Thermal Performance

Testing the block for thermal performance was fairly simple, once you realize that you have to measure VRM temperatures manually. As such, I installed an Omega NTC type thermistor on VRM 1 and connected it to an external display for a VRM temperature readout. TechPowerUp GPU-Z was used to monitor GPU core temperatures. The GPU was overclocked to 2 GHz, although with how GPU Boost 3.0 works, it did vary by +/- 1 clock bin (13 MHz). Similarly, with core voltage being near impossible to set manually and fix at that point, it is best to compare the results below within the data set and not with other reviews elsewhere. For what it is worth, 1.20 V was set at Vcore using EVGA Precision-X.

Everything required was placed inside a hotbox, and the ambient temperature was set to 25 °C. Gelid GC-Extreme was used as the thermal paste of choice because not every blocks come with TIM included, and cure time was taken into consideration. Five separate mounts/runs were done for statistical accuracy and to remove the chance of any mounting-related anomalies. For each run, a 60 minute Unigine Heaven 4.0 run was done, and temperatures were monitored until a steady state was reached, after which they were recorded. A delta T of GPU core/VRM and loop temperatures was thus calculated for each run with an average delta T that was then obtained across all five runs. This way, the cooling solution is taken out of the picture.


With the difference between all these blocks being just over 3 °C in terms of GPU core cooling, you know things are hard to distinguish. The Bykski FOUR GPU block and backplate do very well in cooling the GPU core, but the form over function of the backplate means there is no real benefit for VRM cooling with it, which makes it lag behind in VRM cooling, where things are more spread apart. As far as absolute numbers go, these are still a lot better than with any stock cooling solution, even when paired with a single 120 mm copper radiator.