The graphics card cooling performance | Noise levels
The graphics card cooling performance | Noise levels
So for our test setup we created a dedicated liquid cooling loop for the GeForce GTX 480. We used a Black Ice dual 120mm radiator with two low RPM fans. We fire up the PC and check the idle temperatures and after a while we start to stress the GPU massively.
| Graphics card (reference) | TEMP C |
| GeForce GT 240 512MB | 47 |
| GTX 480 LCS Danger Den | 49 |
| GTX 480 LCS Inno3D iChill | 57 |
| Radeon HD 5570 1024MB | 60 |
| HIS 5850 iCooler Turbo | 61 |
| GBT R5870 SOC | 68 |
| Radeon HD 5670 512MB | 70 |
| GeForce GTS 250 1GB | 72 |
| Radeon HD 5750 1024MB | 73 |
| Radeon HD 5870 1024MB | 75 |
| Radeon HD 5850 1024MB | 77 |
| Radeon HD 5830 1024MB | 78 |
| GeForce GTX 275 896MB | 82 |
| Radeon HD 5970 2048MB | 83 |
| GeForce GTX 285 | 83 |
| GeForce GTX 260 SP216 | 84 |
| GeForce GTX 470 | 94 |
| GeForce GTX 480 new bios | 90 |
| GeForce GTX 480 | 95 |
Now we left the PC IDLING for roughly an hour, you an idle temperature of 31 Degrees C is what we achieve.
Our stress test is Furmark, which is the worst thing that can happen to your graphics card. We left Furmark running for another half an hour, that way we heat up the coolant quite a bit. We ended at a peak temperature of 57 Degrees C and remember that was after half an hour 100% stress testing on the GPU.
This very same videocard with the default reference cooler would get to 90~95 degrees C. Obviously I have to note that results can and will vary with different liquid-cooling setups.
We used nothing special BUT the loop is dedicated for the GPU. If you add a second GPU or CPU the dynamics can differ as the coolant could be warmer. The radiator is very important. My recommendation is that you get at least a dual 120mm radiator and preferable a triple 120mm radiator if you want to connect more components to the liquid cooling loop.
Compared to the Danger Den block we recently tested (on the same LCS loop) this block definitely is performing less with a 8 Degree Difference, none the less these still are rock solid temperatures to have a GTX 480 running at.
Noise Levels
We left out the noise levels snippet for this review, liquid cooling is as loud as your LCS setup really is. It can be extraordinary silent, but other choose for high RPM on the radiator fans which can be noisy as well. Per definition, the card with a cooling block .. does not make any sound. The fans spinning over your radiator however will.
