Introduction and Technical Specifications

We take some tools to our new and shiny EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 card in a quest for better temperatures and higher performance…

Introduction

The measure of a true modder is not in how powerful he can make his system by throwing money at it, but in how well he can innovate to make his components run better with what he or she has on hand. Some make artistic statements with their truly awe-inspiring cases, while others take the dremel and clamps to their beloved video cards in an attempt to eek out that last bit of performance. This article serves the later of the two. Don't get me wrong, the card will look nice once we're done with it, but the point here is to re-use components on hand where possible to minimize the cost while maximizing the performance (and sound) benefits.

EVGA GTX 970 SC Graphics Card

Courtesy of EVGA

We started with an EVGA GTX 970 SC card with 4GB ram and bundled with the new revision of EVGA's ACX cooler, ACX 2.0. This card is well built with a slight factory overclock out of the box. The ACX 2.0 cooler is a redesigned version of the initial version of the cooler included with the card, offering better cooling potential with fan's not activated for active cooling until the GPU block temperature breeches 60C.

Courtesy of EVGA

WATERCOOL HeatKiller GPU-X3 Core GPU Waterblock

Courtesy of WATERCOOL

For water cooling the EVGA GTX 970 SC GPU, we decided to use the WATERCOOL HeatKiller GPU-X3 Core water block. This block features a POM-based body with a copper core for superior heat transfer from the GPU to the liquid medium. The HeatKiller GPU-X3 Core block is a GPU-only cooler, meaning that the memory and integrated VRM circuitry will not be actively cooled by the block. The decision to use a GPU only block rather than a full cover block was two fold – availability and cost. I had a few of these on hand, making of an easy decision cost-wise.

Courtesy of WATERCOOL

Courtesy of WATERCOOL

The water block itself is a low profile unit, as you can see from its cross-section with a total of four ports leading to various possibilities for water barb mounting. These is an indented section in between the GPU block and the water ports allowing for use of a small height heat sink for memory modules underneath the block (maximum of 6mm height for heat sink).

Technical Specifications (taken from the EVGA and WATERCOOL websites)

EVGA GTX 970 SC Graphics Card
Performance NVIDIA GTX 970
1664 CUDA Cores
1165 MHz Base Clock
1317 MHz Boost Clock
121GT/s Texture Fill Rate
Memory 4096 MB, 256 bit GDDR5
7010 MHz (effective)
224.3 GB/s Memory Bandwidth
Interface PCI-E 3.0 16x
DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
Resolution & Refresh Max Monitors Supported: 4
240Hz Max Refresh Rate
Max Analog : 2048×1536
Max Digital : 4096×2160
Dimensions Height: 4.376in – 111.15mm
Length: 9.5in – 241.3mm
Width: Dual Slot
Operating System Support Windows 8 32/64bit
Windows 7 32/64bit
Windows Vista 32/64bit
Requirements Minimum of a 500 Watt power supply.
Two available 6-pin PCI-E power connectors
Total Power Draw : 145 Watts
WATERCOOL HeatKiller GPU-X3 Core GPU Waterblock
Material Electrolytic copper, POM (black)
Dimensions
(L x W x H)
61 x 118 x 20.4 mm
Weight 220 g
Threads 4 x G1/4” (DIN ISO 228-1)
Distance between threads 25 mm
Pressure tested 5 bar
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