EKWB's Nvidia RTX Water Blocks Among First On the Market

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EKWB has a bunch of new GPU water blocks that fit the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX-series graphics cards available for pre-order from the company’s website. The Copper/Plexi and Copper/Acetal, Nickel/Acetal and Nickel/Plexi blocks priced at $140, $155, and $160, respectively.

The company is one of the first to the RTX aftermarket cooling party, offering four different blocks for both the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti (for a total of eight new products). These water blocks, under the Vector brand are said to be compatible with all reference design GeForce RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti (respectively) graphics cards. They also accommodate NVLink bridges for multi-GPU setups.

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All of the new EKWB RTX water blocks feature two nickel-plated G1/4-inch brass plugs and come with all the necessary mounting mechanisms, screws, nuts and washers you’ll need to attach it to your new RTX graphics card. The nickel-equipped blocks also sport RGB LED lighting that is compatible with mainstream motherboard vendor software such as Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI RGB Mystic Light and AsRock Polychrome Sync. It also comes with thermal pads and grease. The only visible downside is that each of the water blocks’ specification pages state that they are not compatible with Founder’s Edition backplates, and if you want to cover up the exposed PCB you’ll have to purchase an additional EKWB retention backplate.

Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • darkomaledictus
    All this for 3% clock increase... Find water coolers pretty useless for video cards. Most them overclock pretty badly and when they do its not worth the hassle.
    Reply
  • massacrex
    Water cooling allows your rig to run more quietly in addition to clocking higher. Plus, I find water cooled rigs to be more aesthetically pleasing (if done properly). It's a hassle if you don't like to tinker with things, but it's fun for an enthusiast.
    Reply
  • rubix_1011
    'Watercooling' is not a pseudonym for 'overclocking', so let's make sure we're not making this assumption. You can certainly do one without the other.

    Also, with a full cover watercooling block, you might see 30-50% reduction in core load temperatures on your GPU. It's rather substantial to go from seeing 85C temps down to seeing 45C temps at load with a proper loop setup.
    Reply