Blogs Would you buy cooler-less graphics card?

Of course I would! The first thing that gets tossed in the box is the stock cooling solution. TBH, pretty much every video card I purchase is on water. I hardly ever air-cool them anymore, unless it's a lower-end card or small system. Part of the reason I always go to XFX first, since I'm allowed to remove the cooler without penalty, for warranty's sake.

 

I'd buy one as I almost always replace the cooler anyway. Can't see it happening though because of warranty issues.

 

There's too much liability issues in it.

What I think would make more sense would be for the video card manufacturers to work out a deal with the cooler manufacturers, and offer a package deal.

Instead of the gfx card company spending $10 to manufacture a terrible reference cooler, they should buy the good coolers from a reputable company, then pre-install them. I bet the cooler manufacturers would be willing to give a bulk discount if a gfx card manufacturer uses them on all their cards.

For instance, say you buy an EVGA grapgics card for $150. That price includes a $10 reference cooler. Then you go and buy a Zalman heatpipe cooler for $30, and that's that. You spend $180, and have to do some work on it. But what if EVGA buys 10,000 heatpipes from Zalman for $20 (since Zalman gives a bulk discount, and saves money by not having to sell the heatpipes in retail packaging), then puts them on all their graphics card, and advertise in an area on the box "Cooled by ZALMAN". They can sell the cards for $160, and people are willing to pay more because they know that the fancy Zalman cooler costs $30 on its own, and they're getting it for only $10 extra. Zalman would benefit by selling more units, and EVGA would benefit by being able to offer a better product, and have name-brand recognition for Zalman.

That, IMO, would work better.

 

I agree but using the Accellero as an example the PCB appears to warp a little under the weight on the gtx200 series.

I believe the benefit of improved cooling will outweigh the potential of this being an issue over time. If you bought a card that looks like its warped off the shelf you might have a different opinion.

This would perhaps call for more PCB layers which would drive manufacturing costs up swaying the argument back in favour of the op.

 

your forgetting moores law.. a saddle popper putting it in without a cooler

 

The biggest problem I have with this is that cards don't stay reference for long except at the very high end (ASUS Mars & Gainward Rampage being the only exceptions I can think of for GTX295 & 4870x2). Today I was talking to a water block manufacturer about availibility of 5870 blocks who suggested that they might skip this generation. As an OEM that does watercooled systems this idea (naked cards) could be great as we wouldn't be slowly accumulating removed stock coolers and would force manufacturers to follow a standard compatible layout or better still separate GPU and VRAM cooling.

The alternative would be

 

[oops] for more vendors to offer pre-fitted blocks, at present there is often a restrictive lead time for such products.

 

Yeh I like the idea. Perhaps just a lump of aluminium with no fan - to allow a quick functioning test... Would need to be clearly (idiot proof) labelled of course

Of course I would like to see more variety of cards w/ pre-fitted waterblocks - not just some silly restrictive block that I wouldn't normally buy (let alone pay a mark up for!!)

Bob

 

I would. I'm tired of voiding my warranty after I take theirs off.

 

I would have to say that as with cpu's, they could offer the choice. But they amount of people purchasing them without would be a big minority at the moment. This could however, spur more 3rd party vendors to start making more models of gpu coolers, and improving their (3rd party) standards.

 

i wouldnt mind something like how it is for CPU (stock coolers comes but not attached to it) so that you could test it with stock then slap on whatever you wanted. ATI/Nvidia board partners could then sell their coolers aftermarket i.e 4890 atomic cooler + 4870 card. something like this may let someone make a cooler that fits ATI and nvidia cards

 

great idea....i'd definitely buy a cooler-less card if it cost me less than one with a cooler

still i don't see it becoming a trend as there will be those newbs who'll buy such a card blindly and install it, expecting it to work without a cooler

 

This looks like a really viable option! They should also combo the deal like on newegg or something with a 3rd party cooler. It might raise a couple of eyebrows too!

 

definitely. once i installed an accelero S1, i dont think i would ever use a reference cooler again.

 

But the only way it could happen is if it never had a warranty in the first place, No manufacturer is going to release cards without a cooler for the potential issues of incorrectly fitted coolers or worse people not even fitting one.

The only way it could work and im not sure on the legality of it would be to offer significantly cheaper cards without a cooler and little or no warranty.

 

Coming back to this - would it work to have a standard cooler fitting on all cards, so that you don't need a new water block/cooler for each new card? Simply unscrew your old cooler, clean the TIM off and slap it on your new card. You could have a standardised system that would make things very easy, a bit like PCIe but for cooling.

 

Maybe, but I think if manufacturers were going to do this they'd have to make a much more standardized mounting system and have an integrated heatsink covering the GPU and memory.

 

Standardized the mounting and have maybe have a circuit that the heatsink or waterblock completes on the board when its mounted before the GPU gets juice.

 

If it cost less, then yes of course. But I can't see manufacturers creating a separate product for what is, after all, probably a minority. It would also only be likely to work for ATI cards, as I believe nVidia ones are fitted by nvidia? As others have said, it would have to have essentially no warranty, but that would not be good in the case of the card being defective. Maybe a little button that would, without fully powering up the GPU (so it would not require a heatsink for the test), carry out a self test, so you'd test it before you even powered up the system and if it failed RMA it? That would be easier than trying to persuade support that you didn't burn the thing.

 

If coolerless GPUs were a reality, this type of niche product would only be targeted at enthusiasts, and enthusiasts never get discount.