The power of PC video cards has grown beyond the processors that host them. Today’s graphics processors have more transistors than even the most powerful dual-core CPU, which translates into alot of heat production. Even when the GPU is idle, it can generate massive amouts of thermal waste that must be disposed of via heatsink.
Since today’s graphics processors are the hottest ever, we are seeing heavier and more robust stock coolers to accompany them. While these stock coolers are much better than the previous generations, they are still only barely adequate to deal with the new level of thermal production. The current GPU king: nVidia’s 8800 line of chips, generate some serious heat and need an equally serious cooling method.
Zalman has released two sister products to augment each other when cooling your 8800 video card. Zalman’s VF-1000 LED is a pure copper cooler that can be used on nearly any video card made within the past 5 years. The components on nVidia’s 8800 need some additional cooling, so this cooler is meant to work with the ZM-RHS88 ramsink kit. When combined together (a la Voltron), these two products augment each other to cool even the powerful 8800 GTX video card.
Zalman ZM-RHS88 Ramsink Specifications
Zalman ZM-RHS88 Ramsink Features
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The ZM-RHS88 Ramsink is a kit consisting of a main die-cast aluminum plate and two smaller connecting plates. Which connector plate you use depends on if you have an 8800 GTS or 8800 GTX. The GTS versions places their warning speaker in the middle of all the RAM, so the proper attachment must be used to fit around it. There are also several screws, knobs, rubber gromits and other installation hardware in the kit.
The backside of the die-cast plates are many pieces of double-sided thermal tape, which will be sandwiched between the heatplate and the various components. In addition to cooling the 8800’s memory, this plate also cools the RAMDAC (which is exposed in a flip-clip design) and mosfets.
The VF-1000 unit is an all-copper cooler made of a copper base and shaved copper fins, soldered together with four heatpipes. The fins are made from thin sheets of shaved copper, which have been machined with a crater for the embedded 80mm fan, and stamped with the Zalman logo.
The copper base is machined flat almost perfectly, and has a nice mirror finish, which will certainly make maximum contact with your GPU. Four heatpipes protrude from the center of the base and are symmetrically distributed to the copper fins. Each fin is then folded onto the others and soldered to the heatpipes.
Zalman’s 80mm fan is a 2-ball bearing type, rotating around 2500 RPM and 28 decibels. Even if the included FanMate is not used, this fan should not produce much noise.
Included in the kit is a small tube of generic thermal paste. For the price being paid, Zalman should include a vial of its excellent Super Thermal Grease. Also included in the kit are eight blue aluminum ramsinks, for installation on non-8800 based cards.
Installation on nVidia’s 8800 series warrants that the ZM-RHS88 ramsinks be installed first. Otherwise the card’s memory, RAMDAC, and other hot components would not receive any cooling, possibly ruining your expensive video card.
The stock heatsink must be removed first. Begin by removing all the main heatsink screws from the back of the card. There are also several screws around the GPU, which secures a square shim around the graphics processor. You must also remove the screws that attach the exhaust to the backplace. Once all of these screws are removed, the heatsink is pulled off easily. There will be lots of floppy thermal tape to clean up, which easily melts and disintegrates to the touch. Don’t worry if some of this melts between metal contacts, as this goo is non-conductive. Clean off the GPU, ram, and other components with cloth slightly moist with rubbing alcohol.
Attach the secondary ramsink plate, depending on which card you have. The plates fit together with screws. Then you can remove the protective plastic from the underside of the plate, which exposes the sticky part of the attached thermal tape. Also, put some thermal grease on the corners of the GPU where the main plate will make contact. The plate is then lowered onto the card, and everything should fit like a glove.
Flip the card over and you can begin securing the plate with tension screws. Place a plastic washer around the exposed post to protect the card, and then place a spring over the washer. You can then attach the thumbscrews and adjust tension until the ramsink is secure.
Nipple Installation Holes for Various VGA Cards
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Next comes the main heatsink, the VF-1000 LED itself. At this point, installation is as simple as on any other card. Apply some thermal grease to the exposed GPU, and rub the excess into the shiny copper base. The heatsink base has several pre-drilled holes at different intervals that will couple with the included metal standoffs. Which holes you use depend on the video card being mounted. Since we are installing this heatsink to an nVidia 8800, we use the number 6 hole position.
The standoffs are secured to the heatsink base, and then rubber gromits are attached to the underside. The standoff posts are then inserted through the holes in the ZM-RHS88 ramsink, and then secured with the same washer/spring/thumbscrew method. The copper heatsink now fits neatly over the aluminum ramsink plate, for a complete cooling system.
The stock cooler has a special 4-pin connection that allows the 8800 card to monitor the fan and adjust its rotation speed, but the Zalman uses a standard 3-pin connection, so it could not be directly connected to the card. Because of this, Zalman’s fan cannot be dynamically driven based on the card’s load, as the stock cooler does. While I like having the silence of low RPMs, I wouldn’t mind if the card sped up when running on overdrive… you could have your cake and eat it, too.
Even at high speed, the VF-1000’s fan isn’t very loud, but if you have an otherwise quiet system it can be heard slightly. Using the included FanMate to turn the RPMs down made this cooler completely silent. The small blue LEDs also scatter light across the fan blades evently, and looks rather nice. The blue LEDs dim slightly when the RPMs are lowered with the FanMate, but still lights up the fan evently and does not flicker.
The Zalman VF-1000/RHS88 combo cooler was tested on an eVGA 8800 GTS video card and XFX 7800 GT video card.
- Asus P5W Deluxe motherboard (Intel 975 chipset)
- Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo processor
- eVGA 8800 GTS 320MB PCI-e video card
- XFX 7800 GT 256MB PCI-e video card
- Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum
- 2GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800
- OCZ ProXstream 1000W Power Supply
- Lian Li V-1000 aluminum case
Performance on 7800 GT
Performance on 8800 GTS
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At first, the Zalman cooler appeared to work a miracle with the 8800 as the initial idle temp started at 125 degrees. After several minutes, the temperature rose to a steady 139 degrees, which is only slighly better than eVGA’s beefy stock cooler. The cooler does a more admirable job when the fan is running full blast on the 8800.
The performance is more dynamic on other video cards. While the 7800 GT is still very powerful, it doesn’t generate the massive heat load of the 8800 series. On the 7800 series this cooler performed even better than Zalman’s excellent FC-ZV9 Fatal1ty VGA heatsink.
While the thermal dynamics may not be as great on the 8800, it is admirable that the VF-1000 is able to keep up with the card’s excessive demands.
The Zalman VF-1000 LED definately performs better than stock cooling. It has the same sense of style of other Zalman products, so it will blend in very and show off your video card in a windowed case. While the cooler performs better than stock cooling, the margin of difference is not on the 8800. This may be due to the fact that the 8800’s stock heatsink is the beefiest ever delivered by OEMs, or that the 8800 is the hottest video chip ever delivered.
The copper heatsink is well machined, and the base is polished like a mirror. This craftmanship blows away most other heatsink brands, but for this price I expect the heatsink to come with the nickel coating used on Zalman’s top-of-the line heatsinks (CNPS 9700 NT, FC-ZV9 Fatal1ty heatsinks).
The heatsink’s performance is unquestionable, but is only a slight improvement over stock cooling on the 8800 line. Those with SLI will have to pass, as this cooler edges over the top of the card, getting in the way of many SLI bridges (although a ribbon-cable SLI bridge should be fine). Given the cost of this heatsink, some may choose to live with the stock cooler, because it will cost nearly $90 to gain that extra amount of performance. You can buy just the VF-1000 from Sharka Computers for around $50, though.
For the 8800 line, this heatsink performs slightly better than the stock cooler. Since the sheer weight and four heatpipes is enough to keep up with the hottest video chip ever devised, it is the best performing cooler for any of your video cards.
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2 Comment
The memory doesn't really get that hot, even when overclocking. The fan blows over the ramsinks, too so they stay nice and frosty.
nice heat sink lots of copper and heat pipes would of liked to see the ram sinks made of copper as well ..to bad they cheaped out and used aluminum ..