VGA Heat-Pipe Cooler Roundup 2006

[pschmid]

A new generation of aftermarket heat-pipe-equipped VGA coolers has entered the stage. Their mission? To take the heat off the fastest, hottest GPUs on the planet.

 

[madshrimp]

good testing, hot results, to be expected with a hot card. What was the case cooling config used?

 

[adder1971]

Pretty informative review. Nice to see a sound level test in there as well. Only thing I would have liked added would have been some max overclocks with the different solutions to see if the effect of lower temps and increased O/C. And to see if the solutions for memory allowed a better mem O/C.

 

[dokk]

just one thing, test was only done on one(1) card last time I looked there were at least three or four,maybe more,after all I might only have access to one or two cardz but,THG should be capable of testing more,other than that it was a fairly good review,keeping in mind that frostytech,does nothing but cooling reviews.............................

 

[sailer]

After reading through the results, I suddenly developed a new appreciation for the water cooling on my Toxic card. The water cooling is very quiet, (usually can't hear it at all) and keeps the card between 41c at idle and 55c under load.

 

[angry_ducky]

I was surprised by the poor performance of the VF900; I've seen other reviews that speak very highly of it. However, it is the most quiet, and relatively affordable.

 

[clue69less]

A new generation of aftermarket heat-pipe-equipped VGA coolers has entered the stage. Their mission? To take the heat off the fastest, hottest GPUs on the planet.

It would be great if data from the 1950 could be added into these charts. Sure, it's a different card with lower current demands, but would be useful for comparison.

 

[clue69less]

also if he thinks one stock cooler is bad try listening to 2 of them at startup. its like living next to an airport

Indeed. Rockets to power, engines to thrust! I think it's a proper psyche up.

 

[DaBigHurt]

nice review although i wouldn't mind knowing what ambient temp that room he was in was at.

my room may be cool but right now my x1900xt is sitting at 47C. even on hot days it usually sits at 50-52C.

also if he thinks one stock cooler is bad try listening to 2 of them at startup. its like living next to an airport

Woah, I'd hate to be you when your babies are at their max load. 8O

I would probably think that the room wasn't hot or AC'ed, probably at normal room temp. Its true tho' it all depends on ambient temp. In the NYC Hot&Humid days of the summer playing games can be somewhat annoying when VGA & CPU fans kick into high gear. I guess thats why the article mentioned a different cooler depending on your particular need.

 

[reaper]

I was surprised by the poor performance of the VF900; I've seen other reviews that speak very highly of it. However, it is the most quiet, and relatively affordable.

Yea, and not a lot of diffrence between the min and max speed as well. But it's the best performer in idle temperature though.

 

[nukemaster]

Was it in a case for the tests?

Would be interesting to see how much heat would build up in a 1hr+ test...

Might also be interesting to see the Thermalright V1 Ultra with the fan facing up?

How loud was the stock cooler with it's auto setting under load?

Damn that cards hot....and to think i have one sitting in the box(will be good in the winter)....just waiting for my e6600

Good review....

 

[joex444]

The way I read it, it sounded like the biggest difference between the stock cooler and any of the aftermarket ones as far as case temp goes was 4C (presumably the delta between case and ambient for each cooler was found, and when compared against the stock, none was more than 4C higher than stock). Then again, didn't mention how long they ran the tests for...

If you wanted, I suppose you could find the thermal conductivity and then just figure out what these temps should be based on another card's GPU's wattage. If we had case temps we could even adjust it for the average temperature of our individual cases. It should be accurate to within a few degrees...

 

[jeffreyhsieh99]

silentpcreview gives a pretty bad review for Kuformula. I thinks that's probably they installed it wrong. Myself have pretty good result on that.

I also have a slot fan under that vga card. IT helps blow the air out of case, very effective in keeping your case cool.

 

[clue69less]

I also have a slot fan under that vga card. IT helps blow the air out of case, very effective in keeping your case cool.

I've heard people dis on slot fans, but have had good luck myself. I've run them above 1900XTs after flipping the fan shroud upside down. Thus the fan takes hot air off the back (top) of the graphics card and exhausts it. There is a surprising amount of heat coming off the back of the GPU - enough to lower my case temps 1-2C with the slot fan as described.

 

[clue69less]

one thing i wouldn't mind seeing is how the new style cooler as seen on the x1950xt would do. it looks slightly different than the stock 1900 one.

does anyone know how it does. i'm interested for no other reason than curiosity.

I've seen reviews that say it is significantly quieter but I don't remember any temps discussion.

 

[clue69less]

ye i heard due to it having less fins on the fan it is quieter but i think it also has a fully copper heatsink for the memory and has the fan blowing across the new memory.

obviuously when this review was done they probably couldn't get their hands on one. i am guessing this was the case as the cats used was 6.5's

I look forward to the release of Vista and DX-10. As the flocks make their mad scramble, I'll be looking for good sales on 1950s to upgrade my lamest current box. Imagine how inexpensive excellent PCs will be in a couple of years...

 

[cleeve]

Thanks for the comments guys. A couple answers:

- The temps were taken in a Gigabyte 'Aurora' case. Very nice case with good cooling

- Ambient temperature was 25 degrees Celcius

- Max temps were after 10 minutes on Atitool's stress tester. Atitools's stress tester is REALLY tough on the GPU, this is probably quite a bit hotter than you'd see it after hours of real gaming or 3dMark loops.

 

[Plekto]

I'm surprized that Silenx's big cooler didn't make it into the review.

Apparently it is very quiet - quieter than the others, so you can run it in high-speed mode without hardly any noise.

http://www.silenx.com/ixtremaproheatsinks.asp?sku=ixg-80lc
it doesn't look special - and has less copper than the Zalman, but 18db at maximum speed is crazy low noise. 30cfm should do an adequate job and well, the exhaust fan on your case makes more noise. This should add a whopping 1-2db at full speed to the average user's setup.

 

[chunkymonster]

I don't know anything about the other coolers, but I have used the Zalman VF-900Cu on both a PNY 6800GT Ultra and no on my EVGA 7900GT KO and I can testify that the VF-900Cu does reduce the loaded temps on both gpu's. For example, the 6800GT Ultra was at 79C under load then dropped to 66C with the VF-900Cu. The 7900GT was 72C under load and now tops out at 66C under load. Idle temps have stayed the same on both GPU's but the VF-900Cu with its heat pipes really shines when you OC and put the GPU under load.

 

[clue69less]

is it just me or is that one missing a key component needed that the article title might hint at

Only one?

No nvidia.

No water (I know - title is heat pipe...)

No max OC data on each.

I could go on.

 

[cleeve]

Only one?

StrangeStranger was referring to the Silenx cooler, which doesn't appear to use a heat pipe...

No nvidia.

I used the hottest card I had. Isn't the X1900 XTX hotter than the 7900 GTX? Plus, the review is for coolers, not video cards... the only use the video card for is to provide a 'control' so that the data we gather from the coolers is standardized.

No water (I know - title is heat pipe...)

You answered your own complaint.

No max OC data on each.

Holy crap, that would have taken forever. I would have liked to have had the time to do that, but, a few degrees here or there isn't going to make a colossal difference in OC ability. More realistically, if I'd have had time I would have tested with the best and worst solution. Like I said, didn't have the time tho.

I could go on.

Please do! :twisted:

 

[cleeve]

the VF-900Cu with its heat pipes really shines when you OC and put the GPU under load.

That wasn't the case in our tests, but I suspect milage may vary depending on case airflow.

The one real regret I have is that if I'd have had more time and cases I would have tried benched all of these coolers in a different case - maybe one with a side fan - to see if the results varied.

 

[clue69less]

Only one?

StrangeStranger was referring to the Silenx cooler, which doesn't appear to use a heat pipe...

That's fine, neither does stock.

No nvidia.

I used the hottest card I had. Isn't the X1900 XTX hotter than the 7900 GTX? Plus, the review is for coolers, not video cards... the only use the video card for is to provide a 'control' so that the data we gather from the coolers is standardized.

Well, believe me I'm not crying for an nvidia cooler review, just thinking of possible angles SS might have been taking.

No water (I know - title is heat pipe...)

You answered your own complaint.

I wasn't complaining. The closest thing to a complaint I made was a request for 1950 numbers.

No max OC data on each.

[Holy crap, that would have taken forever. I would have liked to have had the time to do that, but, a few degrees here or there isn't going to make a colossal difference in OC ability. More realistically, if I'd have had time I would have tested with the best and worst solution. Like I said, didn't have the time tho.

Like I said, not a complaint, just an angle. I don't know what kind of OC difference there might have been. Plus we know how you like to stay busy.

I could go on.

Please do! :twisted:

Surely you have a bundle of DX-10 cards you're previewing... Yes, I was kidding. One thing I have piddled with is varying ambient temps then monitoring CPU and GPU temps. It's not a simple linear relationship and it does affect my CPU OC at the high end (30C ambient). So I'm thinking that inside exhaust actually can have an impact if you are already pushing the CPU or GPU OC hard. That's not a question or request, but I guess it would be interesting to see data (case temps, with and without door fan, inside vs. outside exhaust, etc.) I am data-centric and just like to see all relevent numbers.

 

[cleeve]

Surely you have a bundle of DX-10 cards you're previewing...

I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you.

One thing I have piddled with is varying ambient temps then monitoring CPU and GPU temps. It's not a simple linear relationship and it does affect my CPU OC at the high end (30C ambient). So I'm thinking that inside exhaust actually can have an impact if you are already pushing the CPU or GPU OC hard. That's not a question or request, but I guess it would be interesting to see data (case temps, with and without door fan, inside vs. outside exhaust, etc.) I am data-centric and just like to see all relevent numbers.

Yeah, more data would have been nice. Once again I'll cowardly hide behind the time constraints. I did take the case temps with the stock cooler (that pushes air out of the case) compared tot he most efficient in-case solution (the Kuformula at max) which should have theoretically transferred the most heat into the case.. and got a small 4 degree difference, which didn't inspire me to dig further.
But yeah, would have been nicer to collect all that data and show it on a graph. Next time...

 

[gm0n3y]

I know you said that you didn't have the time, but testing the max OC of each cooler would have been a welcome addition to the article. Maybe next time you could take the top 2 and OC them and compare it to a max OC with the stock cooler.