CPU air cooler runs ice-cold water through its heatpipes to liquid-cool a GPU — negative-temp DIY mod sees up to 17% performance uplift

A modder known as TrashBench has created a DIY GPU cooler by repurposing a CPU air cooler to run ice-cold water through its heatpipes, resulting in a liquid-cooled GPU setup. The mod saw a significant performance increase of up to 17% in benchmarks, with games like Cyberpunk 2077 showing a 21% FPS boost and COD: Black Ops 7 demonstrating a 220 MHz increase in boost clocks. By retrofitting the custom cooler onto GPUs like the MSI RTX 3070 and GTX 960, TrashBench achieved impressive results without the need for extreme cooling methods like liquid nitrogen, making it a practical and accessible upgrade for overclocking enthusiasts.