Best gpu cooler Vapor x vs Twin frozar vs windforce vs direct cu

[locke9342]

I always see ads saying thats its like 20 percent better than the reference card. But which one is the best at just overall cooling and silence.

[kuusj98]

DCII for sure

I've had XFX's, sapphire's and Gigabytes and Asus'
Asus is just the best IMO, I happily pay 20$ more for a card with high grade components and good coolers which don't burn after 2 months.

[crazyates]

The Gigabyte WF3 is similar to the Accelero one, just not as good. It keeps the core temps nice and cool, but the VRM temps end up being higher. This has caused problems for a few miners, when the VRMs are constantly run pretty hot. When comparing coolers, you need to look at the VRM temps just as much as the core.

[locke9342]

Yea I feel ASUS would be one of the best but how does the direct cu compare to the Twin frozar cooling. Also anyone get their hands on EVGA's new ACX cooling ?

[HellDiverUK]

I've got two Asus cards.  Both are DirectCU.  One is the two-fan version, the other the single fan.  The two-fan one is rattling like mad after 6 months.  The single-fan one is quieter, runs as cool, and so far the fan isn't dying.   The two-fan card is a 7770, the one-fan card is a 7850.

I've got a pair of Gigabyte 7950 cards with the three fans on them, both cool about the same, but one has a rattly buzz from one of the fins of the heatsink, which sucks.

The sooner I get rid of the GPUs, the better.  Probably next spring - using them to help heat the house this coming winter.  

[ypsylon]

Neither cooling supplied with 7950 is good enough. Simple as that. Without 120mm fans there is no hope of expelling vast heat mining produces (I wrote a post some weeks ago comparing 2x120mm cooled GTX580 TF3 @65C and 2x80mm 7950 TF3 80C core + 85-90C on VRMs ).

Excluding prohibitive liquid cooling for mining, by few galaxy lengths best option to cool mining 7950/7970 is Prolimatech MX-26. You can chop, just like that, up to 25C on core and up to 15C on VRMs [vary on airflow and other stuff].

Of course there is an issue with voiding warranty and 3.5/4 slot size cooling, but that is best choice. Tested few 7950 and ALL sound like jet taking-off. Useless 80mm fans. I don't know which magician (no matter MSI/Gigabyte/ASUS/etc) thought that using 80 instead of 120 is good idea, but there you are...

Just like HellDiverUK getting rid of VGAs. Even when compared to tiny USB Block Erupter all VGAs are just hopeless. Looking at local prices and for a cost of one MSI TF 7950 I can get 4 USB BE - ~500Mh/s@175W vs 4x330Mh/s@12W total. No-brainer.

[superfastkyle]

vapor-x is way better than the windforce 3, the other two I haven't used except for a 5850 directcu that was awesome

[samfisher]

vapor-x is way better than the windforce 3, the other two I haven't used except for a 5850 directcu that was awesome

The Vapor-X is pretty good for cooling the GPU core, but absolutely hopeless in cooling the VRMs.  There are no heatsinks attached to the VRms, only some thermal pads that are not connected to the main cooling block.  Core temps can be at 65c and VRM temps approaching 91c....

DCUII is very very good though.  Too bad their AMD range takes THREE freakin slots ):

[tstang]

I have Asus Direct CU, MSI Twin Froz and Sapphire Vapor X 7950

Speed:

1. Sapphire/ MSI
2. Asus (about 10% slower on same setting)


Noise:

1. Asus (Quiet)
2. MSI
3. Sapphire


Temperature:

1. Asus (coolest) GPU : 74 C, VRM1 : 78, VRM2 : 79
2. MSI                GPU : 74 C, VRM1 : 82, VRM2 : 85
3. Sapphire.        GPU : 74 C, VRM1 : 98, VRM2 : 102

Note,

ASUS, the Main GPU heat sink and VRM1 and VRM2 heatsink and connected together, hence the stable temperature.
Sapphire, GPU heatsink and VRM1 and VRM2 are separate, hence the big and high temperature in VRMs.  
MSI, there are TWO VRAM which is NOT connected to the heatsink, very bad design.

For long term mining, ASUS direct CU is the BEST, but takes up 3 slots.