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We firstly tested with the reference cooler installed on the GTX680, recording the results to use as the all important baseline. The card was then disassembled and the Accelero Hybrid installed. The room environment was maintained at 24c throughout all the tests.
Firstly we checked temperatures after booting the system and letting it idle at the desktop for 15 minutes.
The ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid drops the temperature by 8c when compared against the reference Nvidia GTX680 cooler. Impressive results.
Next, we test with Furmark, using the intensive stress test for a solid 15 minutes, then taking a snapshot of the results.
For ‘real world’ gaming results, we let the card idle for 15 minutes then play Max Payne 3 for an hour, recording the maximum temperature during the playing session.
Some incredible results with the Accelero Hybrid cooler installed. The gaming load and synthetic load drop by 30c and 33c respectively. We have never seen a GTX680 run at 42c when gaming … these are normally close to the idle temperature results!
The reference cooler took over 3 minutes to return to idle after being primed with Furmark for 15 minutes. By comparison, the Accelero Hybrid dropped to idle in the space of 11 seconds.
The Accelero Hybrid is much quieter than the reference cooler, almost silent, even when under Furmark load. The small 80mm fan does spin up a little when under synthetic load to deliver a high level of airflow over the VRM and memory heatsinks which produces most of the noise recorded.
Maximum noise levels we recorded were 30.8 dBa, which is barely audible, and certainly not when paired up with several enthusiast grade chassis fans.
Thats a great piece of engineering from ARCTIC. quite expensive, my last video card cost that.
I was wondering when these would come out for GPU’s. Looks like a decent bit of kit. For a little more money however, I’d go for an EK H30 Supreme 240 and an EK 680 block for even better performance and only £20 more.
You should’ve done some overclocking tests.
that was the plan, however it ended up rather dull as the overclocking headroom was limited to the gpu core on this specific card, not the cooler. And the temperature variable between reference and hybrid didn’t change. (still 30c+)
So the signature 2 by evga which is a dual fan solution stock clocked @ Core Clock: 1097MHz, Boost Clock: 1163MHz only costs $519 is a better choice in my opinion.
Hi Godrilla. absolutely, but we wanted a reference card with reference cooler this time. We used an ASUS GTX680 Direct CU II TOP for the last Accelero review and a few readers said that people aren’t likely to buy a overclocked card with enhanced cooler which costs extra, just to remove the cooler and use a third party cooling system like this.
This time we opted for a basic GTX680 to note the possible improvements from the Accelero Hybrid.
SLI ? Is this a 2 or 3 Slot sollution ?
Sli would he possible if your case can handle the two radiator positions.
Nice review, thanks guys. A very steep price though, especially when you can easily mod a CPU closed-loop cooler such as the Kuhler 620 onto a card. Much cheaper, at about £45.
Good rig, but pricey. I will look for cheaper item instead.
Will this cooler work with a GTX 680 SC with a backplate on it or will the backplate interfere with it?
Question:
Will This Work On ASUS 680 OC? [DC2O]
Some users say that Asus TOP & OC models cant use the hybrid.
Is this true?
Any clue if this would work to make a ASUS Direct CUII 2GB triple slot card fit in the two available slots on the Bitfenix Prodigy? I really want to use this cooler if it will fit in the two two slots available but I can’t seem to find any answers if there’s any overhang into a third slot. Seeing as the Prodigy doesn’t have a third slot available to overhang into this would be a potential issue. If it stays within the two slots available I’ll probably buy it for my GPU even if i have to mod the heat sinks a bit to make them fit. If someone could answer back that’d be awesome!