Soldato
Right I have completed some benchmarks using a Club 3D 5870 GFXs card and testing out the new Zalman 58XX GFX card coolers. (I haven't got my hands an Nvidia Sample yet though) The Club3D cards have the standard reference board and cooler from AMD/ATI so this is one of the best cards to test with.
Zalman VF3000-A Graphics Card Cooler (ATI 5830/5850/5870)
I have run Furmark in windowed mode at 1280 x 1024 with the card running at stock speeds.
Stock cooler - Default speed - 69 degrees
Zalman cooler - High fan speed - 38 degrees
Zalman cooler - Medium fan speed - 38 degrees
Zalman cooler - Lowest fan speed - 42 degrees
Results with Stock cooler
Results with Zalman cooler - Full fan speed
Results with Zalman cooler - Half Fan Speed
Results with Zalman cooler - Lowest Fan Speed
As you can see the Zalman cooler performance is much better. The fan on the highest setting is audiable at around the same noise level as the stock cooler at the default fan speed.
On medium the noise is just about hearable, but at low speed the noise is none existant.
The results show only minor differences between the fan speeds on the Zalman with the slowest speed still massively outperforming the stock cooler for cooling. I would recommend running the fan at medium speed for noise vs perfomance.
Zalman VF3000-A Graphics Card Cooler (ATI 5830/5850/5870)
I have run Furmark in windowed mode at 1280 x 1024 with the card running at stock speeds.
Stock cooler - Default speed - 69 degrees
Zalman cooler - High fan speed - 38 degrees
Zalman cooler - Medium fan speed - 38 degrees
Zalman cooler - Lowest fan speed - 42 degrees
Results with Stock cooler
Results with Zalman cooler - Full fan speed
Results with Zalman cooler - Half Fan Speed
Results with Zalman cooler - Lowest Fan Speed
As you can see the Zalman cooler performance is much better. The fan on the highest setting is audiable at around the same noise level as the stock cooler at the default fan speed.
On medium the noise is just about hearable, but at low speed the noise is none existant.
The results show only minor differences between the fan speeds on the Zalman with the slowest speed still massively outperforming the stock cooler for cooling. I would recommend running the fan at medium speed for noise vs perfomance.