YouTuber Shows Direct Water Cooling Contact on RTX 2060 Super With 3D Print

A DIY experiment pushed GPU cooling in a direction most people would never try: instead of routing water through a traditional copper-and-water-block setup, a creator built a direct “silicon-contact” loop for an RTX 2060 Super using 3D printing, epoxy sealing, and a submersible pump—reporting dramatically lower temperatures in benchmark testing.

Key takeaways

• The build targets direct cooling of the GPU’s silicon by feeding water straight onto the chip instead of using a copper water block.
• For an RTX 2060 Super, reported temperatures dropped from about 70°C (stock air) to 33°C (improvised AIO) and 28°C (the custom direct-contact design).
• An extreme cold test at -28°C liquid temperature resulted in a chip temperature of 13°C.
• The experiment also included a CPU test, where the custom water-cooling approach did not beat an AIO as well as it did on the GPU.
• The creator’s method relied on CAD work, 3D printing, careful surface finishing, epoxy sealing of surrounding SMD components, and leak testing.

How the direct-water GPU cooler was built

The experiment was demonstrated on an RTX 2060 Super by a YouTuber known as TrashBench. The core idea was to reduce thermal steps by bypassing the usual intermediate copper plate and routing water directly to the GPU’s silicon—an approach that could, in theory, improve heat transfer when executed carefully.

According to the described process, the main structure used a 3D-printed cover fitted with two hose fittings, fixed in place with a combination of threading and adhesive. The contact surfaces were prepared by sanding both the cover’s base and the area around the GPU chip. After sealing the nearby, water-sensitive SMD components, the creator attached the cover to the PCB with epoxy resin and checked the assembly for leaks.

For operation, the voltage regulation components received passive heatsinks. Cooling was provided by a water-bath setup using an aquarium submersible pump supplying chilled liquid. The system reportedly didn’t run perfectly at first, but ultimately reached a functioning state with a largely secure design.

Benchmark results: big gains, plus an extreme scenario

In the Heaven benchmark, the stock air-cooled RTX 2060 Super reached 70°C. The creator then compared two water setups: an improvised AIO-style loop reportedly landed at 33°C, while the custom direct-contact cooling design reached 28°C.

The testing also included an extreme condition: when liquid temperature was pushed to -28°C, the GPU chip temperature was measured at 13°C. The experiment’s video walkthrough covers the full process and testing sequence.

Why the CPU didn’t follow the same pattern

While the GPU results were strong, an additional test on a “capped-off” (decapped) CPU with a custom-printed water cooler didn’t mirror the same advantage. The CPU reportedly performed worse than the AIO when using the direct water-cooling approach.

The creator’s likely explanation points to hardware constraints—specifically, a chamber size that may be too small for the CPU setup. The conclusion is that there’s still work to do to optimize the design for different heat sources and mounting geometries.