Legit Reviews

So as the title says i'm getting what I believe for a water cooled system high gpu temps. In my sig you can see the system I have. When playing the cycle (Epic Games), I have vsync off and I get temps of 72c max on the gpu. With vsync on (60fps) I get max 60c at 75% max load. this is only 4c lower than with the gpu air cooled. I have reseated the gpu block to the same outcome. Any help?

Hmmm. I am not an expert at all...maybe check for air bubbles. Might be a pocket somewhere that did not wok out of the system.

I guess you already redid the paste when you reseated....

Is the water flow correct? I mean is the pump putting put what it should be? Any problems in other games or apps?

not a bubble in the loop, re did the paste and this happens across all games so it's a block issue. thought it would be the block wasn't seated right. first time or maybe that this gpu just ran hot. but at 100% load I get 72c hotter than most the air cooled ones. me thinks I got a problem.

when I got the gigabyte windforce rtx 2070, I was informed that it is a reference pcb and that an rtx reference block would fit. When I purchased the Heatkiller IV rtx 2080 reference block I soon found out it didn't fit. it seems the rtx 2070 I had utilized the 2 4pin fan header at the top by the pci-e power ports, rendering this card a custom pcb. I found a guy who had the same issue and he told me he used a soldering iron to melt the solder pull the pins and pliers to pull the plastic connector off and voila he had a reference rtx 2070 that fitted the reference 2080 gpu block he had.

I then did the same and got the same results. I soon found out the rtx 2070 and 2080 share the same pcb layout so any reference rtx 2080 block will fit a 2070 and now the 2070 super and 2080 super as they also share the same pcb. Then came my issue. I always had the temps I get now but never once tested it with vsync off for max temps until the other day. so after re-pasting, re-seating and putting everything back together I had the same temp issue and yet had good impressions on the thermal pads and thermal paste on the core. is it possible that this is just how this card runs?

You are way above my head at this point. You wouldn't have another block laying around specifically made for that gpu would you? Or another video card that it fits on to test for temps? When you say you pulled the pins and plastic connector, do you mean the power connector or something on the waterblock itself? If it was the power, maybe something is different with the pin layout?
I just cant see how a good water cooling solution would be that close to air cooling. Maybe a cheap low end system with a slow moving pump compared to a top of the line air cooler but not yours.

Also do you have the water going direct to your video or do you go pump-cpu-gpu-radiator-pump?

i know my stuff and sometimes get into the nitty gritty. i mean i pulled the 4 pin fan header pins out so i could fit the gpu block to the gpu and it fit perfectly

Anyway i found my problem. the issue, as pointed out by another builder like myself, was that i may need to tighten the screws on the block down a little more. sometimes they come loose a little after heating and cooling and may need tightening. i couldn't believe how much the screws had loosened. a whole half to a full turn

Well i tightened all the screws and low and behold after vsync was turned off i got 53c on the gpu and 40c on the cpu after 2 hours of gaming and my water temps clearly felt the increased contact now at 32c as suposed to 29c after the same length of time in the same game for fairness. i then changed the premix to distilled water, biocide and inhibitor and i now get 51c on the gpu and an increase of 2c on the cpu at 42c with 33c on the water temps in the same game within the same time. So gpu decreased by 20c with an offset 2c higher cpu and 3-4c higher water temps. Happy days

WOW - I never thought the screws would come loose. I mean I get the heat and cool cycles but wow! Maybe I should check mine

Glad you figured it out!

I had no idea either but when I contacted watercool in regards to this they said it shouldn't come loose and to check after another day or 2 and if the screws are still coming loose then they will issue a refund for the block. so 1 day in and no issues at all. maybe I didn't tighten them as much as I thought but hey its working now

Seems they stand behind their products! Hard to find now a days.

part of the reason I went with watercool is due to their support. they have, IMO, the best looking and performing blocks on the market. all I care about it performance and customer service. the only other company that has great support is corsair. asrock was very slow and ekwb was speedy but try to avoid rma (took me 6 months). none the less i'm happy with watercool and plan to get a cpu block to match soon.