The Radeon RX 6400 hasn't received much love from users due to the lack of hardware encoders, its limited memory buffer, and its interface restricted to PCIe 4.0 x4. However, it manages to match the performance of the GTX 1650 while consuming less power. That makes it a great candidate for a passive cooling mod, and the user "revoccases" decided to take it to the extreme.
Passive cooling brings very important benefits, and some computer users adopt it whenever they can. Hardware manufacturers have set it aside for obvious reasons (new graphics cards consume a lot of power, and demand is low), which means everyone interested has to look for alternative solutions, follow the DIY route, or prepare a mix of both.
Building a Passively Cooled Radeon RX 6400
The trained eye will surely recognize the Accelero S1 from Arctic Cooling as the main piece of this mod. It's an old heatsink with official support for outdated cards like Nvidia's 9000 series or Radeon HD, but its copper base, four heat pipes, and 268 grams of material make it an optimal solution for this mod.
The real skill of "revoccases" shines with the fabrication of the coldplate (or adapter plate) for the RX 6400. It's a piece of copper 3 mm thick that covers the core and memory of the graphics card. The most delicate part of the mod is the soldering between the coldplate and the heatsink, using low-temperature solder (138 degrees Celsius). Even so, the contact for the memory is not perfect, as there is a 0.3 mm height difference with the core.
The final result? 54 degrees maximum core temperature, and 60 on its hotspot. Not bad for a card that's on par with a 1650, and without relying on a fan screaming at thousands of revolutions per minute.
Source: SFF Network
