Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070XT Shroud Replacement For 120mm Fans

Firstly, a disclaimer:

This is my first serious project made in CAD software, I am a novice at this so the model might not be 100% perfect. I will be refining the design later on so any feedback is appreciated. 

Do this mod at your own risk and be careful not to damage your card while performing it.

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Bill of materials:

1) Two 120mm fans;

2) Around 200g of PETG or any other heat-resistant filament. DO NOT use PLA for this one as it may deform;

3) A 50-75mm long Philips #0 screwdriver (optional - to remove the stock shroud without full disassembly);

4) 7x M3 screws (6mm or 8mm will do) and nuts (optional - to attach the parts together);

5) Eight M5 screws (optional - to attach the fans to the shroud);

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Updates:

23.06.25:

1) Added Slim version with fans sitting flush against the heatsink. Makes the part 10mm thinner at the cost of slightly decreased thermal performance;

2) Updated standard models to V1.1 with better tolerances for the tabs that join the parts together and corrected the position of fan mounting screw holes;

05.07.26:

1) Added Skinny version for 15mm thick fans and no fan offset. Note: I have no 15mm fans to test the fit/thermals with so please try at your won risk and let me know how it goes;

2) Updated the stress test graphs a bit because the old ones were done with a sub-optimal fan curve;

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Description:

This is a custom shroud for Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070XT GPU, designed to hold two 120mm fans (I used Arctic P12 Pros). Designed in Fusion360 and printed on Bambulab A1 in PETG. No AI was used in the process as I am a filthy luddite.

The aim of this project was to replace the stock shroud as one of the fans on mine has failed and I could not find a decent enough replacement (thanks Gigabyte). I did not perform any detailed benchmarks to present a detailed 1 to 1 comparison between this shroud and the stock, but it does perform at least as good as the stock one while being much more quiet.

Quick stress test was done in Furmark stress test in GL mode at 1440p and 8x MSAAon a system running Linux, the card is slightly underclocked/undervolted to improve the stability. Also, this was done on a rather conservative and really quiet fan curve and the case I am using is a fairly hot Fractal Design Define C TG with two 140mm intakes, one 120mm out and an open top. More aggressive fan curves on the fans and cases with better airflow produce better numbers (obviously)

The hotspot (junction) temps are expected to be that high but probably that I already need to look into GPU re-pasting. The memory and edge temps seem a few degrees lower than they were on stock. For comparison putting both the case fans and GPU fans at 80% shows these numbers:

The fans on the standard version have about 10mm offset from the heatsink to increase the coverage without sacrificing much of the pressure. In V1.1 I've also added Slim version that removes this offset making the build thinner, but at the cost of some thermal performance. Here's a Furmark run with fans sitting flush against the heatsink:

Do note that these screenshots are the results of a stress test, hotspot temps while gaming never reached 90C degrees and usually stay at around 85C and lower.

The fans can be screwed into the shroud with some M5 screws but they can be just put there with no mounting. The screw holes match (maybe not 100% perfectly) my Arctic P12 Pro fans and should fit pretty much any 120mm fan.

It has a slide-on mounting system relying on the original mounting "ears" in four corners of the heatsink for easy installation and removal for dusting/servicing. I was thinking on adding some screw holes there so that it can be properly attached but the backplate leaves frustratingly little space to screw anything in there, but I will be revisiting this point in later iterations. For now, the slide-on mounts seem to be working fine, but time will tell if they won't deform under temperature and weight. Also, the mount was designed to sit really flush against the sides of the heatsink so please be extra careful not to damage the fins. If it's too tight - file a bit off the mounts.

The model is divided into two pieces to fit most printers and the halves can theoretically just pressure-fit together, but I added some M3 screw holes to bolt them together nicely. The tabs joining the parts together can be a tight fit so they may be too tight if printed with poor calibration - but you can file those off if needed.

Also included is a separate air redirection thingy to guide the excess airflow from the side towards the finstack, as 120mm fans are a bit wider than the heatsink itself. I did not perform detailed testing of redirected airflow vs free side flow as of now but will look into it later;

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Preparation steps and notes:

1) The problem of this card is the problematic shroud mounting - it is really hard to get to the screws that attach the stock shroud to the heatsink without fully disassembling the GPU, which leads to obligatory re-application of the cooling solution. But, if you have a long and narrow screwdriver (I used 75mm Philips #0) you can get to them - there are four screws in total sitting at the corners of the heatsink. Easier to get from the PCIe connector side than from the other one. Also, while it is possible to remove those this way, it would be really damn hard to screw them back in, so proceed with this only if you are 100% sure you wanna do this.

One more inconvenience is the RGB wire - it runs under the heatsink, sits flush against it and is really hard to get to. I managed to unplug it with some long pliers with only minor damage to the connector but considering it powers like a few LEDs on the stock shroud I'd say you can just cut that thing. Just make sure the remaining wires are isolated.

Or, if you want to replace the thermal compound anyway, just do it the right way and remove the heatsink altogether.

2) This shroud was designed around Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070XT. In theory, it may fit a regular Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070 (non-XT) but should not fit any other brand/model of the GPU.

3) The fans I used are daisy chained together and connected to the motherboard fan header, the RPM of the fans is controlled by the software. The fan header on the GPU itself can be reused in theory but the connector seems to be a non-standard 4-pin and I am unsure if Gigabyte swapped some pins in there, so I avoided it. You will need to figure out a decent fan curve yourself to find the best noise to performance ratio but one thing for sure is that two decent 120mm fans are much more quiet than three 80-ish mm fans Gigabyte used.

4) While you are working on the shroud or if you decide to remove it for some reason, the fans can be just zip tied to the heatsink. Used it this way while designing the shroud and it seemed perfectly fine apart from being ungodly ugly.

5) Like mentioned earlier, the aim of the project was to make a functional alternative rather than a perfect cooling solution. The design has some considerations to improve the cooling performance and I will be experimenting with more ideas later, but I am not an expert at overclocking and performance benchmarking.

6) The thing is kinda big. Like, proper big. Take measurements to make sure it will fit into your case and won't interfere with the cables. If it's too much try Slim version, but the thermal performance of it may be a bit worse. There's also a Skinny version but that would only fit 15mm thick fans.

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Printing instructions:

1) Use heat-resistant filaments, at least PETG, to make sure it won't deform due to high temperatures and the weight of the thing. I will be looking at the current mounting system durability but it will take time.

2) I recommend the following settings:

• Three walls, so the infill pattern won't be visible on the sides;

• 10% infill, not critical;

• More cooling to prevent filament drooping, and lower printing speeds. Go nice and slowly;

• Recommended printing orientation as on screenshot - use tree supports. If you try printing on the face (fan intake side) go for normal supports, they will generate under the mounting pads and you can pry it out of there with a thin flathead screwdriver. The orientation might also influence the mounting reliability due to layer orientation;

• I used 0.2 mm layer height;