Thermaltake GeForce 4 Highest Performance Cooler

Company: Thermaltake
Product: GeForce 4 GPU Cooler & RAMsinks
Street Price: ~$19.99 USD
Date Reviewed: July 23, 2002
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345

Swapping Coolers: (cont)

Next I applied Artic Silver 3 thermal compound to ensure good contact between the cooler and the GPU.

Then I just place the cooler on top and the pins went right it with no effort at all really. I checked to make sure the cooler was secure before I put it in the test rig. This installation was very easy and took no time at all.

Testing and Performance:

Testing Rig:

• EPoX 8K3A+ (KT333 Chipset)
• AMD Athlon XP2000+
• 2 x 256 Corsair XMS3000
• PNY GeForce 4 TI4600
• CardCooler
• Digital Doc 5
• Windows 2000

Well first off I would like to note that this testing rig has a LOT of air cooling already in it. The results from my test may differ from others due to air flow that is in my case and the fact that I had a card cooler too. Also I am only testing the performance of the cooler and not the RAMsinks. Since this is their "Highest Performance Cooler", it seemed only fitting to put it in a case that would be typical of the high performance overclocker.

Before I replaced the stock cooler I used my Digi-Doc to take temps of the ambient temperature which was 22C to make sure the tests were consistent, I kept it at this temperature throughout the entire testing period. Then I placed a probe on the back of the card directly behind the GPU. I booted into windows and let my computer sit for 20 minutes,. then took the temperature used for the idle reading. After this I ran 3DMarks to represent full load. I ran the whole test and took the highest temperature I monitored. Then I found the maximum overclock by using rivatuner to overclock the graphics card. If the card could not make it though 3DMarks then I clocked it down until it worked. I then used the same procedure to take the idle and load temps as I did earlier. I repeated all these processes after I replaced the cooler as well. Here are my results.

Stock Speed Temperatures:

Max Overclocked Temperatures:

Max Overclocked Speed (in MHz):

Conclusion:

It is very obvious that Thermaltake's GeForce 4 Highest Performance Cooler definitely works. Whether the performance gained is worth the cooler cost is an individual decision IMO. In all the tests I did the Thermaltake cooler temps were at least 3C lower than stock in some cases even lower! It even allowed me to overclock the video card by 5 more MHz . I would have to highly recommend this product to anyone that is looking to lower their video card temperature whether it be for prolonging the life of the card or for overclocking. Thermaltake has provided us with a great cooler and has once again done a great job! Lastly, I would like to thank Thermaltake for sending us this cooler to review.

Also, there is an excellent 3DMark Tweaking Guide and discussion in the forums to help maximize the performance gained from overclocking your video card!

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