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I haven't really messed with GPU coolers since the Nvidia 6xxx series days where Zalman copper circulars were all the rage.

I've got a little HIS 6850 laying around that I ghettoed an 80mm case fan (high end one at that) in place of its failed crappy fan. As a result it is a tad bit loud but nonetheless useable. While the card itself isn't worth much more than a cooler I'd place on it... I was curious how reuseable todays coolers (closed loop and others) are with spreading compatability across generations?

If I can pickup a cooler like one of the Corsairs for say $80 and use it on a newer card in the 200 or 300 series then it would be worth it to me. However if the cooler dies with the 6850, the money is better spent on a new card.

Basically I got the wife caught up to me for gaming... kind of. Had a spare i5-2500 and an Nvidia GTS 450 laying around. The 6850 absolutely smokes the 450 which was a decent jump compared to her 5730 Asus laptop it replaced. If I can make the 6850 work badass for her until Polaris comes out, I'm thinking to upgrade my 7850 and give it to her instead.

Any recommendations on inexpensive coolers that may be "forward" compatible?

The AIO coolers themselves aren't the issue - it's the GPU adapter plate. The AIO coolers are, of course, originally meant for CPU cooling. I don't think heatsink mounts have changed much for a long while, and I don't see CPU form factors changing much in the near future, those are probably going to remain forward compatible.

The adapter plates are different, however. GPU packaging does change frequently, so I don't think it's safe to assume you will be able to use the adapter on any unreleased video cards. It's possible that NZXT et al could release new adapters to fit future cards when they are released, but nothing is guaranteed.

Technically it is within the realm of possibility of fabricating the adapter, but you're on your own there.

The only one that I found is this:
Gelid VGA Cooler ICY Vision-A

Compatible to:*
AMD™: HD5850, HD5870, HD6850, HD6870, HD6950, HD6970, HD7850, HD7870, HD7950, HD7970, R9 270X, R9 280X and R9 380

The compatibility list is based on AMD™ reference board layout ONLY. GELID Solutions holds no responsibility for incompatibility on non-standard cards. Please refer to the height restriction drawing. Installation manual for AMD cards to download.

I have good experience with both CPU and GPU coolers from Arctic cooling:
http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/products/cooling/vga.html

Right now I'm using one of their freezer 13's to cool my AMD FX 8320 and quite happy with it.

As far as I can tell, most of those GPU coolers are compatible with quite some cards.. although for me (powercolor 6870 with rattling cooler) the +$50 is too much for just a cooler, I'd rather spend some more money on a new card..

Well there is this for $22.00 listed as compatible with a 6850, Accelero L2 PLUS

I third the Arctic Cooling solution you can get one much better then the last one listed and the great thing is they are very quiet.

When you say upgrade do you mean now or when AMD polaris made 16nm TMSC or 14nm chips are released?

I would upgrade now and give your girlfriend the 7850 and grab a cheap 290 card if your staying AMD...I for one would go NV with a GTX 970...at least then you are occulus ready if you want to go that route and pretty future proof at 1080p.

But putting a good AC AM cooler on the 6850 you might be able to overclock it a good bit....it really depends on what games she plays along with the game you play.

Also what CPU does she have....you might be better off getting a GTX 750ti for her at around 100$ and then you both have decent 1080p cards and you can still upgrade when the smaller node chips come out.

Something tells me the bigger 16nm finfet is going to perform better along with better power efficiency and lower temps that the 14nm finfet if it is like the Iphone 6s chip with TSMC 16 finfet is better than samsung 14nm finfet. So I think you are going to have to wait longer than you think before getting the smaller node card. IMHO

Yep, I'm aware that the cooler compatibility is completely dependent on the back-plate/mount. But I think you answered by question by linking the one that supports AMD cards from the 4000/5000? All the way to the current 300 series. That is impressive, regardless if they haven't changed the mounts or not, its good to know.

This upgrade is something she is going to want soon, aka next month (or few weeks) as I just put this spare together for her to game with me and we finally found a game we both like. We are playing Ark Survival: Evolved, it can be a very graphically taxing game. While I'd love to hold off and get her a mid-range Polaris based card, we don't need to spend the cash. I rarely get to play often enough and she plays even less (we have 2 kids and I work a lot). That said, my budget NOW for her was around $100-150 for a card... but with a working 6850 it seems crazy to buy something else when this is more than enough card for her... She was blown away with the GTS 450 compared to the laptop she was on before.

The system is an Intel i5-2500 (non-k) with 2x4gb 1600. Your standard Sandy Bridge setup, more than enough for most any normal game, save for the GPU power it is lacking.

Great to see all of those options, some good some not so good for this little card. Heck the GELID solution is only $53! If that even performed on par with stock coolers I'd be down. The issue with this one was the fan. I made posts about it a few years back and just shelved it until now. I'm actually typing this message on her system with that 6850 in it. Watching the temps with my ghetto rigged 80mm fan setup. Going to check to see if the thermostat I hooked up to it works and see how loud this thing gets.

*UPDATED*
OK... This card beats the all living hell out of the GTS 450... I know, big surprise. But confirmed that with my amazing ghetto blaster fan setup this thing gives the old Dust Buster video card a run for its money and then some. If I can get a decent cooler on this and/or a proper fan replacement then this card is perfect for the game. Side note, the fan kept the card below 60*C the entire time.

The problem with the aftermarket GPU coolers is that:

1) You invalidate your GPU warranty
2) They cost enough that you'd *always* have been better spending that money on the more-expensive version of your card with a better OEM heatsink, or....
3) They cost enough that you could afford a faster better GPU in the first place and either use the extra performance or downclock to get a much quieter card.

Biffzinker's link for $22 would be worth it to keep an old 6850 running but that's already at the limit of what I would call worthwhile.

I'm going to go along with the recommendation of the $20 Arctic Accelero L2 plus or just Ty-rap your case fan to the stock cooler and let it run that way for six months. You don't want to spend much more than this for a graphics card as old as the Radeon HD6850. Are you driving the case fan off of the graphics card's fan header so that the card will speed it up and slow it down as needed?

Chrispy, if you're talking about warranties this card obviously doesn't have one. If you meant future cards the cooler would be compatible with... dually noted and true. For $5x bucks the other full sized one would be a better investment than a new card I'd think. I cant imagibe i'd get near the performance of the 6850 for $5x

Yep, I zip tied that 80mm fan on it about a year and a half ago. Id get by on it if it didn't sound almost as loud as my vacuum cleaner... no over exaggeration. I'll take a recording later to show you guys. It's almost impressive.

This fan was one of the fastest fans of its time and could move more air than 99% of fans. Hell the fan itself cost like $50 back early 2000's

I have and still use a 6850 in my main rig, but when I got it I slapped on an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 that I got for about 33 bucks and silicone'd two 12mm thick 120mm scythe 1200 rpm fans on it and wired them up to the vid card for speed control.

Thing is dead silent and I don't think it breaks 50C on furmark

It's too bad they don't have the S1 cooler anymore, glad I have a new unused spare still in the package

edit - after being on the whole day (not gaming) it's idling at 36C right now, fans are only spinning 28%, rpm doesn't even give a reading lol.

Welch wrote:

I zip tied that 80mm fan on it about a year and a half ago. Id get by on it if it didn't sound almost as loud as my vacuum cleaner... no over exaggeration.

Does the fan spin up enough to make a racket when you're looking at the desktop, or just when you're playing a game?

Only when playing a game, I have the external heat sensor that came with the fan plugged into it. This particular fan came with thermal sensor and a manual dial control to change speed fans manually if you didn't want to use the thermal control. I'd use it if I could get it to keep the card sub 65*c ish and perhaps not sound like a Boeing jet on takeoff. Even if I modified the power connector for the fan to go on the video cards on-board... The on-board ones probably don't put out nearly the same amps. Also what guarantee is there that the card can control the RPM correctly, or do they just pump out X number of fractions of an amp when it gets to certain heat levels? I didn't think these 2 pin GPU fans had PWM control abilities... do they?



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835999111
4800 RPM on an 80mm fan!!! Yeah, this thing is crazy loud.

I ordered a $7.00 75mm frame-less fan that fits the dimensions of the original fan. We shall see if it will work for this particular model. From the looks of it, a lot of other 6850 owners had luck but it depends on the heat-sink design. Looks almost identical to the original. So long as I can screw the fan down on the heat-sink and has clearance the plug is identical to the original as well.

GPU fans may use old-fashioned analog voltage control rather than pulse width modulation to adjust their fan speeds based on the temperature that the card senses. I'd expect it to be simple proportional control as you described, but some boards might have more sophisticated fan speed controls.

Oh wow, I had one of those for my Alpha block when the Delta screamer blew its bearings.

Yeah, they're loud.

A certain forum regular around here has some old Chieftec/Chenming Dragon cases stuffed with those obnoxious Thermaltake fans.

It's JBI isn't it. Lol

Welch wrote:

It's JBI isn't it. Lol

Could be Starfalcon

Nope, I had mine full of delta screamers

6 of these on my case http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/del80ffb08123.html

And the Delta Banshee for my cpu http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/del60ffb0612.html

After a few months I could not take the noise anymore and went with some much quieter Panaflos for the case and, better heatsink with a quieter delta fan....