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I've thought about getting an aftermarket VGA cooler for several years, since the fans on graphics cards these days seem to vary widely in quality and noise level.

I prefer to go with economical and long-lasting solutions that are easy to maintain and to adapt to new uses. For example, my 2500K is cooled with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme that has been used for nearly 10 years on 3 different CPUs (E6750, Q9550 and this 2500K). I can replace the fan when needed, buy a new bracket if necessary... I'll probably keep using this as long as it can be physically adapted to work on whatever CPU I'm running. The fact that this cooler was GIVEN to me, unused, was pretty spectacular too.

Something somewhat similar for video cards would be nice (though its not likely I'll get one for free).

Right now I have a PNY GTX 970 with the "reference style" cooler... and I'm sad to say that PNY, unsurprisingly, has used what seems to be an inferior fan compared to the reference blower-type coolers I've had on previous nvidia cards (GTX 660, 470, 260). It makes this noticeable buzz while running and it gets louder and more irritating as the speed ramps up. When turning the fan by hand I can feel that it is vary "coarse" and not free spinning like most fans.

It has been like this since day one, but I got the card so cheap I decided to live with it.

Now that I've had the card for a year and a half, I'd like to consider my options.

I've thought about getting a reference cooler from another similar card since I prefer exhaust coolers if they aren't too noisy, but I don't know how to guarantee a proper fit. This card is tiny compared to most high end or older mid range cards.

Alternatively I've considered getting an older model VGA cooler like the Thermalright HR-03 because they were made for space heaters like the GTX 285 (204w TDP vs the 970's 145w), accept standard 120mm fans and can be found super cheap from time to time. Biggest issue here is that I don't know if they actually fit newer cards.

I can't find any other options for aftermarket coolers that can use standard 120mm fans, other than the Prolimatech MK-26, which looks great but its quite expensive for me.

ozzuneoj wrote:

I have a PNY GTX 970 with the "reference style" cooler.  Now that I've had the card for a year and a half, I'd like to consider my options.

One of the first options to consider would be to pass your noisy old card on to a new owner and buy an exceptionally quiet new card.

One of the least expensive options could be to replace the fan on your existing cooler.  You might also increase your case cooling so that the card is supplied with cooler air and doesn't need to run its fan as hard.

If you're really looking for a long-lasting quiet solution, would you consider water cooling?  GPUs have surpassed CPUs and power supplies as the hottest generators of waste heat inside your PC.

It would certainly be nice to be able to buy a GTX 1070 but I got my 970 for $250 and have barely used it in a year and a half. I just don't do enough gaming to justify a lot of added cost at this point. The 970 was frivolous and unnecessary as it is. If someone was interested in my lightly used 970 and would give me a decent price for it, I'd consider getting a 1060 perhaps, but I've gotten severely burned on eBay twice recently so my main place for selling hardware isn't too appealing anymore.

The problem with water coolers is that most are only marginally cheaper than what I'd pay for a 1070 after selling my 970, so it isn't all that much different than simply selling and upgrading. Also, I'm not totally convinced of the long term reliability of closed loops. I've always been an air-cooling guy... pretty much since water cooling started to get big back in the Socket A days, it never seemed appealing to me.

I do have a case fan on the bottom, pointing directly up at my GPU fan, so I guess doing something different with that fan may help matters short term. I just wish the "tone" of this PNY card's fan wasn't so grating. My evga GTX 660 doesn't sound anything like this and can ramp up fairly high without ever being annoying. I wonder if I could swap the coolers...

If you do get a 1060, there's one from Palit that runs with the fans off when below 50 C, probably there are others that have a fanless mode too.

Thanks for the tip.

I'd buy a 1060 6GB for sure if they were closer to $200. As mentioned earlier, I don't really push my 970 too hard, so the $50-$75 it'll cost me over what I get for my 970 (probably would sell it on Craigslist) would be almost entirely spent to get a quieter fan. The added performance I get at some point when I end up needing it would be a bonus...

I'll probably keep my eye out for 1060 sales. If only the 6GB made it to the same price point as the 3GB...

I've ordered the PNY GTX970 in the past, expecting it to be the GTX 660Ti/760/960 reference blower that Zotac have also used on some of their GTX 970 models.

But no, it was so bad I sent it back - which is saying something because the plastic reference blower isn't really very good either with it's raspy motor that howls at high RPM and growls annoyingly at low RPM. PNY managed to find something worse and use that instead!

The bad news is that there is no "reference 970" so it's not easy to buy aftermarket heatsinks and guarantee a fit. The only ones I know of still making aftermarket coolers are Arctic and their quality has gone down a lot whilst their prices have gone up a lot. 

The good news is that a lot of the non-reference heatsinks only make contact at the four holes around the GPU. You could potentially buy a faulty 970 with a better cooler and transplant the cooler across, if you were willing to take the gamble that it'll fit.