Are 3rd party VGA coolers worth the price?

I

Itchyeyes

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Jun 26, 2007
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While I've been very tempted to pick up one of the new 4870's, I'm thinking about seeing if I can eek a bit more performance out of my existing card for the time being instead. Would it be worth it to pick up a 3rd party cooler, or am I better off saving my money for an upgrade? Also, what's a good cooler for an 8800GTS (G80)?
 
always been a fan of the artic cooling stuff, good for the price and quiet

just about any aftermarket cooler seems to be better than stock
 
The Arctic Cooling S1 Rev 2 blew me away with how good it's done over my stock cooler on 8800GT. I was REAL skeptical especially b/c its passive but here's my readings

Stock cooler - Idle - 50c Load - 80c

S1rev2 - Idle - 40c Load 48c


I have the BFG OC version and it's know to be a cooker.


Only $26 + ship at newegg.
 
The question really depends on what you're doing.

If you're just going to run stock, the only reason for a 3rd party one would be noise.

If you're overclocking, then it depends on what the stock cooler is and whether or not heat is holding you back.

I've seen 3rd party solutions, and my own homebrew ones really help with temps, but I've also seen no difference in overclocking on some cards.
 
most nVidia stock coolers run ok at stock speeds. Noise wise, they're virtually silent. I have seen numbers jump all the way to around 75-79c under load with the stock air cooler. Which is too high for my liking even for a GPU so I went water. That's both with the (G80) and the (G92).
 
As many have said the S1 is a great cooler.

Added benefit is that it fits the 4870s too.
 
Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. It looks as though the S1 won't fit my G80 card though, so I've ordered this one instead.
 
Itchyeyes said:
Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. It looks as though the S1 won't fit my G80 card though, so I've ordered this one instead.
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I was considering the DuoOrb when I had my 88GTS 320MB and even still when I was looking to replace the stock cooler on my 88GT but when I heard of the S1 I couldn't pass it up.

Th DuoOrb is a good choice for the G80's. ;)
 
most cards will experience great temps by just replacing the thermal paste with optimal stuff: artic silver or thermal grease.

for temps on par with acellero S1 it is enough to remove the plastic cover of the card and pu 2 92/120mm fans: my 8800gts 320mb, my x1950PRO and my 8800gt 512mb all reached temps only 3 degress above my acellero S1+ 2 120mm fans temps.

Improve thermal contact and airflow and any stock fan will hold the temps down!
 
geok1ng said:
most cards will experience great temps by just replacing the thermal paste with optimal stuff: artic silver or thermal grease.

for temps on par with acellero S1 it is enough to remove the plastic cover of the card and pu 2 92/120mm fans: my 8800gts 320mb, my x1950PRO and my 8800gt 512mb all reached temps only 3 degress above my acellero S1+ 2 120mm fans temps.

Improve thermal contact and airflow and any stock fan will hold the temps down!
Click to expand...

Sorry, could you clarify that? Are you saying that simply by removing the plastic cover of the stock cooler you reached temps 3 degrees above what the accelero S1 plus fans obtained?
 
Just bought a an Accelero S1 rev.2 to replace the Zalman that came with my Gigabyte 8800GT and it dropped my temp by 7-9 degree C. And thats without any fan attached to it.
 
Cheffy said:
Sorry, could you clarify that? Are you saying that simply by removing the plastic cover of the stock cooler you reached temps 3 degrees above what the accelero S1 plus fans obtained?
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My translator says that he meant take off the plastic cover and put two 92/120 mm fans next to each other to blow on the whole heatsink surface.
 
superkdogg said:
My translator says that he meant take off the plastic cover and put two 92/120 mm fans next to each other to blow on the whole heatsink surface.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that was confusing for some reason.

I might just buy the turbo module for the Accelero and try removing the cooler cover and mounting them against the card somehow. The turbo module with the 2x120 mm fans is pretty cheap. Not sure how fast they move though.
 
Cheffy said:
Thanks, that was confusing for some reason.

I might just buy the turbo module for the Accelero and try removing the cooler cover and mounting them against the card somehow. The turbo module with the 2x120 mm fans is pretty cheap. Not sure how fast they move though.
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i think the accelero turbo module looks to be 2x80...unless i missed something, again :rolleyes:
 
u might as well add a 120mm instead of the turbo module...
1. it'd be cheaper
2. probably moves more air (depending)

unless u think its ugly
 
Itchyeyes said:
While I've been very tempted to pick up one of the new 4870's, I'm thinking about seeing if I can eek a bit more performance out of my existing card for the time being instead. Would it be worth it to pick up a 3rd party cooler, or am I better off saving my money for an upgrade? Also, what's a good cooler for an 8800GTS (G80)?
Click to expand...

no and here's why (quoted from my post in another thread):

if youre looking to overclock, youll most likely be limited by voltage before temperature. 80C idle and 100C load is hot compared to a CPU and H20, but this isnt a CPU nor water. these chips get hot, are expected to get hot, and are designed to get this hot. im an avid overclocker. i OCed my 9500pro, my 9800XT, my x700pro, x1800XT, 8800GT, 9800GTX, and soon my GTX260. today's cards, however, almost always hit the voltage wall before the temperature wall. this is why volt modding has become almost a necessity for advanced GFX card OCing whereas before it was an extreme (because temps were the limiting factor)

if youre so concerned about temperature, i'd recommend removing the stock heatsink and then reseating it with some aftermarket performance thermal paste and/or tape for the memory. also use rivatuner/CCC/etc to raise the default fan speed. i know most current nvidia cards come with 28% idle fan speed. in my averagely loud/quiet system i cant hear the difference b/w 28% and 69%, so 69 is the new idle fan speed. temps dropped 10 C on my 9800GTX after this and reseating with ASC. on my 8800GT, the fan speed bump and reseat dropped temps 15 C idle and the reseat dropped load 12 C.

thats about the same as a $30-50 aftermarket cooler, is it not? even if the accelero or HR03 would double the cooling drop vs my method, i can almost guarantee it wont increase the max stable overclock. look around the web at people's overclocked 9800GTXs and youll find those with stock coolers and those with aftermarket coolers getting almost exactly the same max OC (with 3dmark Vantage skipping the 'Loop' option it's hard to really 24/7 stress test gfx cards. 3dmark06 has been seriously failing to find stability for me in the newer DX10 cards). look at other recent cards like 8800GT, 9800GX2, GTX280, and 4800 series and youll find the same results as the 9800GTX. aftermarket coolers just arent increasing the overclock of today's cards because theyre no longer temperature limited.

also, if youre gonna spend $60 for an HR-03 + fan, why not spend $100 and get a better card (if applicable)?

not against people putting money into our beloved OC industry, but a different perspective on things is often a good idea :cool:

if i were absolutely buying a cooler, its hard to go wrong with the accelero for the price.

obviously this doesnt apply if you're looking for an extremely quiet cooler for a silent PC which is a whole other boat.
 
to be more specific to your situation, its not worth putting any money into your aged G80 even if you could re-use the cooler on a newer 4800 series and GTX series card when you do upgrade.
 
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