X-bit labs

Two New Coolers for Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX or Minus 20 Degrees for the Reference (page 9)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 03/04/2008 | 04:44 PM ]

Cooling Efficiency and Acoustic Performance

Cooling Efficiency

The cooling efficiency diagram shows the coolers lined up in a descending order for the graphics processor temperature (GPU Temp) and ambient temperature (Ambient Temp) under maximum workload. Here are the results:

The results speak for themselves. Despite our hopes, ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 in its quietest operational mode failed to outperform the reference GeForce 8800 GTX cooling system. However, at the maximum rotation speed of its fan the ZEROtherm cooler proves more efficient than the reference solution although it also generates more noise. The manufacturer’s recommended “overclocker” mode when the cooler is working without the plastic casing, didn’t provide the desired effect. It would be more correct to say that there was simply no effect whatsoever compared with the standard Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 operational mode. We didn’t check out the cooler performance in passive mode for understandable reasons.

However the second testing participant, Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 mega-cooler looked simply amazing. Although we think it would be silly to expect anything less from a cooling solution of that size. In terms of efficiency this cooler can be compared with Thermalright HR-03 Plus when running a very quiet although not completely silent operational mode. Note that Thermalright cooler is running with a 120mm fan instead of a 92mm one and takes much more room inside a system case than Accelero Xtreme 8800 and even costs more even without the price of a fan taken into account. The advantages of the new Arctic Cooling solution are indisputable. If the provided cooling efficiency is still not enough for your needs, just speed up the fans of Accelero Xtreme 8800 and the today’s most powerful graphics card will drop to pretty moderate thermal mode and the overall thermal advantage for the GPU under maximum workload will hit 21ºC over the GeForce 8800 GTX reference cooling system. However, there is still one problem here: all warm air stays inside the system case.

Acoustic Performance

Now let’s check out the results of our noise measurements:

I just wanted to point out that all three testing participants generate very little noise. The only exceptions are the fan of the reference cooler at maximum rotation speed of 2900RPM and a 92mm fan of ZEROtherm Hurricane HC92 Cu 8800 at its maximum speed of 3120RPM. All other cooling systems are either extremely close to the subjective comfort line or below it.