Cooling Efficiency and Acoustic Performance

Acoustics

First let’s check out the acoustic readings taken off both cooling solutions in their entire supported range with 5% increment:

The promised 6x advantage over the reference cooler is certainly not here, despite Arctic Cooling’s claims, but the difference is very dramatic anyway!

Accelero XTREME 4870X2 fans work very quietly up until 1100 RPM and after that they generate what I would call moderate noise. The reference Radeon HD 4870 X2 cooler gets noisy at about 30-35% speed and after 35% mark its noise gradually transforms into loud roar. I am not sure what this cooler was initially developed for, but definitely not for home users. Undisputed victory of the Arctic Cooling solution.