Hardware Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 4870X2 review

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/07/24/arcticcooling-accelero-xtreme-4870x2-review/1

Finally, an arftermarket cooler capable of taming the raging temperatures of the Radeon HD 4870 X2. We take a look at Arctic Cooling's new VGA cooler to see if the performance is good enough to justify tinkering with your high-end graphics card.

 

I had the GTX 280 version of this heatsink and I found it was brilliant 90% of the time (similiar temp drops to what you found) but in Trine or Anno 1404 the VRMs overheated quickly. Those two games seem to pull in a LOT of power, just like Furmark. Had to switch to water in the end.

I noticed the X2 version you tested uses proper screws to hold the heatsink over the VRMs. On the 280 it's sticky pads - which is a stupid oversight.

 

interesting... spend the 50 quid or use it for an upgrade when the DX11s come out... a conundrum indeed!

I love my 4870x2 to death but i am more aware of the noise it makes now, so much so that i would consider this when choosing my next card. it's not all about horsepower anymore *sob*

and yes, the card goes mental when running Trine!!! i thought it was just that it was only using one core as it wasnt optimised for the x2... not sure what it could be now.
thinking about it, playing call of juarez it is pretty loud so it leads me to believe any game with heavy post processing could be a culprit

 

hmm...so how is it with noise then? is it noisy or can be considered as quiet during operation. Been using AC gfx coolers on all my gfx cards but 4870x2 cooler wasn't available, and accelero s2 with scythe 12cm fan on it (8800 gts 512) was silent, fan spinning at 50% and load temps around 50C. Can you achieve similar results in terms of noise with this baby? 4870x2 noise is really killing me and been waiting for this cooler for some time (AC was saying on the page available end of may but you couldn't buy it). please let us know (i can still make it for tmrw's delivery )

 

The 4870X2 Accelero won't be available in the UK until at least september, possibly October. which is what makes it a tricky choice. What if it doesn't fit the next generation dual card? It will be a bit of a waste to keep this for two months if I intend to upgrade to a DX11 X2. You can import them from the US but that will cost about £70, a lot to pay for a cooler. Also, with so few available to test, reviews aren't very thorough, no consideration of noise here, or how the coolers would perform with two next to each other. Some VRM temps would be nice too, as it goes without saying the GPUs aren't going to overheat.

 

and? it doesn't say if it's silent or not, it says it's quieter than stock cooler (and to be honest i don't believe there's louder gfx cooler than the one on 4870x2 )

 

Finally! An after market cooler worth buying!? Will this be the end of seeing my 4870 X2 going in the mid 90's when gaming?

 

Used around 60%ish, it's inaudible over low-ish speed case fans, and cuts over them a little when the cooler's at 100% full blast. However, you'll see a GPU temp of about 40 degrees at this point, provided the case is decent. (I did)

 

I think that this is too big... too late. It would be more attractive if it came with a factory overclocked card, but it is rather a turn off that it uses so much space and doesn't get rid of the hot air.

I see you have changed your mind about reviewing AC products!!

 

I'm angry at Arctic Cooling until they release a new Accelero for the 4870/4890.

*shakes fist*

 

ah ok... right no, it's not silent.

 

I have always been impressed with their ATI line of coolers, I ran their version on the 2900xt and it was amazing and so much quieter.

 

I have this cooler on my 4870x2 and it amazes me that no hardware page so far mentioned one of the BIG problems with it, did u ever check the vrm temps ? they go through the roof with this cooler, the vrms are certified up to 125 c but when u dont run the fan at 100 % they go up to 140 c !!!!!!!

 

So did you not overclock the card to see what you could get t to sit at stable?

Be nice to see some overclocked scores and temps????

 

You can always get it from the US:
Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME 4870X2

But it sounds like you really need to put this card under watercooling... I mean if the VRMs overheat with the AC aftermarket cooler then it is pretty useless...

Comments about testing overclocking pointial are pointless... I found I couldn't overclock a X1950 Pro under water (not a good loop setup I should point out and poor aircooling around the card) because the VRM's weren't cooled at all. The waterblock was really designed for the X1900 XT(X) cards. The X1950 Pro card became unstable even with a 5% overclock!!

Bob

 

If u have the money go for a water block, the arctic is quite quiet, but u still have to run 100 % fan and ull hit very high vrm temps ( especially Juarez brings them way up ) i installed another 120mm fan directly below it to ensure it gets enough fresh air, did i mention i had to copletely alter my air cooling setup because the case gets really hot now inside and my former stable cpu clocks became unstable ? i used artic cooling solutions before and they all seemed better than this one
On guru3d they mention a couple guys killed their 4870x2 running this cooler ( including the review guy himself) didnt happen to me but seeing the high vrm temps on my cards maybe they just didnt notice untill it was too late...

 

shame, well, i think i'll try it anyway

 

Not silent, but a heck of a lot less noise than the stock cooling solution. No, it doesn't get rid of the heat from inside the case, but it certainly doesn't accumulate as much heat as the stock cooler either--heat from one GPU to cool off the next GPU only made for a hotter exhaust after.

I have the MSI OC version, and the screws on the back of the card for the X braces were too short. A tip from another board suggested taking screws out of the OEM cooler and using those, since they'd be long enough. Had left a message at the AC support page, and they mailed longer screws.

The AC cooler should have been the cooler on the board by default, as the single blower stock cooling solution is a piece of crap.

 

Anyone checked VRM temperatures between stock and this Accelero?