The Cooler

Let's take a closer look at the cooler. The fan appears to suck in air, not only from the top, but also from below through a semi-circular hole in the heatsink. This is especially important for the back PCB's cooler since the limited clearance between the two PCBs restricts its air flow.

Cooler's top	Cooler's underside

The heatsink base is mostly made from cast aluminium with extrusions for the memory chips. The heatsink base has a small copper insert in the center that interfaces with the GPU. The copper insert conducts heat faster than the aluminium base, which is important for a hot GPU like the GeForce 7950 GX2.

A plastic shroud covers the top of the heatsink. It serves to direct the air flow upwards and to the left (with the card facing you). It's held in place by only four screws which are easily removed, revealing the heatsink fins.

Shroud removed	The heatsink

The design of this heatsink is very familiar. In fact, it is essentially the same design used in the GeForce 7900 GT and GeForce 7600 GT coolers. The only difference is that this heatsink is made mostly of aluminium. Even the fins are made from aluminium.

Like the fins in the GeForce 7900 GT and GeForce 7600 GT heatsink, the fins are made from a single sheet of metal (aluminium in this case) which are folded to form fins and then soldered to the base.

The heatsink base has a few spacers to ensure proper distance between the heatsink base and the surface-mounted components. They are important in preventing damage to the rather delicate GPU and bridge chip during installation.

Rubberized spacers for the bridge chip	Spacers surrounding the copper insert

The cooler is powered by a single Delta Electronics 45mm x 10mm fan placed to the right side of the cooler.

According to Delta Electronics' specifications, this is a high speed fan with two ball bearings and a power output of 2.52W. However, the front label states a current draw of only 0.18A, which gives it a power output of only 2.16W. It's possible that NVIDIA is undervolting the fan.

The fan	Fan power connector on the card

But if the fan keeps to Delta's specifications, then it spins at 6,500 RPM and delivers a flow rate of 3.28 CFM or 0.093 m³/min. It will also have a noise level of 35.5 dBA.

Although this is not a blower fan, it acts like one, thanks to the design of the cooler and the shroud. Cool air is sucked from "above" and "below" the cooler and exhausted out the top and the left side of the cooler.