Arclight wrote:This might tickle your fancy:
Arctic Accelero Xtreme III
Yea... About that cooler... Here's a fun fact: it comes with 12 "square" RAM heatsinks by default. There are more than 12 RAM chips on 290x:
There are other non-square heatsinks included but you may need to "modify" them slightly (depending on which ones you will decide to use). Bending or cutting off fins, etc. Or order extra square heatsinks.
Here's another fun fact. Notice the location of lower RAM chip and how it looks like with GPU heatsink attached (click it to see it larger):
No, the metal plate does not actually touch it. Yes, the plate does cover a small portion of it so whatever leftover heatsink you will use - it will not cover the whole surface of that RAM chip. Probably does not matter (these RAM chips do not get very hot) but still...
All in all, the installation of this thing is pretty annoying and I HIGHLY recommend avoiding it if you can. If you will decide to use it - here is my advice: throw away the included glue (it sucks) and instead buy some other one OR make your own using your favorite thermal paste + CrazyGlue, especially when mounting the VRM heatsinks. Better yet, just wait for cards with "aftermarket" cooler designs, or go with Nvidia's alternatives. Like EVGA's cards, most of which (including new 780ti) come with their own ACX cooler (which is better than ANY "stock" blower) pre-installed, or available as a separate purchase (and is much, MUCH easier to install and has no chance of VRM heatsinks falling off due to a poor glue quality).
The good news is it obviously does decrease the GPU temperature by a significant number while staying extremely quiet:
So much for "blah, blah, blah, blower coolers are theoretically better" armchair circlejerk, eh?
Gifter of Nvidia Titans and countless Twitch donation extraordinaire, nothing makes me more happy in life than randomly helping random people