EK Water Blocks Readies For Vega With New Blocks, Backplates
EK Water Blocks doesn’t like to waste time when a new high-profile component hits the market. Whether it’s a chipset update, a platform launch, or a new GPU lineup, EKWB almost always has water cooling parts ready to go at launch, or shortly thereafter. AMD’s Vega GPU launch is no exception. As AMD prepares to bring competition back to the high-end GPU market, EK Water Blocks is ready to help squeeze a little more performance out of the company’s best offerings with four full-cover water block variants ready to debut alongside the first Vega graphics cards.
EKWB’s EK-FC Radeon Vega full-cover water blocks provide direct cooling for the GPU, HBM2 memory, and the voltage regulation modules (VRMs), with channels for the liquid to pass over all three components. As with all EKWB water blocks, the EK-FC Radeon Vega offers a central inlet split-flow low-resistance design that accommodates low-powered pumps or reverse-flow loops without affecting cooling performance.
The EK-FC Radeon Vega is available with a bare electrolytic-copper base or with a nickel-plated base. EKWB also offers the full-cover Vega water block with a black Acetal top or a clear acrylic top. The Acrylic version includes a pair of holes that can house 3mm LEDs to illuminate the block's surface. Along the top of each EK-FC Radeon Vega GPU block, EKWB installed a shroud featuring a Radeon logo visible from the top of the cards.
Each EK-FC Radeon Vega cooler includes a replacement I/O bracket that lets you transform your AMD Vega into a single-slot graphics card.
The EK Water Blocks EK-FC Radeon Vega full-cover GPU blocks are compatible with the upcoming Radeon RX Vega 64, Radeon RX Vega 56, and the already released Radeon Vega Frontier Edition. The blocks are available now for pre-order at the EK Webshop. EKWB said orders will begin to ship on Vega's launch day, August 14.
EK Water Blocks recommends picking up a full-cover backplate for your card as well. The company offers a nickel-plated version and a painted black version, and both backplates are compatible with either version of the water block. The backplate upgrade is not necessary, as the waterblocks are compatible with the stock backplate, but the EKWB backplates offer additional passive cooling for the VRMs.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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grimfox I'm surprised that their fin array is the same as other variants given the higher power density with the vega cards HBM2 and processor core being in such close proximity. Also disappointed to see that they did not opt to create an ALU cooler to increase support for their newest brand line. I feel like the ALU series is going to languish with such limited support.Reply