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If you are lucky enough to have upgraded recently to the Nvidia GTX680 graphics card then today's review product will certainly have grabbed your attention.
The ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme III is a high end product targeting the wealthy enthusiast audience who want to enhance their gaming experience by improving cooling potential and reducing noise emissions.
ARCTIC claim massive improvements over a reference cooled GTX680 and we didn't take it easy on the product today, opting to pit it against a high end, overclocked card supplied with a metal, dual fan, triple slot cooling solution. Lets just reiterate, the Direct CU II Top cooler is no slouch.
It would be fair to say that the ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme III is a significantly improved solution, dropping temperatures by a whopping 15c and reducing noise emissions a little further. The fact that it is only a dual slot cooler, and not triple slot is another added bonus. If you are wealthy enough to be able to afford two GTX680's, then this could resolve a major SLI installation problem.
The ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme III is expensive, available direct from the company store for $119.95 (96 euros). If you are confident with your hands and have a reasonable amount of system building experience (and cash) then this is a heck of an upgrade, not only over a reference cooled card, but also the best ‘pre-modified' cards available on the net.
Just be sure to check that your GTX680 has both power connectors ‘flat' to the PCB, and not stacked as with the reference Nvidia model.
You can buy direct from the ARCTIC store, over here.
Pros:
- Amazing, class leading performance.
- outperformed the triple slot Asus DirectCU II TOP cooler.
- very low noise levels.
- will fit on a wide array of cards from AMD and Nvidia.
- only dual slot.
- everything is included in the box.
- instructions are clear.
Cons:
- newbies need not apply. requires an experienced, confident user.
- Time consuming installation.
- won't work with some GTX680's.
- will likely overhang the PCB, adding length inside a case.
- if your card has a modified PCB layout, be prepared to think ‘outside the box'.
- pricy.
Kitguru says: If you want to upgrade your cooling performance and have the skill required, then we can recommend this as a class leading air cooler for the GTX680.
that is quite incredible when you look at the temperature results, its running cooler than my 6750 in my media center. only downside is the cost, about the same price as my video card just for the cooler…….
Will there be per-installed cards released, do you know?
I don’t want to take chances by spoiling a 680 >.<
Unless a manufacturer works with arctic to release a model with the cooler installed, no.
Kfa2 did it before with another model however, maybe they will….
Wow that’s most impressive considering the DirectCU II is already a fairly quiet and cool cooler to begin with. I can’t see a lot of people paying the premium for the Top model just to remove that cooler but for review purposes it sure does show how awesome the Accelero Xtreme cooler is.
Awesome review!! Lov this beast Cooler!
Need Video on this one!
Thanks for COOL review kitguru!
Hey guys, i recently bougt this cooler. See my videon demonstration
http://youtu.be/EhuGXdEUX9g
In your review you didn’t explain why you removed the backplated and the support bracket. Couldn’t the Accelero Xtreme still be installed with them on?
I have a thing for gpu coolers. Currently have a gtx 570 with a zalman vf3000f, which maxes out at 47 degrees. Also have an inno3d ichill 660 ti with a very similar cooler and also 47 degrees max, maybe a bit lower.
So if your looking for a card with cooling similar to the arctic xtreme III but preinstalled, look at the inno3d ichill series, they have a 670 and 680 model also.
which means “only two slot” ?
with the Accelero it also occupies three slots
Wow thank you for this great tutorial 🙂 I changed the Asus Direct Cu II cooler whit Success trough this 🙂