Passive GPU cooling is still in a territory of experiment for high end cards but it appears that it is doable for mid-range GPUs with certain caveats. That is important for PC enthusiasts who put emphasis on the quiet PC building. It shows that even a 120W GPU can operate fanless as long as the cooler is good enough. The popular CPU cooler Noctua NH-P1 was the star of this unusual experiment.
YouTuber TrashBench tests thermal limits of the popular CPU cooler on NVIDIA graphics cards
The experimental GPUs are two NVIDIA cards: GTX 1060 and GTX 1080 Ti. YouTuber TrashBench mounted Noctua NH-P1 on both cards using custom 3D-printed mounting solutions. This way they directly compared the performance of a single passive cooler in the face of different TDP values.
Specifications
- Cooler Model: Noctua NH-P1
- GPU Model: GTX 1060
- GPU TDP: 120W
- Test Bench: TrashBench
- Benchmark Software: 3DMark Time Spy, Cyberpunk 2077
GTX 1060 120W TDP card handles load just fine. It achieved 79C core temperature after 20 minutes gaming (3DMark Time Spy and Cyberpunk 2077). The highest hotspot temperature is 88C. That is high but steady indicating that this cooler should handle it without any throttling or shutdowns.
GTX 1080 Ti with high 300W TDP card does not work in that setup at all. The hotspot temperature went up to 108C, which resulted in system shutdown due to hardware protection. This verifies that passive cooling is certainly not an option for high TDP gaming GPUs and that the only thing that you can use it for are low TDP devices.
The 3D printed mount is the real story here. Noctua never intended the NH-P1 for a GPU.