System and testing methodology

We tested the cooler on the following system, mounted on a bench, with a temperature of about 25 °C:

We chose to use the HD 4870 video card that, though quite old, can stress the heatsink properly, thanks to its TDP of about 160W.

We measured the temperatures at idle and full load with the RivaTuner software. The temperature at full load were measured after 15 minutes of stress with Furmark, benchmark known for its ability to heavily stress the video card, far more than any video game. We also measured the temperature of the VRM with a digital thermometer with probe.

The temperatures were compared with those of the Powercolor HD4870 PCS+ stock heatsink, an OEM cooler produced by Zerotherm, with the sink Icy Vision Rev 2.0, produced by Gelid Solutions, with the Xigmatek Bifrost and the Spire Slimod II.

As for the stock heatsink, the measurements were performed with fan speed set to minimum (800 rpm) and maximum speed (2000 RPM), using the supplied potentiometer. For the three other coolers we have instead detected temperatures with fan at full speed, or by using a 7V adapter.