While i agree that they could use a Much Better Cooler, concerned not only to that 10x60mm alu fins that they sliced out, for 250W+ power hungry monster (even if it was only 210-220W). I think you're on wrong path if you think that HP reduction would improve situation at all. TR HR-03 Plus popular in times when first power hungry monster 8800Ultra arrived, had 6 heatpipes specially for these babies and was much larger. And you still needed high CFM fan blower to cool it down.
As 80mm fan goes. It's pretty standard as no G80/GT200 chip hasnt have better stock alike blower. These kind of things arent produced in as many aftermarket sizes as other fans and 100mm is first in line and it would probably mess up with pcb layout. And they're simply not interested to design special fans just for overclockers dream cards like GTX280/GTX480 that are produced in extremely low volumes.
Oh I was just pointing out some of the most apparent problems.
The fins can easily be extended towards the fan for at lease 1/2 an inch.
As for the heatpipes, their job is only to help heat transfer, if the fins can't cool down fast enough more heatpipes are just useless.
Thermalright is known for designing top notch coolers, and it is not the number of HPs that makes them so good.
I agree. The problem with the GTX480 isn't the cooler, it's the chip. We can't but help it to always compare it to a dual chip solution, not only because it delivers similar performance but because it runs just as hot, there's no denying the fact - it produces just as much hea if not more. But the problem is that unlike a dual chip solution, where you have the luxury to dissipate the heat from each chip separately, it focuses all that heat in one point and it;s only natural that the less hinders heat dissipation.
The cooler certainly have something to do with it.
You make a hot chip, you better get us to STFU with a good cooler.
If nVidia actually put more effort in the cooling and manage to cool this thing down, I will hardly have much to bitch about.