Ballistics Report

Pros

Great Cooling Performance: The VF900 brought the temperature down and remained silent. That’s an amazing feat considering the X1900XTX consumes 120 Watts, versus about 85 Watts for the 7900GTX. Idle temperature doesn’t really matter, only the load temperature does, and it was reduced by 9 degrees Celsius.

Amazingly Quiet: The Zalman was almost inaudible at 3” away, at 100% speed, when I put my ear next to it. All my other fans were turned off. This is incredible. Not only did it cool up to 9 degrees Celsius better, but it was nearly impossible to hear. The 60% setting seems to be the sweet spot, here the fan was whisper quiet at a distance of 3”.

In contrast, the X1900 (and X1800) cooler sounded like a jet engine under load topping out at over 60dba, while the Zalman was in the low 20’s. This noise can get so loud that you HTPC users must buy one of these, or else you’ll be listening to your PC, not your TV. This was a given though, as silence is Zalman’s top priority.

Easy Installation: Not much to say here, except that virtually tool less installation makes life much easier. Very few parts and simple instructions make this cooler a top choice.

Relatively Small and Lighter: Zalman’s coolers keep getting smaller, while increasing in performance. The VF900 is really small especially when compared to the stock cooler, which is about twice as heavy and twice large. The heatpipes, as well as numerous fins and large fan help make the cooler smaller. ATI’s stock offering has a smaller fan, yet compensates with a larger fin area. Less pressure on the card and core than stock cooling keeps the risk of damage down as well.

Cons

Does not exhaust hot air out of the case: The Zalman VF900 raised my case temperature (ambient temperature) a bit. This is because the hot air is blown away from the card, not routed anywhere in particular. This has been an issue with all of Zalman’s video card coolers. ATI’s cooler however pulls cool air from within the case and blows hot air from the cooler out. This is found on the Arctic Cooling Silencers, which are also very popular with enthusiasts (full review coming soon!).

Relatively high price: There are many loud coolers, but not too many expensive cards. So buying a $40 aftermarket cooler for a sub $200 card may not always be a good idea. For more expensive video cards, this cooler is well worth it however.