Deshrouding GPUs - any experience to share?

[rich_27]

Hi, I'm interested in learning more about GPU deshrouding and whether it's considered a good idea or not. Does anyone have any experience to share on the matter, and any advice or tips for someone considering it?

I'm currently building a Small Form Factor PC, a new system in a 7.2L Dancase A4. I've been really struggling to find a GPU that will work for it, both due to size constraints and trying to figure out what level of card to target. I'm looking at RTX 30 series and Radeon RX6800s, and this (see end of post) is the complete list of GPUs that will fit in my case (I'm limiting my search to 3 fan cards because I'm keen on a quiet system!).

I've been trying to get a 3070 Eagle or a 3070 Eagle OC for a while, as they seemed to be the best performance that would comfortably fit and also don't look really ugly (to my eyes). The EVGA cards are generally too thick (the thickness limit is up to 45mm), and I would not be happy with the side panel bulge that they would cause. I have, however, included the non-Black Gaming versions because of my investigation into deshrouding.

Looking at the cards end on in pictures, their fans and shrouds seem to protrude past the PCIe bracket, I believe hence their designation as 2.2 slot cards, and by trying to measure the picture against a known dimension (Display Port length and width), it seems the fans and shroud measure around 15/16mm. I've been wondering whether removing the shroud an and directly mounting two or three Noctua A9x14 fans to the card heatsink would save me enough space to fit these cards in, as that would let me run a 3080 instead of being capped at a 3070. It would certainly get rid of the ugly black wave case and embossed Es all over the fans, which I really dislike the look of.

Do any of you have experience deshrouding a graphics card and mounting aftermarker fans, especially EVGA cards? Do you think I'd manage to save any space or if its worth it? Would I need to design and print some kind of shroud myself, and any tips if so? I'd love to see or hear about any deshrouded builds you might have done.

GPU	Model	Brand	Name	Length (mm)	Width (mm)	Height / Thickness (mm)	Slots	PCIe Bracket	Boost Clock (MHz)	Memory Speed (Gbps)	TDP (W)	PCIe Pins	Fans	DisplayPort	HDMI	USB-C
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	PowerColor	RX 6800	266.7	119.75	39.75	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	Sapphire	RX 6800	266.7	119.75	39.75	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	XFX	RX 6800	266.67	119.8	39.8	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	AMD	RX 6800	267	120	40	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	ASRock	RX 6800	267	120	40	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	Asus	RX 6800	267	120	40	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	Dataland	RX 6800	267	120	40	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	Gigabyte	RX 6800	267	120	40	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
AMD	RX 6800 16GB GDDR6	MSI	RX 6800	267	120	40	2	2	2105	16	250	2x8	3	2	1	1
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	Gigabyte	VISION OC	281	115	40	2	2	1755	14	200	6+8	3	2	2	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	Gigabyte	GAMING OC PRO rev2.0	281	117	40	2	2	1770	14	200	6+8	3	2	2	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	EVGA	FTW3 BLACK GAMING	285.37	111.15	40.9	2.2	2	1710	14	200	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6	EVGA	XC3 BLACK GAMING	285.37	111.15	40.9	2.2	2	1725	14	220	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X	EVGA	XC3 BLACK GAMING	285.37	111.15	40.9	2.2	2	1710	19	320	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X	EVGA	XC3 BLACK GAMING	285.37	111.15	40.9	2.2	2	1695	19.5	350	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	Gigabyte	GAMING OC	282	117	41	2	2	1740	14	200	8	3	2	2	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	ZOTAC	Thunderbolt HA (霹雳版 HA)	278	116	41	2	2	1665	14	200	8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6	Gigabyte	EAGLE	282	115	41	2	2	1725	14	220	6+8	3	2	2	-
Nvidia	RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6	Gigabyte	EAGLE OC	282	115	41	2	2	1770	14	220	6+8	3	2	2	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	Galax/KFA2	Black General (黑将)	303	116	45	2.25	2	1665	14	200	8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	Galax/KFA2	Black General OC (黑将 OC)	303	116	45	2.25	2	1710	14	200	8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6	Galax/KFA2	Snapdragon (骁将)	270	108	45	2.25	2	1725	14	220	8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	EVGA	FTW3 GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1710	14	200	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6	EVGA	FTW3 ULTRA GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1800	14	200	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6	EVGA	XC3 GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1725	14	220	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6	EVGA	XC3 ULTRA GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1770	14	220	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X	EVGA	XC3 GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1710	19	320	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X	EVGA	XC3 ULTRA GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1755	19	320	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X	EVGA	XC3 GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1695	19.5	350	2x8	3	3	1	-
Nvidia	RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X	EVGA	XC3 ULTRA GAMING	285.37	111.15	45.1	2.2	2	1725	19.5	350	2x8	3	3	1	-

Cheers,
Rich

[wazzickle]

Not done it myself but optimum tech has a good guide here:

[Spreadie]

A major consideration is the thickness of the card's fin stack. The fans should, pretty much, butt up against the fins or cooling performance takes a nose dive.

Obviously you can make up the difference by printing off (or buying) a couple of fan shrouds for occasions when there is a gap.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would just go for one of the ITX sized models when they are out. Also if you really value performance/watt I would probably wait until the RX6700 series is released. The RX6800 is the best performance/watt GPU out there currently.



Even the RTX3060TI/RTX3070 are not as efficient as you think - they consume more power than my GTX1080FE! This is why I think the RX6700XT might end up being quite decent. The renders of the reference model indicate quite a compact cooler too.

[rich_27]

Not done it myself but optimum tech has a good guide here

Awesome, thanks! I'll take a look.

A major consideration is the thickness of the card's fin stack. The fans should, pretty much, butt up against the fins or cooling performance takes a nose dive.

Obviously you can make up the difference by printing off (or buying) a couple of fan shrouds for occasions when there is a gap.

When you talk about the fans being up against the fins, I'm guessing you mean the face of the fans should be in contact with the fins to avoid any air loss from the sides of a gap between them? I.e. so all the air moved by the fans ends up pushed through the cooler? I'm guessing that might be quite tricky if there are any tabs or mounting brackets for the existing fans and shroud; I could take a dremel to sort those out, but going at a brand new graphics card with a dremel feels like a bit of a daunting prospect!

Do you have any advice for how to figure out the thickness of the heat sink before purchase? I've looked at manufacturers websites, but stats are quite few and far between and they do not really specify their cards dimensions well; for instance, EVGA lists both their XC3 Black Gaming and XC3 Ultra card's dimensions by length, width, and number of slots, with the only measure of thickness being that 2.2 slot (for both) thickness, despite the Black Gaming being 40.9mm thick whilst the Ultra is 45.1mm thick! It's been really tricky trying to measure the thickness of the fans and the shroud specifically to see if it is thicker than a Noctua fan; the best I've managed so far is measuring a photo by number of pixels of various gaps so I'm really hoping the pictures are completely straight on so there's no distortion!

I would just go for one of the ITX sized models when they are out. Also if you really value performance/watt I would probably wait until the RX6700 series is released. The RX6800 is the best performance/watt GPU out there currently.

Even the RTX3060TI/RTX3070 are not as efficient as you think - they consume more power than my GTX1080FE! This is why I think the RX6700XT might end up being quite decent. The renders of the reference model indicate quite a compact cooler too.

That is a really good point, I had not thought about performance per watt at all, that is a really useful metric to inform my GPU choice. Do you know why the Radeons are so much more performant for a given power? I'm not to keen on an ITX sized card (I assume that's the 1 fan teeny cards?), because one of my driving factors with the build is keeping it as quiet as possible, and I've heard the less fans you have, the louder the resultant cooling system. I did look at getting an RX6800, but the reference cards (all the AIBs are >2 slot designs) are completely out of stock, and from what I understand are no longer being produced.

Thanks all for the advice, I really appreciate it!

[Terbinator]

Sounds like you need to keep your eye out for 3xxx FE drops.

[rich_27]

Sounds like you need to keep your eye out for 3xxx FE drops.

I was in fact very lucky and managed to snag a 3070 on Thursday! I'm temporarily installed it in my old PC (well, everything is new apart from the PSU, who's replacement arrives tomorrow, and the case and CPU cooler, which are waiting for the final build that needs the new PSU!), and it is performing well! The issue is, I'm jumping from a Sugo SG13B to a Dancase A4, which is a move from a small case with not much internal space to a sandwich case with no internal space for airflow! Because the 3070 - like the rest of the 30 Series cards - is a flow through cooler, being wedged up against the central division of the case is going to completely choke it's airflow, which is a real shame. Realistically, I think I'm going to have to really clamp down on my system performance until I can find a solution, be that a replacement 3070 or 3080 with a traditional three fan cooler or something like putting the GPU on standoffs and trying to find a way to duct the exhaust air out of the side of the case! Thanks for your (and other's) help, and if you have any further wisdom to share, I'd really appreciate it!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That is a really good point, I had not thought about performance per watt at all, that is a really useful metric to inform my GPU choice. Do you know why the Radeons are so much more performant for a given power? I'm not to keen on an ITX sized card (I assume that's the 1 fan teeny cards?), because one of my driving factors with the build is keeping it as quiet as possible, and I've heard the less fans you have, the louder the resultant cooling system. I did look at getting an RX6800, but the reference cards (all the AIBs are >2 slot designs) are completely out of stock, and from what I understand are no longer being produced.

Thanks all for the advice, I really appreciate it!

Firstly AMD is using TSMC 7NM which is a bit better than the Samsung 8NM Nvidia is using.Also AMD went for a hybrid cache and 256 bit memory controller arrangement. This means they can cut down on having to use wider memory buses than Nvidia for similar performance,which means less power.

[F1ZZY]

For the purpose of deshrouding, it would interesting and useful to learn and list which manufacturers / models you can simply unscrew the fans and housings and NOT have to break or dremel away the little tabs that stop fans from fitting flushly.

[wazzickle]

Asus 1070 Strix: needs some tools and work. Fortunately my neighbour builds guitars and I was able to borrow him and his tools, didn't need an actual dremelling so much as a clippy tooly thing and managed to get the offending tabs off.

However, results are disappointing, possibly due to not having as many fans total in the system (I used the two case fans to replace the legacy GPU fans and there isn't enough space to add more back), and on top of that, what was a stable undervolt / overclock combo is now for some reason no longer stable, so I'm not getting the benefits there either!

[cptwhite_uk]

I deshrouded a Zotax RTX 2060 to fit in a 4L case. It did help temps from memory (I was aiming to minimise noise). It was the twin fan compact version. Results will vary depending on how much the shroud is impeeding airflow, if it's a good design the improvement will be minimal, but on the flip side I've seen some poor design decisions which mean temps are greatly improved with the shroud removed.

[Sleeperz]

I deshrouded my Aorus 3080 as I found the fans too loud. Along with replacing the poor stock thermal pads with higher quality ones, it's made the card near silent under load, with lower temps, and slightly higher clock speeds due to Nvidia's GPU boost allowing it to clock higher