Water March: Gainward CoolFX

The System In Practice

Installing the system is somewhat difficult because mounting the cooling blocks on the card is hampered by the short pieces of hose between the blocks. Once you've gotten past this hurdle, though, you can go on to fill the system. You should do this outside of the case, though, since water can easily flow out of the small opening provided for filling, and you wouldn't want it to get into your PC case. If the system is perfectly sealed, then the card is installed in the computer through the drive bay, followed by the module. You will need some room for this. Also keep in mind that no drives should be installed directly above or below this module in order to ensure that the radiator fan works properly.

We installed the CoolFX on a GeForceFX 5800 Ultra and put the system in a closed PC case from AOpen (H600A) for testing.

In order measure the water temperature, we used the temperature measuring function integrated on the CoolFX. The GPU temperature was read through the NV30's function, which is integrated in the driver menu (measurement via dual-monitoring on a second monitor).

CoolFX reduced the temperature by a good 20°C during operation. The temperature was read after one hour of operation with a 3D application. The CoolFX performed surprisingly well when set to the slowest fan speed, which produces little noise.

Gainward's GeForce PowerPack! MODEL Ultra/ 1000 Plus "Golden Sample." Although the cooler is somewhat (here, the emphasis is on "somewhat") quieter than NVIDIA's reference cooler, it achieves poorer cooling performance.

Unfortunately, attempts to overclock the NV30 card were unsuccessful, since the card's results above 540 MHz GPU and 1080 MHz memory clock were poorer than with the standard clock rates (500/ 1000 MHz). However, we could turn up the juice on a Gainward FX PowerPack! MODEL Pro/ 660 (FX 5200 Ultra) to 380/ 720 (standard: 325/ 650) with no problems at all.

A topsy-turvy world: the cooler is more expensive than the card itself. CoolFX on a Gainward FX PowerPack! MODEL Pro/ 660 (5200 Ultra), demonstrating a multiple fit.

Conclusion

With CoolFX, Gainward shows it is brave enough to be one of the first graphics card manufacturers to tackle the topic of watercooling. Apart from the somewhat difficult installation of the system, there's not much to gripe about. The target group is quite limited, though. With a price of around $200, the CoolFX is clearly aimed at enthusiasts and case modders who don't shy away from hands-on installation.

A negative aspect here is that this cooling solution cannot be extended. Due to the relatively low pump performance, the system cannot be modified to become a complete watercooling solution that would also cool the CPU. Also, the front panel of the pump modules surely won't be entirely appealing to some.

From a functional point of view, however, the CoolFX is very effective. The immense heat generated with a GeForceFX 5800 Ultra can be controlled quite well with the CoolFX. Overall, it's an innovative solution that will surely find its fans.