GPU Fans Reviewed!

[Shadow703793]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2010/05/19/graphics-card-coolers-investigated/7

Enjoy.

From the results of our testing, it’s clear that third-party graphics card coolers are somewhat of a mixed bag and it's very hard to get yourself a good buy.

One sweeping generalisation we can make is that none of the coolers worth buying were particularly easy to fit. The coolers we tested ranged from the fiddly to the downright destructive - Arctic Cooling in particular is responsible for making several HSFs that are as finger shredding as those wall-of-notes Scandinavian metal songs that plague the latter levels of Guitar Hero games.

Think before taking your graphics card to bits; the stock HSF is a better option than many third-party models. As such, cooler manufacturers of the world, take note - there's a big gap in the market for a sensibly priced, easy to fit cooler that outperforms the Nvidia and ATI stock coolers. In the meantime, if you do want to replace your graphics card's cooler, tread carefully.

 

[shadow187]

Interesting.

That last paragraph seems to only apply to the GTX280; the 5870 receives more of a benefit.

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Yup. However, what I really want to see are some GTX4xx coolers :lol:

 

[JackNaylorPE]

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=448&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=5

So we have a stunning looking VGA cooler that really performs well but that isn't all. The ProlimaTech MK-13 is a real tough cookie, a lot of aftermarket coolers have flimsy fins but that isn't the case here, you would actually have to put some effort in to bend the fins on this bad boy - not that you would want to of course, but you have the reassurance that you can handle it knowing that you won't damage it easily.

The MK-13 does what its designed to do and does it very well, the installation was simple if not just a little time consuming,

 

[AMW1011]

The problem with these universal coolers is that they rarely cool the VRM, like the MK-13. This means the GPU is extremely cool, but your VRM is going to get real hot real quick and likely cause damage.

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Exactly. That's why I stopped recommending Universal GPU blocks for the most part and started recommending full cover blocks.