Superb aftermarket cooler at a good price, but make sure you have a fan controller!
review by
$ilent
This is a review for the Gelid Icy Vision rev2 GPU Cooler linked here -
http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=1&cid=17&id=52
I bought this GPU cooler in September 13' for my KFA2 GTX 670 graphics card, which is built on a gtx 680 PCB.
The cooler was well packaged, and included the gpu cooler with 2x 92mm fans, numerous small and larger VRM and chipset heatsinks, a 4 pin fan header which is attached to a 3 pin fan header/molex connector, gpu core mounting bracket, numerous different sized screws.
The unit itself is fairly simple to install, and involves applying sticky tape to each RAM chip and VRM module on the PCB. Then you need to apply the aluminium heatsinks that are included. There are 3 different sized heatsinks included, a tall 2x1 heatsink (VRM), low profile 2x2 heatsink (RAM), and a 1x2 bridge shaped heatsink (VRM). The low profile heatsink is applied first and is used on the memory chips that surround the gpu core. Then you apply the taller and bridge shaped heatsinks to the VRM modules on on the PCB. I found it was easiest cutting out the shape of the heatsink and then applying the double sided stick tape to the aluminium heatsink, peeling off the other side and then sticking this down onto the pcb, as apposed to sticking to the pcb first then trying to remove the top side of the tape.
Once all the heatsinks are attached (with both sides of the sticky tape removed first!), you need to apply the mounting bracket to the gelid icy vision copper heatplate, which is secured with 4 screws and a special nut that has an opening in the top. Then you apply this to the PCB and secure the cooler with more screws at the rear of the pcb. Then apply some thermal paste and the cooler is ready to be installed.
The first thing that hits you once this cooler is installed and working is how loud the fans are. Unfortunately the fans do not run at anything other than 100% speed regardless of whether they are plugged into your motherboard or into the 4 pin fan header on your graphics card. I resorted to using an old scythe fan controller and plugged the 4 pin fan header into the included 4 pin to 3 pin cable, and then plugged that into my fan controller. At 1500RPM (stock fan speed is over 2000RPM), these fans are inaudible...even with my caseless setup. The temperature difference between loud fans at 2000RPM and silent fans at 1500RPM is literally 2C, which just shows how good this cooler is.
My temperature on the stock gtx 670 was around 63C at full load with the stock fan at 65%, which was too loud in my opinion.
With this new cooler the gpu now maxes out a 48C and the fans are inaudible.
If your looking for a cheap aftermarket cooler, and have a compatible graphics card, I highly recommend this cooler. Just make sure you have a fan controller to slow the stock fans down!
Note: From the Gelid website product description, this gpu cooler is compatible with the following graphics cards:
AMD?: HD4850, HD4870, HD4890, HD5830, HD5850, HD5870, HD6850, HD6870, HD6950*, HD6970*, HD7850 and 7870
Nvidia?: 9800GT, 9800GTX, GTS250, GTX260, 275, 280, 285, GTS450, GTX 460, GTX465, GTX470, GTX480, GTX550TI, GTX560TI, GTX570, GTX580, Quadro 4000, GTX680, GTX Titan, GTX770 (by using stand-off) and GTX 780
Thanks for reading!
Pros | Cons |
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Relaitvely cheap, fairly simple instructions, excellent cooling ability | Included heatsinks can be a pain to install, weight can make gpu overhang, loud fans at stock speed |
Ratings