KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid is undoubtedly a niche product targeting a select audience of enthusiast users. The high asking price is certainly going to be prohibitive, focusing on the wealthy user base who own a high end, expensive graphics card.
We tested today when paired up with Nvidia's high end GTX680 and we are certainly impressed with the results. When compared directly against the reference cooler, the Accelero Hybrid drops load temperatures by a whopping 30c-33c. In real world terms, the Accelero Hybrid gaming load temperature is close to the idle temperature of the reference cooler. This is about as good as you could expect from any ‘all in one' cooling solution.
The audio performance is also noteworthy, with most of the noise originating from the small 80mm fan which is installed into the graphics module. It thankfully has been optimised with a passively configured profile and when gaming it was barely audible. In regards to performance there is little to fault.
The installation phase is certainly not aimed at the inexperienced user, you will need a lot of patience as the process will take a couple of hours from start to finish. If you are familiar with a graphics card layout and construction, then it certainly helps, especially when adhering the heatsinks to VRM's and memory chips.
The biggest factor to take into consideration will be the pricing. The Accelero Hybrid retails for $179.90 / €143.92 and can be bought directly from the ARCTIC store. This will cost more than a low end solution, and would be difficult to justify installing on a sub £300 graphics card. We could in all honestly only recommend the Accelero Hybrid to the high end enthusiast audience, those people who own a GTX680/670 or high end AMD solution.
If you are unwilling to buy a dedicated watercooling kit for your new system then the Accelero Hybrid is currently the best solution you can buy for your graphics card.
Pros:
- 30c better than the GTX680 reference cooler.
- quiet.
- well built.
Cons:
- Expensive.
- Not suitable for inexperienced users.
Kitguru says: Fantastic performance for a no compromises system build.
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!