It seems like many people (including myself) are currently wondering which cooler they should purchase for their X1900XTX. Most of the video cooler reviews published have used older generation video cards with lower heat levels, and it is unclear whether their results would actually apply to the very hot X1900XTX. So, in the absence of actual cooler reviews utilizing the X1900XTX, I have attempted to compile a list of user reports across various forums detailing the performance of the various cooling solutions suitable for this card. Hopefully this will give us a reasonable idea of how these coolers are faring in the real world.
The two most popular options right now appear to be the Zalman VF900 and Accelero X2. More people have these two products than any of the others, so the results will be focused on them. The Thermalright V-1 Ultra and Sytrin VF-1 may also be serious contenders for this card, but virtually nobody has one so it is difficult to determine how they compare to the VF900 and Accelero X2.
Anyway, since these are just reports tabulated from various forum posts, the amount of information listed varies from person to person. Some people included ambient temp, voltages, card speeds, and fan speeds while others didn't.
Now, obviously each person has a different case airflow setup and different ambient temps, as well as different voltages and clock speeds on their cards, so it's not possible to compare the results directly. But looking at the numbers, some trends are evident.
The vast majority of people are experiencing idle temps of 50C and load temps around 80-90C with the stock cooler set to auto.
When the stock cooler is pushed to 100%, these temps tend to drop to around 40C idle and 60-70C load.
The Zalman VF900 on high performs better than the stock cooler on auto, but performs worse than the stock cooler at 100%.
The Accelero set to auto performs slightly better than the stock cooler on auto, but worse than the VF900.
When the Accelero is set to 100%, it outperforms both the VF900 and the stock cooler at 100%.
These results appear to directly correlate with the fan speeds of the coolers. When the fans are set to auto, most of the time they are running at under 30-50%, so they aren't really pushing any air. This explains why the VF900 beats both of them in this situation, cause its fan is directly hooked up to the MB/PSU. But when you crank the fan speeds up to 100%, they start performing much better than the VF900.
So, the real world user reports I have seen tend to suggest that the VF900 isn't very capable of cooling the X1900XTX, and that the Accelero X2 is a better choice. There is only one report of the VF900 performing significantly better than the stock cooler at 100%, while most of the others suggest that it performs worse. There are also a few reports of the VF900 causing corruption/crashes under load. These results are pretty surprising given that the VF900 is both newer and more expensive than the Accelero. Now we just need to see how the Thermalright V-1 Ultra and Sytrin VF-1 fare on this card as well. I suspect that the V-1 Ultra may well be the best cooler for this card, but there really isn't enough data to know for sure.
From a noise perspective the VF900 and Accelero seem to be about equal, depending on the fan settings. There are a couple reports of the Accelero being virtually silent even at 100%, and it has the added benefit of being driven by the video card so you can use ATITools to automatically crank it up in 3D mode while throttling it down in 2D mode. The only problem with the Accelero is it directs hot air directly onto the motherboard, which may cause issues depending on your case airflow and motherboard.
By the way, if you come across any other user reports of aftermarket coolers on the X1900 cards, feel free to let me know and I will update the list.
The two most popular options right now appear to be the Zalman VF900 and Accelero X2. More people have these two products than any of the others, so the results will be focused on them. The Thermalright V-1 Ultra and Sytrin VF-1 may also be serious contenders for this card, but virtually nobody has one so it is difficult to determine how they compare to the VF900 and Accelero X2.
Anyway, since these are just reports tabulated from various forum posts, the amount of information listed varies from person to person. Some people included ambient temp, voltages, card speeds, and fan speeds while others didn't.
Now, obviously each person has a different case airflow setup and different ambient temps, as well as different voltages and clock speeds on their cards, so it's not possible to compare the results directly. But looking at the numbers, some trends are evident.
The vast majority of people are experiencing idle temps of 50C and load temps around 80-90C with the stock cooler set to auto.
When the stock cooler is pushed to 100%, these temps tend to drop to around 40C idle and 60-70C load.
The Zalman VF900 on high performs better than the stock cooler on auto, but performs worse than the stock cooler at 100%.
The Accelero set to auto performs slightly better than the stock cooler on auto, but worse than the VF900.
When the Accelero is set to 100%, it outperforms both the VF900 and the stock cooler at 100%.
These results appear to directly correlate with the fan speeds of the coolers. When the fans are set to auto, most of the time they are running at under 30-50%, so they aren't really pushing any air. This explains why the VF900 beats both of them in this situation, cause its fan is directly hooked up to the MB/PSU. But when you crank the fan speeds up to 100%, they start performing much better than the VF900.
So, the real world user reports I have seen tend to suggest that the VF900 isn't very capable of cooling the X1900XTX, and that the Accelero X2 is a better choice. There is only one report of the VF900 performing significantly better than the stock cooler at 100%, while most of the others suggest that it performs worse. There are also a few reports of the VF900 causing corruption/crashes under load. These results are pretty surprising given that the VF900 is both newer and more expensive than the Accelero. Now we just need to see how the Thermalright V-1 Ultra and Sytrin VF-1 fare on this card as well. I suspect that the V-1 Ultra may well be the best cooler for this card, but there really isn't enough data to know for sure.
From a noise perspective the VF900 and Accelero seem to be about equal, depending on the fan settings. There are a couple reports of the Accelero being virtually silent even at 100%, and it has the added benefit of being driven by the video card so you can use ATITools to automatically crank it up in 3D mode while throttling it down in 2D mode. The only problem with the Accelero is it directs hot air directly onto the motherboard, which may cause issues depending on your case airflow and motherboard.
By the way, if you come across any other user reports of aftermarket coolers on the X1900 cards, feel free to let me know and I will update the list.