Manufacturer: Price: $ 110 US Author: Steve Date: 04/12/2010

[ Introduction ]

Today we are checking out the Thermalright Spitfire VGA cooler along with the VRM-R5 heatsink designed to solve the VRM heat issues that most aftermarket cooling solutions suffer from. Designed to suit a range of graphics cards, including the mighty Radeon HD 5870, we plan to put the Spitfire to the test... Thermalright are well known for their high quality CPU coolers, and their recently released Venomous-X is a perfect example of why. However, over the past few years Thermalright has also begun to build a reputation for itself as a top quality manufacturer of VGA coolers. The HR-03 really got the ball rolling and this is a cooler Thermalright still sells today, as it supports a huge range of ATI and Nvidia graphics cards. Following the success of the HR-03 was the more creatively named T-Rad², which was designed for the high-end ATI graphics cards of its time which included the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850, while support also extended to the GeForce 9800 GTX. Soon after Thermalright followed up with the T-Rad² GTX, which would extend support to the GeForce GTX family including the GTX 285, GTX 275 and GTX 260 (55nm). However now we have a new breed of graphics cards and these older VGA coolers simply will not cut it. The Thermalright Spitfire VGA cooler is designed for a huge range of products and support does extend to the Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 graphics cards, though there are a few conditions. The biggest problem we have found when testing new VGA coolers designed for high-end graphics cards such as the Radeon HD 5870 is that although the massive heatsinks do an excellent job of keeping the GPU cool, they fail to address the needs of the VRM. The recently reviewed Prolimatech MK-13 is an excellent example of this. Although the MK-13 was able to significantly reduce GPU temperatures, the VRM temperature sky rocketed. In fact, we found the VRM to operate roughly 69% higher when compared to the standard cooler. The problem being that products such as the MK-13 only include very small passive heatsinks to cool the VRM, which is simply inadequate. An obvious solution is to abandon universal designs in place of single purpose only designs, made specifically for just one product. The disadvantage here is that users often like to take their $70+ VGA cooler with them when they upgrade. So Thermalright has come up with a different approach that separates the GPU and VRM cooling entirely. The new Spitfire GPU heatsink is designed to work with the Radeon HD 5870 for example, alongside another Thermalright product known as the VRM-R5. However there are a few different versions of this cooler and either the VRM-R5, VRM-R4 or VRM-R3 will work with the Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 graphics cards. There are also the VRM-R2 and VRM-R1 models for the Radeon HD 4890/4870 graphics cards. Therefore today we will be checking out the Thermalright Spitfire and VRM-R5 combination.

Table of Contents >>> Introduction <<< Features & Design Installation Testing Methodology Testing: Idle/Load Conclusion Next Page ->

tiger

Posted on: 04/14/2010 01:11 PM Yeeehaa... that are really some impressive results. It just shows how much you can do with alternative cooling solutions. It kind of makes Crossfire or SLI configurations impossible. But still impressive!

Oldie

Posted on: 04/15/2010 08:50 PM Great review thanks. That thing is a beast I want!!!

Leo	Posted on: 04/13/2010 12:02 PM Wow that is massive ... that is all

ProX	Posted on: 04/13/2010 09:48 PM I have been keeping an eye on this product and I am so glad you decided to review it. The results are better than I was hoping so I am trying to get one for my 5850 now.

Rosco

Posted on: 04/23/2010 01:37 PM OMFG that thing is massive!!! 2 thumbs up for the well done review and for a well done product.

SN95Stang

Posted on: 05/24/2010 03:16 AM I can confirm this thing really works! Recently purchased this setup for an XFX HD4890 and the results are simply amazing! My full load temps gaming are lower than the idle temps with the stock cooler! Only drawback was fitting this thing in to an Antec 902 case. Had to use the bottom PCI-E slot on my Asus P5E and mount the cooler towards the top of the case, and the included support bracket BARELY clears my tower style CPU cooler. This configuration lined it up perfectly with the side mounted 120mm fan, although a little modification of the fan holder was necessary, it worked out well.