GTX 580 + Zalman VF3000F = Excellent!

v0rtic3s

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
370
Just mounted the VF3000F (for GTX 580/570) on my GTX 580 and, with Arctic Silver 5, for those who'd like to know the results... it's the most astounding cooling difference of any GPU cooler I've ever used, on any card, period... and I've been using Zalman GPU coolers since their inception!

Before:

Room Temp: 82f
GPU Temp Idle: 42-45C
GPU Temp Load (F.3.A.R.): 73C w/ stock fan @ 80% (just rushing air, but friggin' loud)

After:

Room Temp: 83f
GPU Temp Idle: 33C (steady)
GPU Temp Load (F.3.A.R.): 55-61C (steady) w/ Zalman fans @ about medium on speed control, totally inaudible in HAF-X case!

Room Temp: 83f
GPU Temp Load (Borderlands):
Before: 62-65C
After: 51C

That's a 10C+ difference idle, and 12C+ difference load... with half the noise. If I cranked it up, it really just sounds like air rushing as well, and is still pretty quiet, which drops temps even further, it's ridiculous.

Cooling is NOT really heavy at all, and the cooling difference is amazing.

Worth $75? Absolutely!

So, for those who wanted to know exact numbers/results, if it helps, there ya go! ;)

P.S.
Thanks to my PC/gaming nerd wife, who wanted to be my helper (who could probably build a whole system herself at this point) who insisted cutely that I "thank" her, ha ha.
 
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Nicely done! Glad you didn't brick your card with that cooler like a lot of people did (by improper install I'm sure). I love seeing actually numerical results! And thanks v0rtic3s' wife!

And yes, pictures when you get a chance please!
 
I have 2 of these coming for my 570's. nice results :D

also i think it would have been better to show temps with the stock fan on auto and not 80%. 80% is very load on the gtx 580/570 coolers lol
 
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So basically what your saying and what you've posted, you spent $75 to make your card a little cooler and quieter? Ouch..
 
I have two of these on my 470's. At 100% I can hear them over anything else in my case, but at around 50% they're pretty quiet. That said, my temps still get pretty high at 50% and i have good airflow. Not high enough to be really concerned though...
 

sinkinstalled.jpg


vs

AXP03.jpg



personally i'd take the first option. next to no chance of any falling off.
 
personally i'd take the first option. next to no chance of any falling off.

Yup, that vrm plate is what makes this cooler. I'll tell you right now that there is no way that those aluminum vrm coolers on the Accelero are enough for the notoriously hot GTX570s vrms. I had used similar memory sinks on my GTX280 and switching to a unisink increased my max memory overclock.
 
Cowboy probably spends his money wisely on his herbs. No free cash for vga coolers.:p

Glad to see that this cooler performing well. I need something like this for my 480.
 
(Wow, can we ignore the hater troll in denial, and stay on thread topic?)

Out of curiosity, would this cooler fit a 570? The product page only seems to mention gtx 400 series cards.
 
Aah, I see, I landed there by google, instead of navigating in, thanks!
 
The paste that comes with this cooler is better than AC5 and is also nonconductive. I'm not sure why people still use AS5, there are better solutions out there. I've been using MX-2 for years now.

Well of course, I can still be [H]ard and also be opinionated and use my money wisely. :rolleyes: Just because I don't throw money away, doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading here.

The fan can be turned up and still not be loud. I would say that the most important part of cooling a GTX570 is the vrms and this is by far the best solution. The AXP does a worse job with the vrms and memory than the stock cooler. So do the sinks that come with the Thermalright products.

You can think what ever you want but you are pretty much just thread crapping at this point. You stated your opinion, move on.

(Wow, can we ignore the hater troll in denial, and stay on thread topic?)

Out of curiosity, would this cooler fit a 570? The product page only seems to mention gtx 400 series cards.

Directron is the only place that I saw that has the GTX570/580 model in stock.
 
Out of curiosity have you tried overclocking your card with the VF3000F? With those temps I bet you could easily hit 900+ core.
 
Just mounted the VF3000F (for GTX 580/570) on my GTX 580 and, with Arctic Silver 5, for those who'd like to know the results... it's the most astounding cooling difference of any GPU cooler I've ever used, on any card, period... and I've been using Zalman GPU coolers since their inception!

You must not get around much. Either that or your experience must be limited to nothing but Zalman products.

For instance... back a few years ago the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 would routinely drop temps 40 degrees over the stock cooler on many cards. Yes, you read that right. For instance on the original 8800GT you would go from a load temp of 85C to around 45C. I have no idea what Arctic Cooling is offering these days but I'd wager it's a whole lot better than what Zalman has to offer. Zalman = overpriced and overcomplicated junk. Just my opinion. :)
 
You must not get around much. Either that or your experience must be limited to nothing but Zalman products.

For instance... back a few years ago the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 would routinely drop temps 40 degrees over the stock cooler on many cards. Yes, you read that right. For instance on the original 8800GT you would go from a load temp of 85C to around 45C. I have no idea what Arctic Cooling is offering these days but I'd wager it's a whole lot better than what Zalman has to offer. Zalman = overpriced and overcomplicated junk. Just my opinion. :)


For the 580 and 570 these Zalman coolers are the best bet. They outperform the Arctic Cooling solution in VRM cooling. Also this Zalman cooler is actually easier to install than the Accelero. With the accelero you have to put on ever single heatsink individually, with the zalman its one big plate for all the memory and VRM chips and then a seperate heatsink for the gpu.

I remember the days of the 8800GT and the Accelero S1. man you could overclock that thing to the heavens lol
 
Man, I came off sounding like way more of an ass than I intended to... guess that's what I get for posting late at night when I'm a bit pissy. :D

I just have horrible memories of the Zalman ZM80 heatpipe coolers from waaay back. Man, what a piece they were. Looked cool and all but was a complete pain in the ass to assemble and the performance wasn't all that great. It really left a bad taste in my mouth...
 
Man, I came off sounding like way more of an ass than I intended to... guess that's what I get for posting late at night when I'm a bit pissy. :D

I just have horrible memories of the Zalman ZM80 heatpipe coolers from waaay back. Man, what a piece they were. Looked cool and all but was a complete pain in the ass to assemble and the performance wasn't all that great. It really left a bad taste in my mouth...

oh god those things were a bitch to install. fried a 9700 pro with one of those. ever since the vf700 though, zalman has been pretty good in terms of video card cooling. cpu cooling though? not worth it at all.
 
If anyone wants one of these, unused check the classifieds in a bit, probably Tuesday. I just found out that I won't be able to use this cooler like I had planned.
 
Yeh no offense but 75 bucks seems pretty steep. I thought the 22 Canadian I spent on my 212+ was too much and that allows me to hit 4.5 ghz with my 2600k easy. I'm thinking I'd rather have spent the 75 bucks on a faster card. Coupled with the chance of ruining the card and voiding the warranty makes spending the 75 bucks that much harder to swallow. If I could spend 25 bucks on a decent gpu cooler that was easy to install I'd consider it.
 
the Arctic Cooling solutions USED to be around $30. The one I got for my 4870 was.
 
I once had a GTX 285 SSC. Didn't like the stock cooler so I ordered up the Artic Cooling aftermarket cooler made for the GTX280/285 from quietpc. Believe it or not, I found an error in their payment processor that made it impossible to checkout. The guy actually sent me the thing for free, minus shipping, for informing him of this bug. The cost of that thing was more than $50+USD.

But you know what? As good as aftermarket coolers are, for me, they aren't worth the extra cost. Videocards are the first thing that is upgraded in each cycle, so unless you can reuse it, it's hard to justify spending an extra 50 or more for just a cooler.
 
But you know what? As good as aftermarket coolers are, for me, they aren't worth the extra cost. Videocards are the first thing that is upgraded in each cycle, so unless you can reuse it, it's hard to justify spending an extra 50 or more for just a cooler.
The AXP can be reused with the new video cards. I would assume the Zalman can as well but I haven't researched them much. I am planning on moving my AXPs to new cards when Maxwell releases and put these 480's under water and give them to my brother along with this 950.
 
The [H] is full of haters these days... :rolleyes:

In africa a little kid waits and wonders how he will find any food for dinner, but right here we just have Cowboy420 who doesn't understand what the [H] in [H]ard|ocp means... a long time user and still no appreciation/understanding of what most users actually come here for.

I'll give you a hint cowboy - it's not to leave your pc stock.
 
In africa a little kid waits and wonders how he will find any food for dinner, but right here we just have Cowboy420 who doesn't understand what the [H] in [H]ard|ocp means... a long time user and still no appreciation/understanding of what most users actually come here for.

I'll give you a hint cowboy - it's not to leave your pc stock.

Just an FYI to you..but there are quite a few people that come here for info on computers in general. Im speaking from first hand experience, my first visit here I knew almost nothing of computers and was using a stock POS dell..after a few weeks of reading and research at the [H], I was able to buy all the parts I needed and build a computer on my own. Just because your a geek, doesn't mean everyone else is.:rolleyes: Computers for me are just a small hobby now, I don't even game anymore. I'd much rather be spending my time outside or using the $75 to take my son rafting down the river instead of buying a GPU cooler, easy decision for me.
 
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idle temp only 5c above ambient? i call shens.

unless of course the fan is turned up during idle.
 
Just an FYI to you..but there are quite a few people that come here for info on computers in general. Im speaking from first hand experience, my first visit here I knew almost nothing of computers and was using a stock POS dell..after a few weeks of reading and research at the [H], I was able to buy all the parts I needed and build a computer on my own. Just because your a geek, doesn't mean everyone else is.:rolleyes: Computers for me are just a small hobby now, I don't even game anymore. I'd much rather be spending my time outside or using the $75 to take my son rafting down the river instead of buying a GPU cooler, easy decision for me.



good for you and your son but why exactly are you posting in this thread? just because you can give an opinion doesn't always mean you should.


idle temp only 5c above ambient? i call shens.

unless of course the fan is turned up during idle.

33C is about 92 degree's(rounded up) so while its right on the edge of the typical 10C delta it's quite possible if you leave a little room for error on the actual ambient temp.
 
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