[Review] Thermalright Spitfire and GTX480 [56K Warning]

[canna1988]

Hello Guys,

today i am here for show you what happen if we use a Thermalright Spitfire with a new nvidia Card... Many thanks to MSI and Thermalright, for the Card and the Heat sink.

First of all some pics























For the test i used this setup (sorry if some word in the tabs are in Italian.. if you don t understand you can ask it to me )



I made 2 different test.. one for see how better is the Spitfire then the Stock Heatsink, and the second one for see if using Spitfire is possible have an higher overclock limit.

In the first test i will use the same configuration, but one time VGA will be at default, while in the second time of the test i overclocked the VGA at 800 MHz / 1600 MHz for core and cuda cores, and 1000 MHz for the memory... i used also 1,04V, an higher vgpu core than the reference value for increase the stress for the Heatsink

With the Spitfire i used a Sharkon 140mm PK-2 fan.

First stage: Temperature

Here you will see the temperature that i saw with the nvidia heatsink:

Default (Not overclocked)



Overclocked Card (core @ 800 MHz, Cuda Core @ 1600 MHz, memory @ 1000 MHz, VGPU core @ 1,04V)



Now i will show you the temp that i logged with the Thermalright Spitfire:

Default (Not overclocked)



Overclocked Card (core @ 800 MHz, Cuda Core @ 1600 MHz, memory @ 1000 MHz, VGPU core @ 1,04V)



in these 2 graphics you can see easily how much is the difference between the nvidia heatsink and the Thermalright Heatsink

Idle



Full




Second stage: Overclock Limit

Here i will show you how the Spitfire can improve the performance and not only the temperature and the noise level

Nvidia Reference Heatsink(sorry for the memory.. i made a mistake with afterburner :S.. anyway can work easily at 1090 / 1095 MHz



Thermalright Spitfire




In conclusion i think Thermalright Spitfire is a very good heatsink, and can work without problem also with the new nvidia Card. Mounting is easy, and performance are good. Noise level is very lower than with the nvidia Heat Sink, and this is good for the long session of PC use..

Is good see also that the core Overclock limit is about 30 MHz higher then with the after market Heat sink.

maybe the really problem are the dimension, because you can t use it inside a little case.

If you want read all the review you can go here: http://www.pcbrain.it/index.php/arti...ia-gtx480.html

Thx and if you need something you can ask it to me.. i will reply soon

Bye Bye

[The Duke]

very nice review ... anyway to get a couple more pics of the spitfire attached? or actually installed?

[xann27]

great review! perfect with HQ pics and tests! good job!

[Onoff312]

Nice review but the cooler is pretty disappointing 90 load with an overclocked card is by no means a good temperature and 75 at stock is pretty poor also.
Did you ever measure vrm temp? because with a load like that those small sinks which would have no airflow thanks to the mounting of the spitfire would of been well over 100C i imagine.

[imersa]

great job w/ the review/testing!

[ComputerGuru114]

Great review, it is very informative and interesting! I wish I had this in my gaming pc!

[canna1988]

Soory for the long time.. i wasn' t at home

very nice review ... anyway to get a couple more pics of the spitfire attached? or actually installed?

I am sorry but i can t do other pics, because right now i havent the GTX480 here... i used it only for 4 day

great review! perfect with HQ pics and tests! good job!

thx a lot.

Nice review but the cooler is pretty disappointing 90 load with an overclocked card is by no means a good temperature and 75 at stock is pretty poor also.
Did you ever measure vrm temp? because with a load like that those small sinks which would have no airflow thanks to the mounting of the spitfire would of been well over 100C i imagine.

sorry but the heat sink performance are very great... you should not see the final temperature, but the difference between Nvidia heat sink and the Thermalright Spitfire..

For example nvidia overclocked Card in full load @ 104°C, while spitfire @85°C... 20°C Lower are a lot.

same thing for the card without Overclock, because with reference heat sink i logged 90°C while Spitfire can take stable the 75°C

Also the Idle temperature are very good, because are 15° lower than the reference heat sink.

Yes i logged the VRM temps, and it was max at 81°C... i was without a fan there.. so i think if you will mount that little heat sink in a case with in front a fan for the Hard Disk, you will have better temps

Anyway for the moment Spitfire is not official compatible with GTX480... and i think when will be compatible Thermalright will launch also a Better VRM cooler like the VRM R4.

great job w/ the review/testing!

thx :-)

Great review, it is very informative and interesting! I wish I had this in my gaming pc!

i wish you the same, is a very good cooler

[miahallen]

Good stuff mate thanks

[nizery]

Great review....

[nsegative]

Temps seem kinda high when the youtube vids showed a max of 66c with furmark. Do you know if the new VRM coolers for gtx480 will be included in the kit or if it will be separate?

[canna1988]

i don t know if the VRM cooler will in the bundle or not :S

sorry

For the temps... yes are a little higher than the Thermalright video, but the fault could be various... higher ambient temp, in Italy now is really hot, maybe a better thermal grease, maybe a better fan..

I dont know

[halfwaythere]

I wonder why you haven't posted any pictures with the card inside a case. My guess is because this won't fit along side a tower cooler.

This is probably design wise the worst cooling product ever. Messes up the entire inside of a build and barely beats the stock. I would like to see how this performs against a similar product like the Prolimatech MK-12 or Accelero extreme and not the crappy stock pos.

Congrats on the effort but this is a half baked test made to put the product in a better light than this actually is. TR should be happy.

[bamtan2]

great results. 25% lower temperature AND a small fraction of the fan noise AND guaranteed overclock to 850+mhz is an accomplishment perhaps unmatched by any gtx 480 cooler. incredible performance, really.

needless to say, ignore the ignoramuses.