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Hardware Graphics Card Coolers Investigated

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 19 May 2010.

  1. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    Well, the TT killing a 5 series card puts it squarely in the "performed badly" bracket for me :lol: The better GTX pro more closely resembles the Accelero coolers I mentioned in my last post, so this should be ACs go-to design in the future. It's obvious that the larger 3 fan design works much better (or rahter, "just works") than their smaller coolers.
     
  2. KayDat

    KayDat What's a Dremel?

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    Not according to the link poo417 gave; the 5890 Extreme has been mass murdering cards, apparently.
     
  3. rickysio

    rickysio N900 | HJE900

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  4. Mraedis

    Mraedis Minimodder

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    Fair enough, I still find it curious that, despite toying around with cables and heatsinks, my AC works smooth and yours killed the card. :sigh:
     
  5. KayDat

    KayDat What's a Dremel?

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    Perhaps it has to do with fan choice. The fan AT used may have moved more air than the one BT used. The fin spacing does look quite dense. AT doesn't mention though, that this cooler intrudes on CPU cooler air space.
     
  6. Teh C

    Teh C Arg

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    None of the arctic cooling coolers tested were made with the 5870 in mind, as far as I know they were only added into the compatibility list on their website as people had noticed they fitted.

    they've got a specific cooler for the 5870. I'm running an accelero twin turbo pro on a radeon 4870, and it is fantastic. Had no problems installing it compared to any other vga coolers ive had in the past.
     
  7. KayDat

    KayDat What's a Dremel?

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    From what I've read, even though the Accelero 5890 Xtreme is out (and killing cards), the 5870 cooler is, in fact, not actually available yet, till the end of the month. Strange huh?
     
  8. drunkenmaster

    drunkenmaster What's a Dremel?

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    Its seems worth pointing out that the two "best" coolers around are the Prolimatech Mk13 and the new Zalman cooler.

    You've mostly used old coolers and the one that "killed" the 5870, fitted the 5870 due to mounting compatibility, though it was never designed for it and with multiple other reviews showing dangerously high furmark temps on the VRM's I think only really yourselves can be blamed for it.

    If the old old school Thermaltake gpu cooler, that tiny little silver one that was basically a fan back in the GF3 days happened to fit a 5870 mounting, would you have installed it, just because it fit? no.

    LIkewise other reviews show the Spitfire to be incredibly effective in cooling, you marked it down because YOUR CASE doesn't fit perfectly, and several others won't either, big cases without a PSU at the bottom won't have an issue. Its also specifcally design to be used with a 2nd card in crossfire where theres little to no room to have a large sink between the cards. The VRM cooler also does NOT prevent you from using a large heatsink, I'm currently using a IFX-14 Thermalright cooler, the biggest cooler they do, and the VRM cooler "just" fits alongside this heatsink when used in the top slot on a 5850 and also provides fantastic results. You do of course realise the idea of that heatsink, by its design, is to use cpu heatsink airflow to cool it.

    I'm using the Prolimatech Mk13 for the core though, and its dropped my load temps on a heavily overclocked 5850 (1050Mhz core, 1300Mhz mem, 1.3v) to 48C full load. The same card on the stock sink ran in the 80's at 1.2v and 925Mhz core. Infact, the Prolimatech offers watercooling levels of performance, at less cost and massively more compatibility. Its also VERY easy to install, the Thermalright VRM is the bigger problem because of how it sticks out while you are trying to handle the card.

    The Zalman cooler, cheaper, seems to offer very similar levels of performance to the Prolimatech, though potentially less future compatbilility. Full cover waterbocks may only cost £70-80, but require a £100+ watercooling loop already being used to just cost £70 for the block, and it will in no way ever fit another card ever. Zalman's, at £32, and Prolimatech at £46, if they fit the next gen, and the next gen after that, you're looking at watercooling level performance, massive compatibility and if it works across 3 cards, you're looking at £10.66 or £15.33 averaged out for superb and silent 3rd party cooling.

    So yes, its WELL worth getting, both the ones I'm talking about can be run giving immensely higher performance than stock and much quieter and at a cost of £15 per card would be a complete steal, even at £32 a card its pretty damn good and easily easily beat any stock cards with fancy heatsinks that cost £40 more than a normal card and the coolers are only marginally better.

    Other than leaving off the two newest and best coolers that were actually specifically designed for this generation of gpu's, the Spitfire performance you got was, attrocious, other reviews put it equal to the Zalman/Prolimatech, its idle temps being lower than any other card you tested suggest this also, you also seemed to be using a fan that was unfairly quieter than any other heatsink, something with slightly more speed and very little extra sound would likely have massively increased performance, it should have wiped the floor with the other sinks, and stock heatsink and done so silently.
     
  9. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    So it's still our fault even though it clearly states on the box that it's compatible with the 5870? It doesn't matter if AC designed the cooler for the 5870 or not. The fact it claims it's compatible is the reason we tested it - we expect it to work and certainly don't expect it to kill hardware. The tests were done quite a while ago so unfortunately a lot of the other reviews you speak of weren't published and the other coolers you mentioned weren't available either
     
  10. barndoor101

    barndoor101 Bring back the demote thread!

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    plus the fact that the mk13 has terrible VRM cooling
     
  11. Jim

    Jim Ineptimodder

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    That's the point of a review, no?
     
  12. memeroot

    memeroot aged and experianced

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    was there ever a good cooler for the gx2 9800?
     
  13. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    Yeah, it was called a Koolance waterblock >.<
     
  14. thehippoz

    thehippoz What's a Dremel?

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    should also note when installing the little heatsinks you need to scrape off the tape on the back and use epoxy instead.. otherwise the sinks falling off will be a problem

    this http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm

    I've owned the thermalright hr-03 plus and even back then.. we all agreed it was common sense not to use the tape that comes on the sinks
     
  15. fingerbob69

    fingerbob69 Minimodder

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    "So it's still our fault even though it clearly states on the box that it's compatible with the 5870? It doesn't matter if AC designed the cooler for the 5870 or not. The fact it claims it's compatible is the reason we tested it - we expect it to work and certainly don't expect it to kill hardware. The tests were done quite a while ago so unfortunately a lot of the other reviews you speak of weren't published and the other coolers you mentioned weren't available either"

    Then it might have been a bit fairer to at least try the the Twin Turbo one of the previous generations of gpu (might I suggest the 4890) to establish if the claim on the box was just an opportunistic claim for the 5870 (a v.bad thing to do, obviously) as opposed to the cooler simply being a bad cooler regardless of the card it's used with?
     
  16. Ross1

    Ross1 What's a Dremel?

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    I think the results of the accelero S1 speak for themselves. I may buy one for my 5850 even though it would need slight modding in order to fit, its just that good. Had one for my 8800 GTS 512, worked wonders on it, especially with a ziptied 120mm fan on it ;)
     
  17. metarinka

    metarinka What's a Dremel?

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    I just bought a card that already had aftermarket cooling on the GPU, really how big of a difference in over clocking does one of these coolers net you? I don't care if my card run's 10 degs hotter as long as it runs stable at the clocks i have it set for. usually also cheaper just to spend the extra $50-60 and buy a slightly faster stock card.
     
  18. faugusztin

    faugusztin I *am* the guy with two left hands

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    EVERY cooler has a terrible HD5870 VRM cooling unless you use VRM-R3/R4/R5. That is a fact.
     
  19. MiNiMaL_FuSS

    MiNiMaL_FuSS ƬӇЄƦЄ ƁЄ ƇƠƜƧ ӇЄƦЄ.

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    Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 - did you keep the metal plate on the graphics card?

    I use one with a 4890, kept the big red metal plate on and simply put the cooler over the top, very easy to install no problems at all.

    Oh and the big bonus is you can attach any old 120mm fan to it, no need to buy the turbo thingi....i infact have 2 120mm fans attached :)
     
  20. Farfalho

    Farfalho Minimodder

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    Only 3 expansion slots?? That seem's a lot since only one takes up four and others also three. Come on, there must be a typo in there. I reckon with the VRM Heatsink is possible of 3 expansion slots but only with the Trad2 bolted on how many?
     
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