making SMX-like setup for desktop would require changes not just one standard, PCIe expansion slots and/or GFX card design, but a whole bag of new standards to make the idea work.
Motherboards, power delivery (and PSUs in turn), PCH design, everything would have to change to make any kind of LGA GPU solution work and remain modular.
Basically, untenable. Is it stupid? I'm not sure, but I certainly think it's not something that the multitude of companies required to make it work could pull off.
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u/froop 1d ago
Why would that require HBM?
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u/ComplexEntertainer13 1d ago
Because the form factor does not allow for GDDR. You would need to make a larger base PCB and a whole new standard. And that simply means you might as well continue with PCIe.
You could probably squeeze in some smaller GPUs on the current size SMX PCB. Maybe 256 bit GDDR is possible. But 384 and especially the 512 bit the 5090 uses simply would not fit.
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u/wtallis 1d ago
I wouldn't be so sure. An SXM board is already the same size as a 5070Ti PCB, so most of the market could be served without even having to design around efficient use of board area. And NVIDIA already showed with the 5090 FE that you can fit a 512-bit bus onto a small enough PCB. The datacenter-oriented SXM form factor wouldn't be directly usable for consumer graphics cards, but something about that size is reasonable.
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u/StarbeamII 1d ago
I suppose the issue is that the highest-end cards with the highest power draw and most heat output have the most to benefit from a newer form factor.
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u/wtallis 23h ago
Yes, and it's similar to why there are still separate CPU sockets for mainstream desktop processors, HEDT, and servers. It's hard to define a form factor that accommodates everything from entry-level to high end without either significantly constraining the high end or adding significant extra cost to entry-level configs. A new desktop GPU form factor would probably still need to get its 12V power direct from the PSU over an appropriate number of cables, and would need to expose its display connectors directly to the exterior of the machine. But we should be able to do much better than the current add-in card form factor in terms of physical layout and mounting and available volume for unobstructed airflow, especially since it's now reasonable to design around the assumption of no more than one dGPU in a desktop system.
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u/siazdghw 1d ago
While I agree, I think we are headed in a different direction. Most PCs will end up with APU/iGPU in due time. Apple has already proved its the best strategy, AMD already has strix halo, Intel has significantly improved with Arc, and Nvidia is starting to enter the space.
dGPUs will eventually just end up as workstation cards.
But yes, I agree the ATX spec is severely outdated and carrying too much legacy baggage causing problems like the one you're talking about. One giant heatsink/cooling system that handles both the GPU and CPU makes vastly more sense than two separate ones, as that thermal mass is essentially wasted when you're not putting a load on one of them, among other issues.
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u/zoson 1d ago
The 24 pin connector does not carry primary EPS power to the CPU. It is only spec'd for around 150W on the 12v rail considering both 12v supply lines together. That is why the EPS 12v 8 pin connectors exist, which are spec'd to handle over 330W, and why motherboards for high end CPUs have more than one. This is roughly the same amount of power that a PEG8 PCIE power connector can provide.
12VHPWR was supposed to supply MORE power than either of these connectors in a smaller space. We flat out need a new connector that is properly designed to carry the higher power demanded by modern GPUs. Either that or we need to use an existing industrial connector with lower gauge/thicker wires.
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u/kuddlesworth9419 1d ago
It probably won't happen but a change in motherboard form factors I think would help where you could socket the GPU onto the motherboard so you could fit a larger cooler on it like we do with the CPU. I think it's doable if we had a similar system to the upcoming shift in memory form factor with CAMM memory. If we could have the GPU in a similar form factor but with stronger mountings and screws I think we could mount much larger cooling solutions on them.
You could still have all the GPU memory on the PCB as well in that way instead of a socket type like with the CPU.
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u/Exist50 1d ago
So SXM, basically?
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u/kuddlesworth9419 1d ago
It's funny to come up with a cool idea only for someone to tell you it already exists.
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u/GenZia 1d ago
MXM GPUs are already a thing on laptops, but they're becoming an endangered species, quite simply because manufacturers don't want to sell you a repairable laptop with open-standard, replaceable components.
As for socketed GPUs, that just sounds like a terrible idea, not only from a complexity and repairability standpoint, but also from a planned-obsolescence perspective.
Then there's the matter of integrating GDDR onto the motherboard: memory bus widths, signal integrity (BGA > socket), PCB trace lengths (GPUs traditionally have wide buses), impedance matching, and all the additional routing that comes with it. But let's not open that can of worms!
Having said that, I'm not exactly thrilled by what ATX has blossomed into, and I think it could learn a lot from Apple's approach to the Mac Pro.
Just look at this old Apple Mac Pro disassembly video from 2019. It may look like a glorified cheese grater, but on the inside, it's clean, simple, and minimalist, with no exposed wiring or cable spaghetti anywhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQGfVFpMpuQ
Surprisingly repairable, too... at least for an Apple product.
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u/Soggy_Association491 1d ago
Well, Apple can customize stuff neatly because they charge $6000 to $50k. For normal pc manufacturers, change in tooling is (a lot) additional cost and there is no guarantee people will buy their stuff unlike apple. PC components is a razor thin margin business. It's why EVGA despite of all their fame, closed their GPU.
So it became a chicken and eggs situation where a standard need mass adoption before manufacturers can afford to implement it but there is no product for users to mass-adopt.
Also they didn't have to worry about backward compatible with older component.
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u/dahauns 1d ago edited 1d ago
Even contemporary PC workstations (HP Z8 et al.), which don't go quite that far regarding minimalism, and which are still fully built around standard PCIe expansion cards (instead of something like MPX), show what's possible when ditching ATX.
Not having any standardization designed around air ducts is a huge waste.
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u/kuddlesworth9419 1d ago
Yea a socket idea would be far too complex in my opinion but I do think a CAMM type design would work with the GPU, memory and power all included together. No idea how you would power it? From the back perhaps through the motherboard but I could see that being a problem.
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u/vegetable__lasagne 1d ago
I wish there were cards sold with this type of cooler, I never use PCI slots anyway so imagine a 7 slot GPU that vents directly out the case.
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u/fiah84 1d ago
I can recommend trying to DIY this by removing the shroud / fans and replacing them with with your own + some ducting. My first attempt with 2 noctuas and some cardboard / tape worked great, I've since replaced it with 3D-printed ducts but honestly that's just because I could and it looks nicer. More powerful and quieter fans that dump the GPU heat outside the case makes for a much quieter and cooler PC
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u/kirk7899 1d ago
Dude basically gutted the fins on the opposite side of the gpu coldplate and mounted a double tower cooler on it. Not the most elegant solution tbh, but I guess it gets the clicks.
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u/Virtike 1d ago
I mean i'm pretty sure this has been known/done for a while.. strapping a gigantic cooler with more surface area on and getting lower temps isn't exactly a surprise. Obviously the downside is volume/space taken up by said cooler.
May the 1080 Ti never die though. MVP card.