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- Date:
- Friday , August 17, 2007
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
BFGTech ThermoIntelligence Cooler Works?
A look at BFGTech's ThermoIntelligence technology and whether or not it really does what it says it is going to do for your video card's temperatures.
Introduction
BFGTech recently introduced their “ThermoIntelligence” custom video card cooling solution that was showcased on their OC2 model GeForce 8600 GTS. Earlier this week they launched even more video cards equipped with their ThermoIntelligence coolers. As you can see outlined here, BFGTech and their ThermoIntelligence technology is a back-to-basics no bullshit approach to video card cooling. While the TI cooler has some pretty “tribal flames” printed on its faceplate along with the expected BFG branding, the bling bling aspect basically stops there.
BFG’s ThermoIntelligence is all about cooling your 8-series GeForce video card, which we all know can get very hot. And that’s it; BFG just wants to cool the video card better.
Of course anyone can just say something’s cool, but the fact is the 8600 GTS ThermoIntelligence fansink maintains a 5C lower GPU temperature on average vs. the NVIDIA reference fansink with a single card setup. For power users running dual cards in an NVIDIA SLI configuration, the thermal performance gets even better with the primary card operating at up to 11C cooler. The best part is these enhanced cooling properties don't come at the cost of increased acoustic noise from the fan* or the loss of an additional add-in card slot.
It’s just simply more intelligent by design and only available from BFG Technologies.
I have to say that we like the simplistic and focused approach that BFG is taking here. Most computer hardware enthusiasts know that a cooler video card is generally a longer lasting and happier video card when it comes to overclocking and hot case environments.
So of course this begs the question, “Does it do what it says it is going to do, or is it a big pile of marketing fluff not worth the heatpipe it is based on? Quite frankly, we like taking our advertisers to task making sure they are being honest with our readers. While this has lead to more than a few cancelled advertising contracts over the years and even a few invoices that never got paid, the fact is that we want to make sure that what our advertisers are telling our readers is based in truth.
BFG makes some very specific statements above as to their cooler’s performance so it is going to be very easy to hold its feet to the fire. That said, most video cards we see with out-of-box custom cooling solutions very rarely make specific performance claims. So while BFG gets kudos for having some balls when it comes to walking the walk, have they given us enough rope to hang them with?
ThermoIntelligence Design
The downside to basing a heatsink and fan unit (HSF) on performance rather than aesthetics means you usually get something that is not all that much fun to look at. Putting the stock 8600 GTS HSF next to the ThermoIntelligence unit, disregarding the pretty printing on the faceplate, there is nothing to tell you that one unit is better than the other.
Outside of the fact that the units have fans on different ends and a slight different footprint, I would suggest you could not pick the better one on sight alone. The ThermoIntelligence unit even lacks “ThermoIntelligence” branding, which would seem to be a misstep by someone in the marketing department. Removing the covers from the units we get a look at the guts of the operations.
STOCK HSF
Basically above we have a small fan that blows across a series of aluminum or tin heatsink fins that are mated to the GPU via a copper heatplate. Now while many will argue that heatpipes are used in this stock cooler, you will notice that they are crushed flat. A heatpipe needs internal volume to operate which this stock unit surely does not have. This relegates this to simple multiple strips of copper used to transfer heat from the copper heatplate to the fins which is then exhausted into the case.
BFG ThermoIntelligence HSF
The BFG ThermoIntelligence unit has an obvious advantage in terms of heatsink surface area. The heatsink fins are more tightly packed together and then extend to a fourth side which the stock HSF does not have at all. You will also notice that the ThermoIntelligence unit has a functioning heatpipe that mates the fins to the copper heatplate. This should be a more efficient manner of moving heat off of the heatplate and to the fins than a set of simple copper strips as we saw on the stock unit.