SPARKLE Proudly Announced Diamonds Sputtering Technology for Video Cards

[btarunr]

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today proudly announced Diamonds Sputtering technology for video cards, which raise the bar for video card cooling technology.

Now with more and more advanced relative technologies, the performance of video cards is getting stronger and stronger, there will be more heat generated by video cards, which significantly impairs the life expectancy of GPU and video memory chips on video cards. Video card companies have a lot of programs come and go to solve the problem of heat dissipation. The most commonly seen in general is the use of fans with cooling fins to do additional cooling. in the early days, the cooling job can be done simply with a fan or cooling fins, but in today's graphics cards with more intense heat than before, the cooling job must be done on the technologies not the same as before, not just rely on the fan and cooling fins. Video card companies must go to find some relatively new method to solve the problem of heat dissipation.



With a strong R&D team, SPARKLE introduced Diamonds Sputtering technology, which plate a Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane on the surface of video cards cooling fins to realize the cooling effects of DLC. Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can help to quickly transfer the heat from GPU and video memory chips to the cooling fins. SPARKLE R&D team found in the study that Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) which gradually been found in the past few years has many high-natures, such as high optical penetrating, high-chemical corrosion-resistant, excellent friction properties and good compatibility. In addition, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) also has a high heat conduction. General heatsink is relies on the electronics movement within the metal (such as copper) to do heat conduction. The diamonds do heat dissipation four times faster than copper, it relies on the phonons which is produced by the crystal lattice vibration, to bring heat to lower temperature places. Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) can achieve both functions at the same time, that is, transferring heat to lower temperature places with both graphite metal bond and diamond insulation bond (the covalent bond) . Apart from this, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) can transfer carbon surface heat (atomic vibrations) into the infrared radiation of electromagnetic waves in bold (Black Body Radiation) , directly to the air molecules.

SPARKLE R&D team is now using the leading technology of Plasma Enhanced CVD, (PECVD) for SPARKLE graphics cards, to plate Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane on the surface of video cards cooling radiator, providing unbeatable cooling effect, significantly raising the heat transfer speed from the GPU and video memory chips to the cooling radiator. With tests, SPARKLE R&D team found that compared with no Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can reduce the value of thermal resistance of the radiator about 0.05, the radiator temperature can be reduced by 5 degrees Celsius, greatly accelerate the heat conduction from GPU and video memory chips.

In addition, SPARKLE R&D team also found that, in addition to outstanding cooling effect, the Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane is a super-hard carbon coating, it can protect the radiator metal from scratching. Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can isolated the air to avoid the thermal conductance reduction of radiator due to oxidation (such as the formation of Cu2O or Al2O3). Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane can also protect heat sinks from water vapor or acid-base erosion. Therefore, Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) membrane is the best option for extending the service life of SPARKLE graphics cards. Because the current cost of this technology is still high, SPARKLE will consider the appropriate application step by step according to the real situations of the new products.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[lemonadesoda]

Interesting. But NOT optimal. Those "paddle steamer" fans are suboptimal and relatively noisy. Powercolor used to use those (I had them on my 3850) but changed them due to bad performance and all the flak from consumers.

And DLC! Diamond-like Carbon technology indeed! LOL. Nice marketing terms. Seems to be four components to the tech:

1./ A matte, rough, surface that increases the surface area and increases the "friction" to help the air scrub across the surface and therefore improve convection efficiency. Good idea but hardly groundbreaking

2./ Grain boundary crystalographic effects within the metal. Interesting. I will ask an expert as to the true impact of this. Sounds promising... 4x as efficient as pure copper? If true, then every heatsink should start using this stuff. Oh, scratch that. Sorry, I read too deeply. "membrane on the surface of video cards". This is just black paint. LOL

3./ "significantly raising the heat transfer speed from the GPU and video memory chips to the cooling radiator.". Oh, so this replaces TIM?

4./ "Plasma Enhanced CVD". Industrial airbrush. Nothing more.

More spin art available here: http://www.thinkingfountain.org/gallery/spinartgallery/spinartgallery.html

What if, Marketing departments finally realised that Marketing spin discombobulation of consumers through psuedo-science only HARMS sales efforts? I actually think Apple has got a decent Marketing department. They sell image, but they certainly dont sell BS science.

Any consumer "goodwill" I had for the brand name Sparkle has just gone flying out of the window, vapourized by an overconcentration of oxidised covalent Bullsh1t vibrations.

Dark stuff.

 

[Mussels]

while lemonade is usually the most cynical bastard on here, he's right. This press release makes it sound like a fancy way of saying "we spend shittons of money on this, but you can beat it with a 40mm fan and some sandpaper"

 

[kylew]

I love how they've intentionally made the graph start somewhere around 78 so that on first glance it looks as if its cooling performance is 50% better.

 

[lemonadesoda]

^^ Agreed. They should have started the graph at 82 so it looks 4x better.

The diamonds do heat dissipation four times faster than copper, it relies on the phonons which is produced by the crystal lattice vibration, to bring heat to lower temperature places

Maybe I should join Sparkle PR department? This chart looks even more convincing! LOL

 

[buggalugs]

omg thats some of the best marketing BS i've ever seen. They should have awards for this stuff.

 

[phanbuey]

how the hell did they get a 9500GT to 83C

 

[Swansen]

:shadedshu Wow, i'm not one to bash, but how ignorant can we get, seriously, did any one you actually look up the technology before making a comment? i think the obvious answer is NO.
Look, i did the searching for you, now if its to much to be bothered to read something, there is actual potential in this technology, of coarse, its much easier to bash something based on ZERO information, sounding ignorant is a much better option, what was i thinking.
I'm not saying sparkles implementation is the best, but go figure, it actually does work. FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, when you post something the world can see, make sure your words have basis in fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond-like_carbon
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=623
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/309/5740/1545
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117944851/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=5e4f733074683173dd02bcb470105fa4
http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/ser...00077000015002340000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes

 

[Basard]

Damn, you guys are too quick for me. I like pointing out flaws too!

^nobody said it doesn't work, they were just pointing out the huge amount of marketing BS. Yes we are bashing it.... put a million tiny dimples in a copper sink, coat it with zinc, and you probably get nearly the same results. Lots of stuff works, without a pile of BS behind it.

 

[Silverel]

:shadedshu Wow, i'm not one to bash, but how ignorant can we get, seriously, did any one you actually look up the technology before making a comment? i think the obvious answer is NO.
Look, i did the searching for you, now if its to much to be bothered to read something, there is actual potential in this technology, of coarse, its much easier to bash something based on ZERO information, sounding ignorant is a much better option, what was i thinking.
I'm not saying sparkles implementation is the best, but go figure, it actually does work. FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, when you post something the world can see, make sure your words have basis in fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond-like_carbon
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=623
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/309/5740/1545
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117944851/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=5e4f733074683173dd02bcb470105fa4
http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/ser...00077000015002340000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes

All that technology still only drops the card from 88c to 83c?

That's just embarrassing. I could do better by pissing on it, imo. Hence all the ridicule.

Fresh human piss > DLC

 

[kylew]

All that technology still only drops the card from 88c to 83c?

That's just embarrassing. I could do better by pissing on it, imo. Hence all the ridicule.

Fresh human piss > DLC

Uhh if it's fresh, it'll be pretty warm, so you'll get worse temps and the salt content would increase conductivity, frying your card. 6 points for effort though.

I'm not saying this tech is crap, it's just there is obviously intent to deceive when a graph like that is produced. They're just as bad those horrible performance difference graphs you get with every major GPU release or refresh.

 

[lemonadesoda]

:shadedshu Wow, i'm not one to bash, but how ignorant can we get, seriously, did any one you actually look up the technology before making a comment? i think the obvious answer is NO.
Look, i did the searching for you, now if its to much to be bothered to read something

I'm not exactly sure how an 85 year lifespan of ball bearing abrasion resistance is relevant to a cooler. We also dont need flurinated DLC coatings to stop calc build up. After all, this is an air cooler, not a heat exchanger.

But then again... let's wait for the marketing people to explain. I'm sure they've got a theory.

Oh, did I read about fluorine processes in the links? Not very green.

 

[OnBoard]

If they get 5C with such a bad cooler, wouldn't it be 10C with a good cooler?

Could this mean no more lapping needed, that is if cooler base is straight. If it isn't good luck sanding that stuff

 

[kylew]

:shadedshu Wow, i'm not one to bash, but how ignorant can we get, seriously, did any one you actually look up the technology before making a comment? i think the obvious answer is NO.
Look, i did the searching for you, now if its to much to be bothered to read something, there is actual potential in this technology, of coarse, its much easier to bash something based on ZERO information, sounding ignorant is a much better option, what was i thinking.
I'm not saying sparkles implementation is the best, but go figure, it actually does work. FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, when you post something the world can see, make sure your words have basis in fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond-like_carbon
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=623
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/309/5740/1545
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117944851/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=5e4f733074683173dd02bcb470105fa4
http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/ser...00077000015002340000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes

*places a bucket over your head and spins you around very fast*

 

[Suijin]

DLC (diamond is even better at these properties) is very low friction surface, high thermal conduction, and electrical insulator. These materials have also had many problems with actually using them namely: Expensive, stress in the film, and high temperature of the deposition especially with diamond.

Overall these materials could give a better thermal transfer, but you still need good thermal transfer everywhere in the path heat needs to travel to be removed. This doesn't really help the "weak" spot in thermal transfer which is the interface between the chip and the heatsink. Now if you could deposit the DLC or diamond directly to the chip and the heatsink then you would probably see the best improvement.

Other issues with DLC and diamond is sometimes they want the material to be electrically conductive and these materials generally don't match the mating materials for expansion and contraction, which can cause issues when the parts heat up and cool down cyclically.

Heh also I guess I work with all the different deposition methods like evaporation, plating, CVD, PECVD, MBE, IBD, ect. that it is really not that big a thing to say "Plasma Enhanced CVD". The method (buzz word) you build it is less important than how you build or make it perform. So yeah it still does have a bunch of marketing speak.

 

[CyberDruid]

Well the word that jumped out at me is sputtering which hardly connotes anything positive.

The first image that jumped to mind is stuttering video playback...followed by a brief image of a gas burner sputtering...

Neither of those brought to mind "State of the Art Cooling"

If they want to sell this they need to rephrase it and place an emphasis on Diamond. Hell all you have to do is put a diamond on something and it's suddenly fantastically desirable

Take ICY Diamond TIM for instance.

Call it Diamond Matrix Cooler Coating or some crap and then you've got some real marketting BS. Just threw in Matrix to make it sound all technical n shizzle.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Hire that guy!

(overheard in Sparkle Press Department)

 

[Suijin]

Well the word that jumped out at me is sputtering which hardly connotes anything positive.

The first image that jumped to mind is stuttering video playback...followed by a brief image of a gas burner sputtering...

Neither of those brought to mind "State of the Art Cooling"

If they want to sell this they need to rephrase it and place an emphasis on Diamond. Hell all you have to do is put a diamond on something and it's suddenly fantastically desirable

Take ICY Diamond TIM for instance.

Call it Diamond Matrix Cooler Coating or some crap and then you've got some real marketting BS. Just threw in Matrix to make it sound all technical n shizzle.

Heh I used to "Sputter" all the time, but now I'm in a different department and don't sputter anymore. I still etch with an ion beam though, both the focused ion beam (FIB) and the regular NASA like (the kind they used for space probe propulsion, ion engine) derived ion gun.

 

[CyberDruid]

So how come you aren't making custom waterblocks on the side

 

[D4S4]

errrmmmm... is it just me, or there's just a dozen too many typos in this article...?

i thought bta was better with english... ???

 

[btarunr]

errrmmmm... is it just me, or there's just a dozen too many typos in this article...?

i thought bta was better with english... ???

While my spell-checker doesn't show any typos, there could be poorly-structured sentences. I didn't write the release, the company did. Of course Firefox won't see terms such as DLC, phonon, heatsink as valid English words, they're technical terms. http://img.techpowerup.org/090216/bta1223.jpg spot the typos.

My English is just fine.

 

[kiriakost]

" Warning message from new Zalman Fanboy "

I will pass then out the GV1000 for test .

I got 31C drop than stock ... but wait a minute do not blame Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) .

They speak for stock coolers

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=84508

while lemonade is usually the most cynical bastard on here, he's right.

I am racing hard to catch up him




.

 

[D4S4]

While my spell-checker doesn't show any typos, there could be poorly-structured sentences. I didn't write the release, the company did. Of course Firefox won't see terms such as DLC, phonon, heatsink as valid English words, they're technical terms. http://img.techpowerup.org/090216/bta1223.jpg spot the typos.

My English is just fine.

yes, poorly structured sentences, i expressed myself in the wrong way... no pun intended

EDIT: your english is probably better than mine XD XD XD, just when i saw the article, i was like WTF?!?!??!?!?

 

[mlee49]

Welll dropping 4 degrees is quite impressive on a 9500 GT I must scoff, but really why would a few degree drop warrant a whole new Diamond Sputtering Technology? I would have guessed Nvidia just lower the MHz and rebrand a new line of "entry level" GTX series to proclaim a newer cooler card!

I guess I'll live by this date, forever more are we now in the age of the Diamond Sputtering.

While my spell-checker doesn't show any typos, there could be poorly-structured sentences. I didn't write the release, the company did. Of course Firefox won't see terms such as DLC, phonon, heatsink as valid English words, they're technical terms. http://img.techpowerup.org/090216/bta1223.jpg spot the typos.

My English is just fine.

+1 for perfect spelling!

 

[Silverel]

If they get 5C with such a bad cooler, wouldn't it be 10C with a good cooler?

Could this mean no more lapping needed, that is if cooler base is straight. If it isn't good luck sanding that stuff

6% better cooling. Figure your "good" cooler can take these cards to 45c, this tech would further drop it to 42.3c in a perfect world. Things ain't perfect though, and I would expect to lose another degree or so in the process.

Of course, if they applied this to a decent cooler and it showed decent results, I could be more excited. Stick it on an Ultra 120 and drop the temps by 3-4c, that'd be awesome. Stick it on a cooler that starts near 90c and drop by 4-5c, not so damn impressive.