Review: ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid 7970
Category : Aircooling
Published by Christian Ney on 19.09.12
With the Accelero Hybrid 7970, ARCTIC has a powerful cooler to calm down the Radeon HD 7970 graphics card. The cooler is an air and liquid combined solution for AMD's 7800/7900 high end graphics cards. This way ARCTIC provides you with a powerful and high quality cooling solution which is able to cool down the entire graphics card silently and more effectively. We are going to confront it with AMD's stock cooler as weel as XFX's Double Dissipation cooler.
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On the following pages we will show you what the Accelero Hybrid 7970 from ARCTIC is capable of.
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Preview
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Specifications and included in delivery
Specifications
| Model | ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid 7970 |
| Base material | Copper |
| Material | Plastic |
| Heat Exchanger material | Aluminium |
| Dimension (L x W x H) | 243 mm x 112 mm x 44.2 mm |
| Dimension of the heat exchanger (L x W x H) | 150 mm x 120 mm x 52.8 mm |
| Weight | 363 g |
| Weight of the heat exchanger | 503 g |
| Fan | 80 mm, 900 - 2,000 RPM (controlled by PWM) Fluid Dynamic Bearing 13.1 CFM / 22.3 m3/h |
| Fan of the heat exchanger | 120 mm, 400 – 1,350 RPM (controlled by PWM) Fluid Dynamic Bearing 74 CFM / 125.7 m3/h |
| Noise level | 0.3 Sone |
| Warranty | 2 years |
| On the manufacturer's website | Accelero Hybrid 7970 (DCACO-V75A001-GB) |
Included in delivery
- Cooling block
- Mounting kit for Graphics card, see the compatibility list.
- 31x Heatsinks for memory chips and VRM
- 22x Screws
- 7x Washers
- 4x 3.5 mm Spacer
- 4x 4.0 mm Spacer
- 2x Adhesive Tape
- 5x Insulation Tape
- 3x Rubber Pads
- 3x Thermal Adhesive
- 1x MX-4 (0.5g, syringe)
- 4-Pin Fan Power Adapter
- 1x Mounting Mask
- 1x Cable Tie
- 1x VGA Bracket
- 1x Manual
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Construction and design
Construction
The Accelero Hybrid 7970 hasn't got a highly polished copper base plate like you can find it with coolers from other brands. There is no visible mirror affect at all. But as you can see on the picture below, the backplate has a very good mirror effect though. Perfect for a makeup. Unlike other coolers from ARCTIC we tested, on the Accelero Hybrid they didn't pre-apply their MX-4 thermal compound onto the base plate. We can't complain this time as they provide their MX-4 thermal compound in a syringe. The cooling solution itself looks like those all-in-one watercoolers for processors out there with the particularity of being for the GPU and with an additional fan to cool the rest of the graphics card. This part is made of plastic completely and features a PWM controlled 80mm fan.
Design
We did not see any manufacturing mistakes on our sample, and it seems that it has been well made which means that manufacturing is on a good level. The design is standard for this kind of passive coolers. The design of the shell is aggressive and reminds me of Formula 1 racing car or a sci-fi gun. This one is made of plastic and coloured in black with a product sticker on it. The fan is white as usual with ARCTIC. The radiator on the other hand is very common though.
Fan
The Accelero Hybrid 7970 has actually 2 fans. One standard ARCTIC 120 mm PWM fan for the radiator with a speed range from 400 up to 1'350 RPP. Specs for this one according to ARCTIC are the following:- Airflow: 74 CFM / 125.7 m3/h
- Noise Level: 0.3 Sone
- Current / Voltage: 0.22A / 12V
- Power Consumption: 2.64W
The other fan is located under the shell and is here to cool down the rest of the graphics card such as PCB, VRMs and memory chips. This one is a 80 mm fan PWM as well with a speed range from 900 up to 2'000 RPM. Specs are:
- Airflow: 13.1 CFM / 22.3 m3/h
- Noise Level: 0.3 Sone
- Current / Voltage: 0.13A / 12V
- Power Consumption: 1.56W
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Mounting
To mount the Accelero Hybrid properly you'll find only one mounting kit compatible with AMD's Radeon HD 79xx/78xx, 69xx/68xx and 58xx series. Installing the cooler will actually take you some time, took me almost one hour to do so. If you follow the manual then everything will go fine, it's not hard but it just take some time, especially if you put all the heatsinks on your graphics card. Tip: when you mount the backplate, be sure to aim the right holes otherwise it will be not possible to mount it right and fast/easy.
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Testsystem and test-routine
Testsystem
| Mainboard | ASUS P8P67 Pro |
| Processor | Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4 GHz 4c/8t |
| Memory | G.Skill RipjawsZ Dual Channel 4x4GB CL9-9-9-24-DDR3-1600 MHz |
| Graphics card | XFX Radeon HD 7970 Double Dissipation Reference PCB |
| Coolers |
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| Hard disk | Samsung SSD 830 128GB |
| Power supply | Seasonic X-Series 750 Watts |
| Thermal grease | ARCTIC MX-4 |
Test Setup
For ou tests, we used XFX's HD 7970 Double Dissipation card, on which we used different coolers with the provided thermal compound applied for each coolers. We used AMD's CCC 12.8 to control fan speeds and GPU-Z for the monitoring part of both fan speeds and GPU temperatures. We used HWInfo for the VRM temperature monitoring. Room Temperature: 25°CFor the noise level results, we measured the noise level using a decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) located at 1 meter away from the graphics card.
- Idle, temperature is taken after 5 minutes @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed.
- For FurMatk, temperature is taken after 10 minutes of GPU Burn test @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed. (1920 x 1080 (60 Hz), 8x MSAA, Full Screen)
- Highest temperature reached under Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed after 1 hour gameplay.
- Highest temperature reached under BattleField 3 @ 30 %, 50 % and 100 % fan speed after 1 hour gameplay.
- Highest temperature reached by the VRMs under BattleField 3 (after 1 hour gameplay) and at idle (5 minutes after boot) with auto fan speeds.
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Fan Speed / Noise Level
Fan Speed
Noise Level
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VRM Temps
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Idle / FurMark
Idle Temperature
Temperature under Furmark
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Call of Duty MW3 / BattleField 3
Call of Duty MW3
BattleField 3
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| What ARCTIC offers here is an all-in-one watercooling solution for graphics card that also cools the rest of the PCB/components (VRMs and memory chips) thanks to an additional fan. The quality is as always at a high level and you get what you pay for. Talking about the price, this beast is expensive, you will have to pay around 110 Euros to calm down your HD 7970 with this awesome cooling system. Awesome because it is simply perfect, top performance, low noise level, extremely well furnished bundle, low VRM temps and good build quality, what do you need more? | -
Performance - Manufacturing quality - Bundle - MX-4 not pre-applied - Design - VRM Cooling |
- Price - 3 Slots | |
| Installation | + | - | |
| Mounting the cooler is quite easy but does take a lot of time. It may takes a lot of time to mount it on the graphics card but it is worth it. ARCTIC provides all you need in the bundle and aven more (lots of spares heatsinks). Heatsinks for VRM, memory chips are made of aluminium and seemed to be quite efficient as we didn't have higher VRM temps than using the reference cooler. The mounting kit is very robust and when the cooler is mounted it doesn't move and provide excellent pressure on the GPU. Insulation tape and mounting mask are also very handy. | - Easy with well done manual - Pressure on the GPU - Insulation tape / Mounting mask | -Take some time | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| Performance is at a very high level and therefore the cooler managed to keep our HD 7970's GPU as cool as 58°C under FurMark's Burn test with 30 % fan speed which is even more impressive when you consider that other coolers failed this test. With fans at 100 %, the GPU was at 48°C with the Accelero Hybrid., other coolers were capable of only 60°C. So with the Accelero Hybrid no need to worry about noise level under gaming experience with only 52°C max while driving the fans at 30 % (almost noiseless). Compared to other coolers that's awesome as to reach max 52°C you have to drive them at 100 % wich in case of the AMD Stock cooler is like having an airplane taking off just next to you. Also VRM temps are really good, they stay around 55°C in load. | -
Top Performance - Noise level - VRM Temps |
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| Recommendation | + | - | |
| The Accelero Hybrid targets people who have money in fact. Because the Accelero Hybrid is an expensive alternative cooling solution but hell it's good! |
- Gaming - Overclocking - Enthusiasts |
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Office PC - Desktop - HTPC |
The ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid receives the best of the best five out of five stars.
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Author: Christian Ney c.ney@ocaholic.ch