Accelero X2, Zalman VF700-Cu, and VF900-Cu shootout

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Blade_Runner

Blade_Runner

Forerunner
Graphics Cooler Roundup


Stock coolers aren’t always designed for maximum performance but rather designed for a good medium of price/performance to keep costs down. This is where third party cooling manufacturers come in. Cooler manufacturers such as Arctic Cooling and Zalman have become quite known for their third party graphics coolers in terms of noise and performance. Today we’ll be comparing graphics coolers from both manufacturers. Enter the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2, Zalman VF700-Cu, and VF900-Cu.

Conclusion:
Zalman’s VF900-Cu is the clear winner in this roundup. It offers the best performance and lowest noise levels out of the three coolers. The efficiency of Zalman’s heat pipes and independent GPU/memory cooling keeps the GPU running at a brisk 55-57 degrees C—over 10 degrees C cooler than the nearest quieter than stock cooler.

Second place also goes to Zalman with their VF700-Cu. In its silent mode it is able to deliver lower temperatures and less noise than ATI’s stock cooler. If performance is what you seek the VF700-Cu in its performance mode will drop the temps an additional 11 degrees C, although noise is increased 10 decibels.

We were most disappointed in the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2. After having good experiences with the existing VGA Silencer coolers the Accelero X2 just doesn’t live up to its predecessor. Although it is quiet its performance is nowhere near as good as the Zalman VF900-Cu and comparable to the VF700-Cu but at $2-3 more. There’s also the use of sticky thermal pads which are too sticky and bounds the cooler to the card—which gets really annoying when you try to remove it.
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LOL the morons left the fan on the X2 at default speed and expected it to outperform the zalmans at max speed. A fair comparison would be with the fan spinning at max all the time. Big morons :P.
 
Hm... interesting. The vf-900Cu is the best no doubt but I'm surprised that arctic's new cooler is worse than the silencers cos the silencers and the vf-700cu were more or less the same performance. They should have thrown a thermalright V1-Ultra into the mix as well.
 
The stock cooling solution of the 7900GTX's are pretty good... I dont think you need a better solution :P...
 
The Zalman fan is pretty good with respect to both airflow and very low noise levels.

if cost is no bar then vf 900-cu is a good cooler (since it is indicated that the price would be about $50 + $5 shipping (local at the place of purchase) the cost would come to about Rs. 2750 /- + add some misc costs, the cost would be around 3K.....the dealer's here (if any) would price it around 3.5K minimum ....)

The high cost of this does not justify the replacement of the stock x19XX coolers which are quite decent in performance.
 
Dj... Any ideas on lowering down the fan noise on the X1900XT stock coolers... I am going deaf hearing it :P...
 
@ switch,
You cannot have your cake and eat it too ....;)

To reduce the noise you will have to sacrifice performance by controlling the speed to the lowest levels in catalyst control centre or mod the h/s by changing the stock fan. for this you will have to get rid of that beautiful babe ;) that is on the h/s since you will have to get rid of that aluminium cover.... then install a quiet 92 mm fan over the copper heat sink that is attached to the core.

TIP: it is equally important to keep the VR Transistors / Coils cool too. they are underneath that smaller red h/s.
The temps of this determine their efficiency and it is these which convert and provide the power to the gpu.
 
Well... I dont mind looseing on performance a bit as of now as no real games need that much Power... Running it silent is more important for me... Also the Saphaire babe is useless... I kindda removed the Sticker on the HSF to discover the very Hot Ruby there :P
 
are you really bugged by fan running at defauly 27%???

seriously, with case open its not much noise, with case closed it will be even less. During gaming its still not lod enough to be heard on the background noise.
 
if u consider noise i think my GTX fan is ultra quite ..... even when running at (in auto mode it is at 30% at no load and when load 45-50%) 90% it makes no noise ..... at 100% all i can hear is little hissing sound .....

i am running it @ 50 no load and 90% on load .... and now i am happy with the performance ..... idle temps are 45 and load are max 70 ...... and its too hot here ... :(
 
Among today's high-end cards, the eVGA 7900GTX superclocked has one helluva cooling solution and it's not very noisy either :)
 
RiO said:
Among today's high-end cards, the eVGA 7900GTX superclocked has one helluva cooling solution and it's not very noisy either :)
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all 7900 GTX's have the same cooler in different colours.
 
Going OT here... Yes the card are the same but clocks arent... And thats the thing cause you will not find a normal card reaching higher clocks easily... Vendors are pretesting the cards and selling them in accordance to what they can do(Stock and Factory Overclocked)... So even if everything else is same the speeds are not and that seriously sucks...
 
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