Thermal Results

The primary consideration of course for a universal gpu waterblock is of course how well it cools the GPU core. Here we compare the core cooling ability of each universal block vs the Swiftech full cover waterblock which was the best of the Full cover blocks:

As can be seen the Alphacool block does extremely well. This should be hoped for given how restrictive it is.  In the “middle” we see the Watercool GPU-X, EK Thermosphere and XSPC Raystorm with similar performance.  The EK Supremacy VGA performs similar with the exception of low flow.  This behavior we have seen before in the Titan full cover block roundup.  The two blocks bringing up the rear are the Koolance GPU-220 and the Ibercool 4-way.  Ibercool markets their block as a low cost alternative, so being a few degrees behind is not a surprise.  On the other hand Koolance have done very well in our previous tests – particularly with their CPU-380 block so we expected more from them.  The performance however is likely because the block was not tightened as much as possible and therefore due to a poor mount than necessarily the block’s ability to cool.  It was not tightened because there were no springs in the mount mechanism and over tightening GPU blocks can cause a cracked die.

Now some of the universal blocks also have the ability to cool more than simply the core.  Both Alphacool and Heatkiller offer the ability to cool VRMs.  For this test we compared the data vs the AquaComputer full cover block with active backplate – which was very clearly the best in our full cover block roundup.  We also included the Swiftech full cover block which tested the worst in the full cover VRM results. We also tried Arctic’s passive VRM heatsink that requires a lot of airflow to be at all competitive with a water block:

As can be seen all of these options fit in between the best and worst of the full cover blocks. If you want good VRM and VRAM cooling then a good full cover water block is still the best solution.  Having said the Watercool Micro SW-X put out a very good performance and if we compare to the full cover block data then it is likely as good as any other waterblock without a backplate.  This is to be praised.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Is there any reason why the Micro SW-X can not be used in combination with any other universal cooler? My choice would be the EK Supremacy VGA (mostly because it’s so tiny and should allow the use of VGA cooling pads compared to some other bigger models) with the Micro SW-X in series.

  2. Also, how where did you get that T-shaped VRAM – VRM heatsink? http://abload.de/img/mxlcv7010sd7.jpg Why is it T-shaped? Are the surface mount components beside the VRM higher than the VRM itself? Same problem like with the GPU – VRM? I am a bit worried about the VRAM – VRM temperature which has no temperature sensor.

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