RTX 3080 & NZXT G12 Water Cooling is a Frustrating Nightmare

[@andr0f]

I cant imagine why you chose a 120mm aio for this... I have a 240mmaio on my 1080ti and idle temps are

[@techbuildspcs]

Same here. You should undevolt though.

[@Darryldlowe]

Right my 2080 super with 360mm aio runs at 50c while gaming and it is overclocked

[@ksw8934]

2070 super on 240mm aio with nzxt bracket, 2100mhz overclock by undervolt at 45-55c, and its quiet. thats amazing for budget watercooling solution like this

[@filmedbyharyor]

@@Darryldlowe i have the same gpu as yours and considering to pick this baby up. Does it really worth it ?

[@Darryldlowe]

@@filmedbyharyor yeah it is

[@miguelc3558]

VERGE WILL GIVE YOU A JOB :))

[@Silver1080P]

Who the FUCK wants to work for the verge?

[@lucianofz788]

[@RuneHolmgren]

When you apply thermal paste on a die without a heat spreader you have to ensure that the entire die is covered. You might just be cooking a corner of your die, and if it doesn't kill the die it certainly is not going to be a good heat transfer. That being said, the results would have been pointless regardless because you are trying to dissipate 350W through a single 120mm radiator.

[@xsixinfantryx]

ingenious.

[@user-vo3ps2oz7h]

Nzxt should make another one that actually supports the 30 series card

[@drainx85]

Now it would be the 40 series. But either way it'd make the elitists heads explode "REEEEE, you're not allowed to water cool a x060 budget card! You're wasting your money! Water cooling is only for x090 series cards. Water cooling is not for idiots that want to keep their computers silent or the poors planning to keep their junkyard gpu for at least 3 more years!"

[@jzuany]

Vga shortages were sooo bad at the RTX 3000 series that I can't even understand why NZXT would even bother to adapt its brackets for the new series. They most likely will rethink that with the RTX 4000 series coming soon.

[@kalerax]

You should put the radiator somewhere that is above the pump with that way that you have done, the air bubbles will rise in the surface of the pump. That means the water can not cool the copper that good. That's the worst way to use an aio.

[@JP-ot5km]

How can you expect good results of the gpu temp with a 120mm aio... Also the fact that temperatures increase test by test is an indicator that the aio is too small!!11 it is boiling up getting too little time to cool down passing one 120mm fan. Nevertheless nice video, was fun watching.

[@munozyoshi]

Im gonna do it. Hard to dissuade me when you showed all the ways to NOT mount a G12. But I do appreciate the insight!!

[@the.simart5129]

Did you really do it xD ?

[@Leedy818]

Exactly... Dude is either totally inept or purposely made a half assed attempt so he could make a clickbait title and thumbnail.

[@lawndartdesign]

Jeff, a lot of this comes down to the implementation on your end. But I've been running a modified G12 on my Gigabyte 3090 Turbo since november, and the card consistently benchmarks higher than it did with the stock blower design. I'd be happy to compare notes. I think as mentioned a LOT of this comes down to how you got the card on, and the choice of a 120mm AIO (I opted for a 280mm push/pull setup).

[@richardwilliams877]

Did you drill new holes into the G12? I currently have my AIP zip-tied onto my 3080 (works pretty well, actually!), but I don't have much experience with drills and keep putting off buying a drill and all the bits I need to try doing this...

[@lawndartdesign]

@@richardwilliams877 yes. You’ll need to make new holes. In fact I did a write up: www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/lmcni9/3090_nzxt_g12_tutorial_discussion_gigabyte_turbo/

[@richardwilliams877]

@@lawndartdesign thanks! Awesome write up! Think I'll grab a decent drill sometime soon and give it a go. What's the worst that can happen, lol

[@lawndartdesign]

@@richardwilliams877 grab a drill, good bit, center punch so the bit won’t wander and clamps if you can.

[@MaavBR]

@@lawndartdesign Thanks for the writeup! I also have a 3090 Turbo and was looking at this video **exactly** to do this mod. Its temps are driving me nuts right now.

[@LuisXGP]

that's not how is supposed to be used

[@quyuzhou]

With so much effort you put in, why didn’t you just go for a 240 radiator?

[@GenesisRasphotos]

Did you just put the rad below the pump....like come on my dude. Do you want to kill your punp?

[@comradesandwich9437]

The part where I lost it and started laughing out loud is when you held the extra three fan cooler over it and surmise that they should be able to give it just enough of a boost loool

[@AlexisHernandez-ys9yn]

You must to put some cooper or aluminum heatsinks on VRMs and VRAM! You can use termal glue to do this!

[@CivicYt]

I love when youtubers show the slow process and when things go wrong.

[@nosajmartinez6175]

Couple of massive issues. Didn't see any additional cooling for gddr6x beyond the fan. What was shown in the video is in no way enough cooling for it. Also, that 120mm radiator is not enough for adequately cooling a 350 watt GPU. Need at least a 240mm radiator and fans. Good data points though. The g12 can properly cool this card but will need extra help to accommodate the extra heat from the memory and vrms.

[@michaelmichaelson8861]

the 120mm fan he used wasn't really representative for the test, he should have gone with smth like Kraken x63 etc. G12 works fine on 1080 ti without heatsinks on vrms, the fan is enough, but these newer cards definitely need a better fan or some heatsinks on the vrm

[@The_18th_Fret]

I did this yesterday on my beloved 1080ti FE. For the past year or two my temps have gradually been increasing, because the stock cooler sucks. When I first got it, it would cap around 82-84c. For the last year it goes all the way up to 90c when I game and I hate it , I feel like I'm killing my card. So after installing the G12 with a 240 aio cooler, my idle temps are now 30c and load temps 45-47

[@GeorgeFloyd2]

my g12 keeps my 1080ti around 20°c and heavy load 35-40°c.

[@GenesisRasphotos]

That could just have been from debris build up and thermal paste drying out

[@BorealSine]

Incorrect AIO position, had the same issue, had 70c on 2080ti, when i fixed the rad to the front side of the case and fixed push/pull fan config i lowered my temps to 54 degrees at 100% power limit, having up to 62 degrees at 124% power limit and full OC, 1995 mhz stable + 1000 mhz vram oc. I also have a fan on the left side blowing at vram which has copper heatsinks, but yeah i tottaly agree with you, its better to buy smth like evga hybrid to get the best experience.

[@Darryldlowe]

My 2080 super 360mm aio is 50c gaming and its overclocked by afterburner

[@peterhindes56]

You really need vram heat sinks. Gddr 6x is insanely hot. Check the vram temps in hwinfo.

[@Nick-tz1ju]

Dude. I just did this myself on a 3070 using a Z53. Took me half an hour. Drilled two extra holes so all 4 screws can be tightend. Used the Nvidia brackets. It works like a charm maxes at 56 deg. Your work is cringe!

[@Benedictus899]

Did you by any chance check your VRAM and Hot Spot temperature sensor readings?

[@princeroyal7951]

@@Benedictus899 Not sure about 3X series, but I bought VRAM Copper heatsinks and put them on my 2080ti VRAM.. Haven't had any issues with temps.

[@yangtiancheng3699]

120mm aio is not enough for rtx 30 series, and on NZXT's website, it said that this G12 only work up to RTX20 series, this is just a super bad idea overall.

[@Schneizel1208]

I'm surprise the GDDR6X VRAM hasn't caught fire. I see no contact between it and any sink to dissipate the heat. Cooling the GPU die is easy. The challenge is the VRAM whose thermal junction temp can easily touch 100C even with fans running at 100%. I have 2x 3090s and I have a lot of fun cooling the VRAMs at the back of the cards.

[@Askejm]

Tried this and broke my 2080 super. The main chip died. The repair guy said it's probably because the screws weren't tight enough (they gotta be real fucking tight) as well as me holding it by the pump caused a tiny gap which made my GPU instantly die and artifact severely. For people trying this please keep that in mind. Now I have to live with a 1050 ti and all GPUs cost 2.5x what they should

[@AFlyingSwive]

side note, alphacool makes a waterblock or an aio for most gpu available

[@emp1985]

how in the world was this supposed to work, when the pump is barely properly installed, with only two out of the four screws with the brackets being used? Mounting pressure on the die must be horrible and extremely uneven. Rotate the brackets, drill two holes on the Kraken to match the spacing, and reinstall. You should get much better results, even with "just" a 120mm AIO. But yeah, consider VRAM heatsinks... GDDR6X runs way too hot for just a 80mm fan to be blowing, indirectly, on them.

[@poussinmoumoute]

you made a big mistake, the radiator need to be higher than the pump to trap the air

[@ameliabuns4058]

you didn't include VRAM temps :(? I only watched for that

[@drj144]

sorry 120mm for a 350 watt gpu. i think 240 would be more suitable? 🤔

[@FireTwo]

Kingpin cards come with a 360mm aio.

[@DueM]

a 120 can't cool a gtx1080 adequately and thats a little over 200w, it has no chance here...

[@FireTwo]

@@DueM I cooled a 1080ti ok with push pull fans needed quite high rpm to keep The heat saturation low in long gaming

[@tbuksuperfly]

They said it didn't support the 2x series either, yet I have a msi 2070 super running a H75 120mm aio downstairs that says otherwise. Just had to use the AMD brackets instead of the nvidia ones to line it up correctly. There's no reason you couldn't just drill new mounting holes to better line up the die. I'm very tempted to see what kind of pcb my asus 3080 has and check the mounting points to see how far they're out. Not that I fancy trying it, it was scary enough doing my 2070 and that was less than half the price my 3080 was back when I bought it.... and freely available. This video is pretty embarrassing, but I commend your bravery in sharing it. I especially liked the fact you put a fan bar on top of your bottom case fans, which effectively just choked any actual airflow you already had; plus, leaving the thermal pads on the vrms was a nice touch. Really helped wow get some impressive stutters there as they overheated.

[@azncoltz]

He didn't screw it hard enough no cap mine stays at 43 on full load well98%

[@PhilJohn1980]

With how hot GDDR6X, and VRM's run these days, going the DIY AIO route is just a non starter. Also, under water the 3080 TI SCREAMS ... pity that the FE block from EK is so expensive, but it was worth every penny.

[@Pedro-nk6yw]

Too anyone looking at this vid I mostly want to say don't make it as ugly as shown in the video? I have no idea wtf was going on or how I got here however I noted while cringing and fast forwarding how crooked it looks. Like...Did he not screw in the bracket in a star pattern? Or the fact that they used an old aio? These cards have a high price tag I wouldn't be caught using an cooler that had it's tube ripped. Absolutely awful, these brackets are amazing. And for the record, minimum 140mm but simply going 240 or 280mm is much better.

[@Reinvntngurxit]

He calls it a cooling nightmare, but the performance increases and temperature reductions state otherwise... seems like a 120mm will work fine for a 3080, even if his temps were the same there was a 7-10% FPS gain on the G12 configuration!

[@walltap]

Imagine if you used a 360mm rad

[@T0EFOO]

the contact between head spreader block and gpu die is not proper. it left 2 sides uncovered basically and its not effective for that reason. also small rad.. too small

[@RockyRaccoonRockin]

Holy cow how do you mess up this bad???

[@noelennis6254]

Hmm definitely don't agree with your end opinion. 240mm and 280mm all in one are awesome with the g12 Kraken. Removing the thermal pads would help to cool the VRMs and RAM . with some grizzlys liquid metal on the GPU it really is a winning combo.

[@gregcy89]

With a bit of modding kraken can fit nicely. A 360mm radiator with a 280mm cpu radiator and enjoy games during summer

[@leonardojoy]

nut installation and the gddr6x(which are already super hot) must be frying.

[@PsychoI00]

You should just use the amd bracket it works but there's still the vram and vrm issue tho

[@anonime2932]

Nooo... This will not work to cool the video card normally. It is better to sit in the air or wait for the water block for the video card to come out

[@icebang2486]

Hi, could you give me the center distance of the 2 different mounting brackets please?

[@DannyzReviews]

"Otherwise, the G12 Bracket doesn't fit the new mount placements for the MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Trio X " I'm sad to see that. Got a 360RAD on my 2080 and keeps it super chill under load (around 38C) while overclocked. Will be a shame to retire it. thanks for taking the plunge and trying this out.

[@augold1681]

These influencers don't know what they are doing. What abour the temps of the VRAM chips and the MOSFETs of the VRMs?

[@cherrytofu8939]

- Should have chosen a bigger cooler with better fans - Should have thrown it straight out when the tube came out - Should have not mounted it with the pump at the top of the loop 🤦‍♂ - Should have not mounted it at the bottom of the chassis *pushing hot air down* 🤦‍♂ - Should have absolutely not added that slim triple fan thingy, it will most certainly worsen your noise normalized thermals, More fans is not always better and that's true for top tier fans let alone whatever those are And for the purposes of the video I think the VRM and memory temps are very important since the g12 tends to heavily favor the die. Hope you don't take it personally I'm sure you've heard it all since you posted this anyway.

[@guypersson]

I wanted to see if I should buy it for my RX590 fatboy (because of horrible cooling) to later reuse it when I upgrade my GPU. That radiator is awfully small and I think you'll get better cooling from a larger one. This video only still left me thinking about possibly buying it. I paid $173 for my GPU and I am not sure if investing more onto it is better than just dealing with it as is.

[@metalheaddw05]

Hopefully you ditched the 590 by now, because they are going for like $75. lol

[@katzicael]

I have a 3080 Gaming X Trio, and I've got the "low temp" bios flashed, my temps rarely ever go over 65oC and I've never seen the fans running higher than 45% and even then it's still basically silent.

[@AlexisHernandez-ys9yn]

Same with 6800XT gaming x trio! I think it works great!

[@ConeJellos]

This was embarrassing. Thanks for sharing this so if I ever have any ideas to start ANOTHER tech youtube channel I can just remember this and stop before I start.

[@jwhitaker81]

You did something bad wrong buddy. Air cooling the VRM is perfectly fine. Just take the pads off for better airflow across the VRM components. Use proper mounting screws with springs to seat the cold plate against the die perfectly flush or you temps will be off and your difference between GPU Temp and Hotspot will be huge affecting well, a lot. I use an ID cooling 120mm AIO mounted properly with a dual 90mm fan two slots down cooling the VRM and Memory. I put memory heatsinks on the VRAM with thermal tape. Max GPU temp is 59C, my VRAM never exceeds 62C and my hot spot runs at 71C. I can reach a max clock speed of 2167Mhz. Make a solid difference. Attention to detail goes a long way man.

[@Skellist]

Don't blame the product for your own incompetence dude

[@jzuany]

How not to use a Kraken G12 should've be the tittle haha despite being a complete failure, it was possible to learn how not to do some stuff. Such as get new heat sinks for the vram, how rotate the water cooler mount on the G12 and some stuff. At least now I know what I shouldn't do and might save me from doing the same mistakes.

[@mnnesotance7004]

where the heck is the power supply? i mean it must be on the other side but i have never seen a case like this

[@crage222]

Looks like your trying to put a VW bug body on top of a Bugatti. I thank you for your struggles.

[@ddw34]

Hello, would it be possible to use the NZXT g12 bracket in combination a universal water block for water cooling a gpu in a custom loop?

[@mileskt9232]

if you have bottom mounted fans in the case what is the need for that ghetto 3 fan accessory?

[@faraday9234]

you did not use enough thermal paste possibly for a gpu...you're supposed to really layer it on there for gpus

[@beamifrend]

I feel your pain. I do this to myself all the time. Why do we do it????

[@gideonleroux7519]

No mate, what are you doing ????? 120mm superglue ??

[@CellarDoorCS]

Thanks - no one else tried this except me.

[@lellollo]

what about VRAM temperatures?

[@RE30RN]

the bracket worked but the AIO was cheap. I wonder if this will work on the FE GPU

[@Adtysnt_]

Nice job, but it will kill your gddr6 vram.. i had 3070ti msi gaming x trio too and it run at 90-104c on stock..

[@zaccy]

Could have at least slapped some heat sinks on those thermal pads

[@Inuwoodx]

I'm crying in pain looking at this ...

[@dallenzao]

Glad I watched this. I have a 3080 trio and almost did it, not anymore

[@JeffTechMedia]

Haha I'm glad I could save you from the headache

[@tootzstang8105]

I tried on my 3090 but damn i can’t live with only 2 screws holding this ahaha

[@davidfelix3851]

This could've been done much better than what you did thought.Listen if you would've bought the 80mm to 92mm fan adapter for 8-12$ and put a better higher spinning fan. Actually put vrm heat sink's you would've even had better performance sorry but had to bump in because im always modding my pc cpu set up and gpu set up i have and additional 4 fans taming my rtx 3090 and it runs cool.

[@PoloHungary]

This build to fail the miracle if this better than the stock with this small radiator and other mistakes ,this mod is actually is good if you build the right way, good video for how to not make 😄

[@TurkeyMaze]

What is going on... Bro - this would work with anything 240mm and larger.

[@gregordeissler2094]

I love seeing you struggling... just put all my hardware into a new case this week and I hated every minute of it lol

[@plainsnowman6621]

I think he's trolling. There's no way he thought any of this random trash on a g12 would work.

[@krisrobitzsch]

And you installed the fan the wrong direction.

[@KingCamo90]

What does he mean by not cracking the dye??

[@acain6803]

Thank you for telling me it's not worth doing

[@essentialone1]

Looks like you needed a Kraken G10 bracket for the older AIO coolers, and where was the 2 little Pieces of mounting hardware, should have been 2 with a N for Nvidia and 2 with a A for AMD, its what the card uses to attach to the G12 Bracket securely, oh Lordy, Lordy

[@jl644]

You didn't need to change the fan that came with the kit LOLLL... it doesn't really matter how fast the fan is,

[@munchhausen2463]

Nice for a single 120mm radiator

[@utopiate75]

This was hilarious, I'm sure your cheque from NZXT is in the post ROFL

[@MOTOJendays]

May I ask why you thought trying to cool a 30 series with a 120mm fan was a good idea? Lol. I've seen insane temps with the G12 but your project was a disaster no offense. I've seen people get sub 50 temps under max load OC. You also wanna cover the entire die with paste which is why the entire thing was covered in the first place haha.

[@TurkeyMaze]

Someone on Reddit uses zip-ties to secure his AIO.

[@MRQUICK666]

link?

[@matthewpokora336]

A lot of professionals on here that haven't link their videos 😂 I was looking into this but it seems a little too DIY to me

[@lucianofz788]

of course theres no difference with that mount

[@RNG-999]

Everything about this video was horrendous... The Kraken G12 doesn't even need a changed fan from the stock 92mm and it doesn't need additional PCIe fan card slots. The reason there is only 1 fan on the G12 is because ONLY ONE FAN IS NEEDED. The other side of the GPU is only memory which doesn't go above 50C at any point because it's away from ALL the heat. The VRMs and memory in the middle of the card are beside the power delivery and they GET HOT and need active cooling, which the G12 provides.

[@FireTwo]

Oh wow so you don’t have to drill out two new holes?! Just angle it and only fit two in. Hmmm

[@munozyoshi]

When I saw that I wasn't sure if I was seeing it right. Can't believe he did that. I have a 3080 FTW3 ready to do this mod and can't imagine NOT modding the kraken g12

[@alexho1126]

Hi sorry to say, but u are not doing it right. Please use a fitting 82mm fan, and additionally build 2 more fans under the whole thing. Then use custom heaksinks for every possible part. And Why is yours like diagonal mounted? 😅Furthermore and most importantly! USE A BIGGER RADIOATOR, AT LEAST 280MM IN PUSH AND PULL CONFIG!. I'm not wondering why your Temps are as high as air cooled. I did it with my 1080ti which didn't exceed 40°C ( using nxzt x63) . And also it got not only the die cooled, but the vrms with air. And put the backplate back on, it spreads heat as well. If you do it correctly, it's a very good thing to do! But Iam not sure to do it with my 3080 fe. Till 60°C ist not really running in a temp limit and even with oc, it's easy to manage with good case cooling. Running 2010 mhz core - Seems really fine for air-cooled. Not sure if water cooling is worth the effort. If youve seen some stunning results I'm very interested to see, so let me know! Thx

[@brainlet5353]

Everything about this is so wrong... 2k card doesn't buy a new AIO for the G12...

[@RandomRichZ]

do u have a instal vid of it on the satrix 1080?

[@MisticDW]

The NZXT G12 actually done much better, When it was hotter, the frames were higher, when the framers were the same the NZXT G12 was much cooler. People who play with a synced frame rate will have a much cooler GPU with the NZXT G12

[@alloy0455]

Can I do this (even tho you said not to if I have an open bench?

[@bfstudios9163]

yikes only heat generating being cooled is the gpu

[@ThunderGod9182]

Should have used at least a 240mm aio, a 120mm is not gonna do better then the stock cooler.

[@kissmyass8613]

It does, by far, if mounted on the correct position.

[@ThunderGod9182]

@@kissmyass8613 it would be more silent then the stock cooler, but the cooler performance difference would be minimal. Always go with 240mm per component to be safe, you can get away with a 120mm but it's worth it as you can't overclock at all.

[@kissmyass8613]

@@ThunderGod9182 my 2080 got huge benefits by switching from the stock cooler to the hybrid kit, and mine was a XC Gaming, so it had a decent stock cooler, but still i got a huge improvement on temps lol.

[@ThunderGod9182]

@@kissmyass8613 how are the vrm temps?

[@kissmyass8613]

@@ThunderGod9182 pretty good, the Hybrid Kit from EVGA includes proper heatsinks meant for the VRM and also has a fan for them, so the vrm cooling is pretty overkill for the 2080, so i'm really satisfied!

[@theonlyone38]

Oof going through all this trouble for a 120mm aio? Bro, radiator surface area is everything with water cooling. 120mm literally only exists for small form factor, otherwise by all means it shouldn't exist. 240mm or higher next time!

[@mopnem]

Glad this video was made. It looks doable to me. Perhaps just get more fans for the aio?

[@rmmm329]

You mounted a broken aio, not sure your temps are accurate for people who will be using an aio that doesn’t fall apart during installation

[@ameenzo]

this was advertised to me,cool

[@marcuss.9496]

where does he plug in the aio?

[@zhufelix230]

this will not cooling down MEMO, memo temp dump up to 110c...

[@vinnyboi4324]

Do yall think the g12 would work on rx 580 red draggon

[@WizDumbDumb]

Why even post numbers when it clearly is installed wrong

[@r200ti]

There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity :) Critical miss tho is the memory temps. The G12 is a win for die cooling, but how did it manage the VRM's and Memory? Great vid apart from that, will no doubt stop a lot of us trying the same trick after the huge win of G12 on pascal.

[@GeorgeFloyd2]

g12 on the 1080ti is baller

[@Kaus5221]

dude why is the AIO melted?

[@TheStellarmanCo.]

Would the Nxzt work on a Rtx 3090???