duorb hsf on 3870's

[Skyguy]

I tested a DuOrb on an 8800 Ultra and it came nowhere near the stock cooler. Performance at idle was good, but who runs their cards at idle? At load, the DuOrb was beat on temps when running several different GPU benchmarks by the stock cooler which was running at only 80% fan speed. At 100% on the stock fan, the DuOrb simply couldn't come close. Not to mention with the DuOrb the back of the card was very hot to the touch and was adding heat upward to the CPU and mobo VRM's, etc. And this was with RAM sinks on the Ultra as well. Without the ability to exhaust the hot air out the rear of the case, this poses additional problems with heat on other components.

Not sure if the 3870 coolers are inherently worse than the one on the Ultra and therefore the DuOrb performs well on a 3870. My guess is the smaller GPU and design of the 3870 cooler makes the DuOrb proportionately better........but against a stock 8800 Ultra, the DuOrb was simply outclassed. It would seem the Ultra's stock cooler is actually very efficient at removing heat from both the GPU and the case. Rather disappointing, I was expecting a better showing by the DuOrb. I'm hoping the new Zalman VF-1000 puts up a fight..........