gpu fan swap thermal fail - any more low hanging fruit?

sneedster

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Apr 22, 2022
40
25
So, I have the MSI's Aero ITX model of RTX 2060 Super. Its alright for what it is, but the fan noise is something else. Emboldened by the apparently successful stories of others before me, I went ahead and got myself an A9x14 Noctua fan + destroyed the frame to get to the fan, took apart the video card, disassembled the shroud and removed the original fan and swapped in the Noctua.

Well, its definitely quieter... But now it thermally throttles, even with an undervolt of .950v@1920MHz. I had to tune the clock down to the low 1800s to and the voltage to less than .900v just to get a workable temp, and I'm not enjoying the performance loss. Seems like the fan just isnt meaty enough to cool the card down. Which is perplexing to me since other people have reportedly succesfully done the same mod to an RTX 3060 Ti which should be even harder to cool.

That poor little Noctua, mutilated for naught.

What comes next?

Pictured:
 

sneedster

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Apr 22, 2022
40
25
something i was musing over was lengthening g the heatsink's fan indent a
little with a dremel, so i could fit my p12 slim fan there and just do away with the shroud. but im not sure if i should expect any real thermal improvement there, especially since some of the aluminum fin area would be lost.
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
781
1,366
You could try. The ends would extend past the top and bottom of the heatsink, resulting in some pressure loss.

Looking at the A9, is it less diameter than stock? Maybe it no longer creates the pressure without the internal frame, since the shroud isn't flush on the blade edge. Maybe try to diy a shroud that closely aligns with the fin edge, using Noctua's duct insert system on the inside edge to create more pressure. Or cardboard just to see.
 

sneedster

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Apr 22, 2022
40
25
i tried making the diy cardboard shroud,but that seemed to make the temps even worse by a degree or two.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
I would concur that the fan size difference is likely to blame here - but it might also be down to fan speeds and blade geometry. If the stock fan was faster and/or higher pressure in addition to being larger, you're bound to see higher temperatures. But IMO, most likely the smaller fan is both seeing more blowback from the gap surrounding the fan, and failing to push air into the taller fin stacks to the sides due to being further away from them (and possibly due to differences in blade geometry).

The next thing to try for me would be blocking off paths air could take outside of the heatsink, i.e. between the heatsink and fan shroud. There are huge gaps along the top and bottom where air could escape very easily without meaningfully cooling anything. As you've fundamentally changed the characteristics of the GPU cooler fan, while also removing the fan frame from the Noctua (with all its airflow shaping functionality), it stands to reason that you might need to change things further still.

For the record, I saw something similar when test fitting an NF-A9x14 on my Sapphire RX 570 ITX, which has a similarly shaped heatsink - though I didn't remove the fan from its frame, but rather removed the GPU shroud. It was quieter, but as with your results, thermals were worse. With these complex heatsink designs, it's sadly not as simple as "better fan is better".
 
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sneedster

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Apr 22, 2022
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just a little status update... I had a p12 slim lying around unused and i was able to fit it next to the gpu, snug fit but its there. i installed it as exhaust so its hopefully helping blow the hot air from the gpu out... temps didnt improve all that much though, maybe 2°C. thanks to that i was able to claw 45-60mhz back though. better than nothing i guess.
 
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msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
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Wierd, here's the same mod with a guy claiming better temp results than stock but I don't see the difference.

Edit: Black version pushes more air!?!
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225


Wierd, here's the same mod with a guy claiming better temp results than stock but I don't see the difference.

Edit: Black version pushes more air!?!
The black NF-A9x14 is slightly faster (and louder) than the retail beige version, but the same as the beige that comes bundled with L9 coolers.
 
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msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
781
1,366
Oh interesting. Wonder if the original poster here was using "case fan" A9 or "cpu fan" A9 as that could have been the difference then
 
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ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Apr 4, 2016
1,707
1,646
So, I have the MSI's Aero ITX model of RTX 2060 Super. Its alright for what it is, but the fan noise is something else. Emboldened by the apparently successful stories of others before me, I went ahead and got myself an A9x14 Noctua fan + destroyed the frame to get to the fan, took apart the video card, disassembled the shroud and removed the original fan and swapped in the Noctua.

Well, its definitely quieter... But now it thermally throttles, even with an undervolt of .950v@1920MHz. I had to tune the clock down to the low 1800s to and the voltage to less than .900v just to get a workable temp, and I'm not enjoying the performance loss. Seems like the fan just isnt meaty enough to cool the card down. Which is perplexing to me since other people have reportedly succesfully done the same mod to an RTX 3060 Ti which should be even harder to cool.

That poor little Noctua, mutilated for naught.

What comes next?

Pictured:
I'm just blabbering here.. but perhaps the next thing you can try is to 3D print a custom shroud that can hold a bigger fan diameter. Some ideas:



Or probably one that can hold 2 fans. This configuration is used in Zotac 1660 Super Twin Fan, which retains its compact 175 mm footprint.
 

nightshift

Airflow Optimizer
Jul 23, 2020
268
168
I have my Gigabyte 2060 ITX mini fan swapped and it's nice.
The original fan was unbearable, it was always audible, but becase noisy from 50-60% and simply unbearable at 80% and beyond. But after the chromaxx slim 92mm noctua transplant, it's amazing. Whisper quiet most of the time and still bearable at full load. These cards are perhaps more suitable for this fan as the original is 90mm too with enough space under the shroud for the fan adapter. But it made a night and day difference to me as I was at the brink of comfortably returning the gpu, or getting into this fan swap work, but I'm glad I went with the latter. Now it's best of both worlds: small and quiet. Temps got a tiny bit better (like -2'C on idle and -5 at load.). It matches the color sceme even better than the original and now I have the same fan on each side back-to-back with my trusty L9a on the other.
 
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haunting

Cable Smoosher
Jan 2, 2020
10
0
I'm assuming you removed the whole heatsink during the mod, is there the possibility that you didn't remount the heatsink properly? Poor thermal paste application? Replaced the thermal pads with ones that are too thick?
 

sneedster

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Apr 22, 2022
40
25
just a little status update - i gave up on the noctua and reinstalled the original fan. turns out with a repaste the original fan was quite adequate after all - it kept the card cooler and no more noisy than the noctua really. i guess the moral of the story is dont go replacing a 100mm fan with a 92mm fan if you dont want trouble.

anyway i already sold the card since i found a great deal on a 3060 ti - which I'm fighting another thermal battle with since its got an asus dual mini cooler, lol.

case closed i guess.
 
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robbee

King of Cable Management
n3rdware
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Sep 24, 2016
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anyway i already sold the card since i found a great deal on a 3060 ti - which I'm fighting another thermal battle with since its got an asus dual mini cooler, lol.

I'm actually interested in the performance of this cooler. Would you mind sharing the temperature and RPM readings of this cooler when stress the card?
 

sneedster

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Apr 22, 2022
40
25
I'm actually interested in the performance of this cooler. Would you mind sharing the temperature and RPM readings of this cooler when stress the card?
So while running benchmarks, I discovered that at stock settings, the power limiter heavily gimps the card. Even with power limiter set to 108% (the maximum this card's vbios allows), undervolting just to get average 3060 Ti FE performance was a must.
After some meddling and testing, I settled on a (lucky?) undervolt curve peaking at 1935MHz/875mV. This gives a temperature peaking at 81°C at a maximum fan speed of 80% while running Unigine Superposition benchmark. With the side panel off I get something like 75°C with the fans going at ~70%.

Some information I've earlier neglected to add - my case is a Dan A4-SFX v4.1, so its a sandwich layout, and I have NOT installed the two bottom case fans, so I've been leaving some thermal optimization on the table.
Also I've again tried ducting the GPU to the side panel with some packaging foam - fail, no reduction in temps.
 
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