Thermal Performance

Radeon X800 GTO2 256MB as an X850 XT PE (540/1240MHz)

First, you can take a look at the Zalman VF900-Cu LED installed on the Radeon X800 GTO2:

The new cooler from Zalman is almost the same height with the card, so it can blow at all the elements near the GPU as well as at all the memory chips.

And here are the results:

The difference between the coolers seems to be negligible at first sight: no bigger than 10.6°C between the worst and the best result. But take a look at the performance of the Zalman VF900-Cu LED in the silent mode: the new cooler on heat pipes is as effective at the minimum fan speed as the previous model VF700-Cu is at the maximum speed! This is a great success considering that the coolers are tested on a graphics card with moderate heat dissipation. If you increase the fan speed of the VF900-Cu to the quiet 1980rpm, you’ll reduce the GPU temperature by 2°C more. Increasing the fan speed to the maximum doesn’t bring any improvements in the cooling efficiency.

Perhaps the low heat dissipation of the unblocked and overclocked Radeon X800 GTO2 prevents the Zalman VF900-Cu LED from showing its full potential? Let’s check it out on a Radeon X1900 XTX.