Why are there heatsinks on memory chips on some graphics cards? I have a geforce 3 with NO heatsinks, and they are pretty cool to the touch even after heavy gaming! Then why bother with big metal lumps close to sensitive electrical equipment?
some memory do require cooling, due to the high speeds, while some are added for comsmetics
It all depends on the brand of the board, and how the manufacturer deems it necessary to ensure stability at normal speeds (which on some boards the memory is clocked higher and the timing set to close to maximum of the chips for performance boosts).
As I had mentioned, under normal desktop conditions the card performed fantastically. During heavy testing, gaming, or benchmarking, the card developed texture "tearing" and other glitches. I removed the card and made sure the heatsink was making good contact with the GPU and that a proper amount of thermal compound was used. It is then when I noticed this. . .
Here's the full review. Interestingly, the Abit card is also an excellent overclocker despite requiring memory heatsinks to operate at default clockspeed.
I'm going to put RAMsinks on my 8500 since I've increased the memory voltage and now want to go a little further without causing heat-related artifacting in games and long-term memory damage.
Hey Mutha Funker, I think the problem they had with the heatsink on their card actually insolated the memory chip. It likely would not have locked up if they just removed the heatsink.
Most memory will only gain small mounts when cooled. My GeForce2 GTS has 333Mhz memory and no heatsinks. I could run it at 400Mhz with no extra cooling. At 405 I'd get artifacts pretty bad in Quake3. With home made Ramsinks, I could take it up to 410 with no trouble. The artifacts appeared at 415, but did not get as bad as befor untill about 425.
The "big metal lumps" have no bad effect on the chips. It might actually help sheild the chip from outside interferance.
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