Does anyone else miss third-party GPU coolers?

[Ruru]

I do. I remember clearly the days when Zalman and Arctic Cooling were the best aftermarket ones and they were pretty damn popular. I guess that AIBs have so good coolers these days that there's no need for aftermarket coolers anymore. Except waterblocks.

 

[3x0]

Raijintek and Arctic still make GPU coolers to my knowledge

 

[Space Lynx]

Raijintek and Arctic still make GPU coolers to my knowledge

They do indeed.

 

[Ruru]

Raijintek and Arctic still make GPU coolers to my knowledge

I know, they just aren't as popular like they were back in the day.

 

[freeagent]

Not really to be honest

 

[Ruru]

Not really to be honest

Damn. I loved the ATI/NV Silencer lineup from Arctic

 

[freeagent]

Damn. I loved the ATI/NV Silencer lineup from Arctic

I always wanted to try one but could never justify it when a fan or two would do well enough..

 

[sam_86314]

I definitely do. I have an Arctic Accelero Xtreme III on my old GTX 1070, and it's a great cooler.

I had wanted to get another one for my RX 5700 XT, only to find that it's out of stock everywhere.

I know that Raijintek still makes their coolers, and I hope that Arctic will start making new Accelero coolers again.

 

[Ruru]

I always wanted to try one but could never justify it when a fan or two would do well enough..

I had those on GF4 Ti 4200, X800 Pro VIVO @ XTPE and 6800 GS. Did their job damn fine and they were hella quiet.

 

[maxfly]

Their impossible to find if they do still make them and yes I miss them. The arctic ax3 that sam is using is a badass GPU cooler that puts 90% of stock coolers to shame. Particularly underload. They're quiet, powerful, effective and cheap. Well, they used to be. Despite my affinity for water cooling I try to buy high quality 3 fan stock coolers. My GPUs tend to last forever so having a high quality heatsink is a must for their second life as aircooled cards but sadly, most are still so God awful loud underload (compared to what I'm used to) it's maddening while gaming on my back up rigs. The solution used to be replacing the stock cooler with the arctic but the last time I looked for an arctic ax3 they were nowhere to be found. The bonus with the ax3 was that if I decided I wanted to stick it back into a wced rig. I could go the easy route and simply use one of my universal blocks (4 screws and done) with the ax3 heatsinks and I was gtg. Now I have to save all of my full coverage blocks rather than sell them and keep my wcing storage area a lil bit less cluttered.

 

[Ruru]

Their impossible to find if they do still make them and yes I miss them. The arctic ax3 that sam is using is a badass GPU cooler that puts 90% of stock coolers to shame. Particularly underload. They're quiet, powerful, effective and cheap. Well, they used to be. Despite my affinity for water cooling I try to buy high quality 3 fan stock coolers. My GPUs tend to last forever so having a high quality heatsink is a must for their second life as aircooled cards but sadly, most are still so God awful loud underload (compared to what I'm used to) it's maddening while gaming on my back up rigs. The solution used to be replacing the stock cooler with the arctic but the last time I looked for an arctic ax3 they were nowhere to be found. The bonus with the ax3 was that if I decided I wanted to stick it back into a wced rig. I could go the easy route and simply use one of my universal blocks (4 screws and done) with the ax3 heatsinks and I was gtg. Now I have to save all of my full coverage blocks rather than sell them and keep my wcing storage area a lil bit less cluttered.

I had a Twin Turbo II on my GTX 470 SOC and it was way better than the stock Windforce X3. Also the card overclocked better and it was practically silent.

 

[Mussels]

Hugely. Feels like the high end cards get custom waterblocks made for each style just the once (EK runs out of stock? Hah! Never again!) and then the GPU's are doomed if the cooler fails.

I've got a GTX 970 with a weird PCB and a *tiny* stock heatsink, that really needs an upgrade since its a noisy blower style and i cant find anything worth the cost

 

[AusWolf]

I sort of miss the sentiment of it, but I don't miss any particular cooler per se. Let's be honest, they (at least most of them) were ugly as hell, not to mention the lost warranty.

 

[Ruru]

I sort of miss the sentiment of it, but I don't miss any particular cooler per se. Let's be honest, they (at least most of them) were ugly as hell, not to mention the lost warranty.

Ugly? Damn, that's a hard opinion. Personally I liked almost all of those. Does my 6800 Ultra look cool (literally) with a Zalman VF700-Cu?

 

[AusWolf]

Ugly? Damn, that's a hard opinion. Personally I liked almost all of those. Does my 6800 Ultra look cool (literally) with a Zalman VF700-Cu?

All I'm saying is it looks a bit home-made compared to this:

It's like a 1999 Honda Civic with an aftermarket rear wing compared to a 2015 Shelby Cobra GT. I appreciate the effort, but...

 

[dirtyferret]

I know, they just aren't as popular like they were back in the day.

I think they were more known among the DIY PC builders rather than popular among them. With more AIB partners offering custom (and better) coolers the need for them further decreased.

I personally never cared for them, the added cost could be spent on a better video card, CPU, etc.,

 

[P4-630]

I used this Thermalright cooler for my HD4870

 

[GreiverBlade]

did someone said aftermarket cooler?



(yeah ... i would never miss an occasion to repost my Asus 8800 Ultra with her Prolimatech MK-26 )

edit, and yeah i miss them ... but the Red Devil cooler look so awesome, silent cool and freaking backplate!
the 8800 Ultra needed the MK-26 since the Asus ROG leaf blower was atrocious (why make a ROG model while keeping the reference cooler )

Spoiler: and i mean literally reference...

 

[freeagent]

I used this Thermalright cooler for my HD4870

View attachment 268862

I have that cooler, was supposed to be for a GTX 285 but I killed the card by shorting it

Never been used lol..

 

[P4-630]

Never been used lol..

I still have it with a dead HIS HD4870.

 

[rockit00]

I loved the Arctic Cooling ATI 4 Silencer. This cooler would allow you to take an X800 Pro and X850 Pro and turn them into an X800 XTPE and X850 XTPE. I think I modded three or four X800 series cards back in the day. Flashing, Unlocking the 4 extra pipes, ATITool, Those were the Good O'l Days

 

[A Computer Guy]

I used this Thermalright cooler for my HD4870

View attachment 268862

That looks like it might be a good x570 heatsink.

 

[P4-630]

Also had the Power Color x1950 Pro, it came with an Arctic cooler, it ran amazingly quiet and cool
I damaged the GPU and a chip broke off, I had the PCIe 256MB version, I was able to RMA it and got a new x1950 Pro 512MB returned!

 

[mclaren85]

I do. I remember clearly the days when Zalman and Arctic Cooling were the best aftermarket ones and they were pretty damn popular. I guess that AIBs have so good coolers these days that there's no need for aftermarket coolers anymore. Except waterblocks.

Never heard that before. Am I too young?

 

[Ruru]

Never heard that before. Am I too young?

Probably not as I'm 32 and I remember clearly the days of aftermarket VGA coolers.