BenBrown

I have been looking at getting better cooling for my for pair of Sapphire Toxic 3870s but looking at all the different reviews it does not seem to me like it will be worth it.

So far from what I can tell is that the "Thermalright HR-03" seems to be the best at the moment, however with the Toxic's stock cooling using Vapor-X it seems to cool pretty good. I would say on average they both idle at around 42C with stock fan speeds. If I crack the fans to 100% I can get them down to 38C. Using the ATI Tool under load they get as high as 67C, which does not seem that bad, but maybe I am missing something.

So I guess my question is, if I invest in two new "Thermalright HR-03" coolers and two fans to go on them, will it make enough difference to warrant the cost?

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Mebby

Wait, you got the cards with awesome coolers and want to replace them?!

The Toxic coolers are good and your cards should be fine at temperatures or 80°C or more.

BenBrown

Well that is basicly my question. Should I replace them or not? I guess I am looking to see if anyone else with these cards have replaced them with aftermarket coolers and fi the results are different.

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FuNkDrSpOt

I just got the TOXIC too and they seem like they have an awesome cooler. If i put it at 100% for the fan speed, I don't go above about 58c.

My one gripe is that they did not properly cool the memory AT ALL. The memory can get HOT and I'm in the middle of researching what mods are available for it. I seriously think that my memory can get up to 90c.

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BenBrown

Ya I defiantly cannot complain about the cooler, it does it's job well. I even took off the coolers and put OCZ Freeze on them and that helped it a few degrees under load, still about the same at idle.

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Antho

I ran HD 3870's in crossfire with HR-03's fitted passively, and temp wise the upper card at idle was 37, lower card was 43 due to poorer airflow. Under load upper card was 65'ish & lower card was 73. There's no room to fit a fan on your lower card. But with a fan mount forward of the cards blowing toward the rear of the case temps under load drop 5 -10 degrees.

Comes down to noise at the end of the day..... HR-03's are silent Really notice the difference now I'm back at stock in Tri-fire.

And, here's a pic just to demonstrate the lack of room for extra fans:

BenBrown

Thanks for the info and comparison.

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3DMark06 - 17,458

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