When it comes to high-end air-cooled VGA
coolers the six tested here today are amongst the best.
Although the pre-overclocked Gigabyte graphics card does
feature a reasonably large single slot heatsink with a
decent fan, the six after-market coolers all proved that
there was room for improvement. It should also be noted that
while all six coolers did offer better performance, they
were also much quieter. Clearly the most powerful option
were the Thermalright V-1 coolers, which in this roundup
were configured with the standard 80mm fan only.
This leaves even more room for
improvement as both the V-1 and V-1 Ultra can easily
accommodate for two 80mm fans. This will not only help
improve performance, but will also allow them to operate at
a significantly lower volume. The V-1 series is certainly
aimed at the enthusiast crowd, offering nothing more than
raw performance. There are no stickers, flashy designs of
LEDs found on Thermalright products and these V-1 coolers
are no exception. While some may consider their appearance
ugly, I believe they look quite artistic in a more technical
sense.
The Zalman coolers have become very
popular thanks to their unique appearances, rather than
their quiet operating volume and impressive performance.
Nevertheless, the Zalman VF700-Cu and VF900-Cu have evolved
into very competitive products. Although they cannot match
the Thermalright products performance wise, they are much
cheaper to purchase and easier to install. Furthermore, both
VGA coolers look very impressive and can be suited to both
ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards.
Finally, the Arctic-Cooling products are
the pioneers of high-end VGA coolers and are easily the most
widely used. Graphics card manufacturers such as HIS feature
Arctic-Cooling products on many of their VGA products. The
NV5 Silencer Rev.3 is a proven solution and has been a
popular choice amongst consumers and manufacturers.
Surprisingly, the NV5 Silencer is the only cooler that uses
an exhaust like design, removing the hot air from the
computer case all together.
This is more surprising as
Arctic-Cooling ditched this design when they created the
impressive looking Accelero X1. However, the Accelero X1 is
more than just an impressive looking cooler. While it
operates at near silence it is capable of keeping a GeForce
7800 GTX cool, even under load. The Accelero X1 is the very
reason why I would decide against purchasing a Zalman
cooler. The Accelero X1 is also the easiest VGA cooler to
install in this roundup and is available at a very
reasonable price.
Overall, if you are seeking the ultimate
performing air-cooled heatsink then the Thermalright V-1
Ultra is a must have product. The only negative aspects of
this product include the slightly technical installation
process and the price tag. Other than that the V-1 Ultra is
hard to beat offering extreme performance with flexible fan
configurations. The Zalman coolers look impressive, though I
feel they fall short when it comes to delivering. The
Accelero X1 is easily the most well balanced solution
offering a bit of everything at a very competitive price.
