Originally posted by: Operandi
That is far from the most important aspect of the cooler. While the AC cooler's venting helps its benefits are relatively minor; most of the GPU's heat stays in the case regardless. The job of the GPU HS/F is to offer the best performance with the least noise, on those terms the VF-700 is the better cooler.
I tend to disagree on that, it is true that the backplate act as a passive heat sink, but bulk of the hot air would be ducted outwards, I have no objection on the VF700s, they look fairly awesome, just that the residual hot air around the GPU would definately be recycled and thus reducing the cooling efficiency. I believe this has been proved in the X1900 preview whilest the stock heat sink, despite the inferior acoustic design, can not cool the board as efficiently as the HIS models.
I could be wrong, not insisting anything here, because as i said, my first experience with a dual slot card, the NV5800, was a nightmare, not only is that thing inferior, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner. Then there's vairous cases but since i do not own the cards, i cant really comment from my first hand experience.
I believe the solution to the entire GPU cooling issue revolves around 2 things
1. Can the coolers access cool air from the intake?
2. Can the residual heat be vented?
Consider the case of the CPU cooler, say, Ninja, it draws in fresh air from the front intake and then blows it towards the rear exhaust fan which takes away the residual heat, the PSU on the top (conventional cases) will also assist in getting rid of the hot air from the heat sink and remove it.
/begin rant
In the case of conventional design, where the GPU could arguably generate more heat than the CPU, they are not being handled in a way they should be, thus my objection of using high power flagship models. I would much prefer to wait for a next-gen graphic card, where the mainstream board will be comparable to the 7800s while support DX10 and Vista and has a more advanced design that lowers power consumption. I guess that is beyond the topic, but i thought i would provide my oppinion
/end rant