Coolers

ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCu II TOP

The GPU is cooled by a two heatsinks interconnected by copper heatpipes. The power elements are cooled by their own small heatsink. The memory chips have no cooling at all. Over it all is a plastic cover with two fans working at high speeds but producing almost no noise. The video card is much longer than the reference one due to the large cooler and occupies 3 expansion slots.

Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom

Gainward's own Phantom cooling system consists of a massive nickel-plated copper alloy heatsink, with two embedded (!) fans. While looking cool this setup produces much noise. Though the fan speed often reaches 2700 rpm and more, the GPU temperature remains as high as up to 90°C. The memory chips and power transistors have their own heatsink. Overall, the video card occupies 3 slots.

Zotac GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition

Zotac's cooling system, probably produced by Zalman, is much similar to the ASUS's. However, it has a single heatsink with heatpipes. Besides, the memory chips have their own heatsink, and power elements are cooled as well. The fan speed is about 2000 rpm, but the cooling system is almost noiseless.

Temperature monitoring results

We measured temperatures using the EVGA PrecisionX utility.

ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCu II TOP 2048MB GDDR5

Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom 2048MB GDDR5

Zotac GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition 2048MB GDDR5

After working non-stop for 6 hours, the Zotac GeForce GTX 680 AMP! Edition 2048MB GDDR5 demonstrated the best results, ASUS and Gainward followed. The temperatures never reached critical thresholds.

Write a comment below. No registration needed!