I got some RAM sinks in my Hexus comp goodie bag. I am thinking of installing them in my new system when I upgrade, but do they really make a difference when overclocking? Or are they just a gimick?
What are people's experiences with them?
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I got some RAM sinks in my Hexus comp goodie bag. I am thinking of installing them in my new system when I upgrade, but do they really make a difference when overclocking? Or are they just a gimick?
What are people's experiences with them?
They dissapate heat quicker i guess, what's the point in having them if they don't work? ;)
Lots of things are sold that don't actually do any good. Dom, I've seen them make a small difference on graphics card RAM (like maybe an extra 5-10MHz), but I don't think they make any odds on system RAM. You don't see the bandwidth nutters at xtremesystems painstakingly putting ramsinks on their modules, simply blowing a 120mm fan over them does the job fine:).Quote:
Originally Posted by KeZZeR
Both PC Extreme and custom PC seem to say they dont make much diff if any at all.
Depends. Id say on Video cards, if you giving the ram extra voltage it helps, but there not really big enough to have a big impact.
ViperJohns, massive heatsinks do the trick though. Even though people think GDDR 3 doesn't get hot, they wanna put some extra volts in a X800, and clock it past 630. :rockon:
Your all looking at this the wrong way.
For example with my x850XTPE, each ram chip, of which there is 8, runs at 2v and has a max current of ~1A each (from samsung datasheet)
Thats 2w for a tiny little chip with ~25-40c/w thermal resistance (not in datasheet) = temps atleat 80°c at stock.
Adding ramsinks in this case wont do anything but make it cooler, and maybe the 0-30mhz increase from running it that much colder.
For stock that is fine without, still to hot for my liking.. I would not o/c atall at that temp - good enough for retail boards for the 99% of people that wont try to make them faster...
As soon as you o/c, you increase the current demands of each chip, becuase it is active a higher pecentage of the time which will make the chips slightly hotter.
Trying to o/c without first you wont get very far atall becuase they are too hot, and it risks damaging the chips.
Voltmodding the ram increases heat output a lot more and mut be done with ramsinks or they wont last very long. Voltmodding gives the most increase to ram o.c and it cant be done without them.
They are either testing the "bling" products or have not got a suitable item to test them on../dont understand why they are needed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumagoro
Most likely...Quote:
Originally Posted by |SilentDeath|
:devilish:
Oh well, may as well use them now i have them :)
do these high temps of GDDR3 chips affect lifespan?
ive heard many people talk about how cooling for the memory chips doesnt really matter at all. on the other hand, nvidia and ati design solutions to cool both the gpu and memory chips. if it is not nescessary, then why would they do it?
Perceived quality of the product
If you looked at this in more detail, you would see that the majority of graphics cards which do have coolers over the RAM, are using DDR1 or 2. Those using GDDR3 actually have the cooler away from the RAM chips on the latest generation cards.Quote:
Originally Posted by silon
I've found in the past they've worked for me. For example, with the 9800SE, TweakMonster RAM sinks got me an extra 20Mhz. With my current setup, a cut up NB HS on the 6600GT got me from 1200Mhz to 1220Mhz. After a volt mod, I don't think I'd be able to get up to 1280Mhz without RAM sinks. Also there's a 120mm Delta sitting on a Zalman fan bracket cooling over the video card.
I think ram sink really help when overclocking. My Hynix D43 simply overclock to 466MHz from 400Mhz
alot of ATI high end cards dont cool tha RAM directly and they have high speed GDDR3 ram. AFAIK GDDR3 runs alot cooler than gddr1
as for RAM modules I know CustomPC tested a Geil ram module with and without heatspreaders and they overclocked the same
When overclocking RAM it's less about the heat preventing the o/c, and more about the heat from extra voltage killing it quicker... hence the RAMsinks.
Well heres some numbers for samung mem (which is whats mainly used in gfx ram)
Also note that small chips like these BGA ones probably have a junction>air thermal resistance around 30°c/w. Ive added the temps you can expect with them naked, under load.
256mbit GDDR3 Max 2.1v, 1060mA = ~2w per chip. 90°c
256mbit GDDR2 Max 1.9v, 430mA = <1w per chip. 60°c
256mbit GDDR1 Max 2.7, 530mA = 1.4w per chip. 72°c
Max PD = 2w.
256mbit GDDR1 Max 1.9v, 615mA = 1.1w.
Max PD = 3.3w.
there were 3 datasheets on GDDR1 and I only bothered with two...
Max PD was only listed for GDDR1 ram and I think it is not related to power output in normal operation.
I would say that under no load, GDDR1 would still be near its max normal heat output, whereas with GDDR3 has very very low idle heat output. This may be why you percive it to run cooler, if you touched the rams while nothing is using the graphics.
its interesting G Skill, who have good a pretty godd rep for overclocking etc afaik dont use heatspreaders on their PC4800 RAM?
It depends compleatly on the thermal output of the chips and theres a lot of difference between one type/model/version of chip and another.Quote:
Originally Posted by YorkieBen
Its not a case of "stick a heatspreader on because it looks nicer" which seems to be what most companys do, but then heatspreaders do help so theres no reson not to have them.
Are you talking about heat speaders or ramsinks now? Head spreaders won't do a great deal for surface area, and could technically insulate the chip (not good) if they are crap!! ramsinks increase the surface area a fair bit, so should help more assuming a decent air flow around them. The extra cooling may not help you get any extra mhz tho, but would help with lifespan of product...
thats assuming i'm thinking of the right things, in the right order.
Nox
Heat spreaders do very little to nothing.
Good ramsinks cna help a bit, but heat spreaders are 99% gimmicks when it cmes to cooling anything.
They will be better than nothing, however crap they are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nox
Generally passive heatsinks are crap becuase they rely on a large dT between the chip and ambient to work. There are no passive ramsinks that I know of that acctually do much, certianly none capable of keeping my BH-5/TCCD (with a small overclock, 2.9v) below 55°c without a fan.
For gfx its easyer. Ive got a 60mm silent fan and several large chopped up bits of a s7 heatsink to cool my x850xtpe and it works very well (core is w/c so had to take the stock ram cooling off).
Adding a fan of any kind even 1cfm, could half the temps of small chips.
All heatsinks help if they are good, although if you are not pushing your system they are often unnecessary. Many DDR RAM sinks are crap, meaning that they look nice but do more harm than good. Good aluminum sinks properly installed can really keep your RAM humming along for a longer period of time, especially if heavily overclocked.
i noticed ATI cards have ram chips on both sides. they use heatspreaders on the rear side [the side we normally see when installed into the system]. i think the engineers and marketers at ATI feel pretty safe to not have heatsinks on one half of the memory chips in their products. if they were to break down easily after 1~2years, it'll ruin their product reputation just because of a couple of extra bucks saved from not having proper cooling... no?
There are two different kinds of RAM being talked about here - graphics card RAM and system RAM. The heatspreader in question is for system RAM (I also got one. :)).
For graphics card RAM, I don't doubt that even a heatspreader, if not a heatsink, would help temperatures. Those little chips run very hot (Burnt myself on them once on my Raddy 9800 Pro). Typically, one wouldn't even bother with a heatspreader here, going straight to heatsinks.
System RAM, on the other hand, isn't usually put under that kind of strain. Unless you're running it at upped voltages, both heatspreaders and heatsinks are relatively useless. In this case, they are mostly for show. Of course, I'm sure your system RAM won't mind running 0.5 degrees or so cooler. ;)
If you run DDR400 on an A64 at 270MHz (DDR540) 1T 24/7 (as I do) it's a good idea to get high quality heat spreaders. Heat sinks on the highend ATi's are a must if you are overclocking but if not they don't need it.