ZEROtherm GX815 Gamer Edition Vga Cooler

Specifications:

Testing:

To test out the capabilities of this VGA heatsink, we will compare it to one of the better GPU cooling solutions for the type of video card being used (in this case a Built by ATI X1900XT). The testing I will use is to loop 3dMark06 for 3 runs and then compare idle and load temperatures, as well as case temperature since both of these GPU coolers exhaust the air into the case rather than out the back panel. To measure GPU temperature, I will use ATI Tool. All fan speeds for the AcceleroX2 will be controlled by ATI's Catalyst software. The GX815 includes its own onboard thermal sensor and will increase fan speed based on its measurements. To check case temperature, I will use my Kestral 4100 Airflow tracker in lieu of the onboard monitoring software included with the motherboard. This way I will have a real world case temperature rather than a calculation from the onboard monitor. All measurements will be in degrees Celsius. The testbed system is as follows.

Testing Setup

• Processor: Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo 390x9
• Motherboard: Abit AW9D-Max
  
• Ram: Buffalo Firestix FSX800D2C 4-4-4-12
• Video Card: ATI X1900XT
  
• Power Supply: OCZ 700 watt GameXstream
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 160GB
  
• Optical Drive: Samsung DVD-DL writer
• Operating System: Windows XP SP2

Lower is Better

Lower is Better

Lower is Better

It looks as though the ZEROtherm GX815 has proved its worth as a GPU cooling solution. With the drop in temperatures across the board, it has soundly beaten one of the better cooling solutions on the market. The drop in case temperature was something I was not expecting. After checking on the vent of the card, it actually had air blowing out of it instead of just recirculating the hot air back into the case.