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.
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 comments
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 ..
Comments are closed.