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About LinkBacksI 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?
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 fineOriginally Posted by KeZZeR
They dissapate heat quicker i guess, what's the point in having them if they don't work?.
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.
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.
Last edited by SilentDeath; 20-05-2005 at 02:32 PM.
Most likely...
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.
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.
Previous System
||3DMark01 - 18,533|3DMark03 - 6,501|Aqua Mark 3 - 43,912|[AthonXP 2500+@ 2.4Ghz - 12*200, Radeon 9800SE (unlocked) 440/369]||
Current System
||3DMark01 - 30,949|3DMark03 - 18,122|3DMark05 - 8,483|3DMark06 - 4,222|||
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.
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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.
Last edited by SilentDeath; 24-05-2005 at 01:24 PM.
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