VR Features

Overclocking boils down largely to two two quantifiable aspects: thermal management, and operation/signalling voltages. By utilising proprietary voltage regulation and thermals, both the Eagle and Vvikoo are essentially tuners' dream-come- true. Let's take a look at the thermal solution presented with the two.

Two slot design.

With the exception of two, sample RAM ICs were individually cooled. Air is directed over the entire card in bid of cooling supporting components.

Springed mounts ensure even pressure over the GPU die.

Not the shiniest surface, but flat nontheless. Heatpipes are soldered onto the baseplate, but press-fitted into the fins for our sample.

Two-pin fan used does not allow fan control via software. Cooler was relatively silent though.

All-so-familiar Zalman VF-1000 onboard. Heatpipe is soldered to the fins.

0.14A fan directs air over the entire assembly. Even though the fan runs at full-speed all the time, like the Eagle, there was not much noise to talk about.

RAM heatspreader.

The stamped aluminium profile in contact with the RAM ICs.

Grey-goop. A free performance boost from premium paste is possible.

GPU MOSFET heatsink.

We ran three loops of 3DMark06's GT2 and GT4 with 8xAA for GPU load, with room temperature hovering around 20 degrees Celsius. Temperatures were monitored on RivaTuner. Rather unfortunate was the inability to test for temperatures on the Eagle, which did not a have a onboard thermal sensor detected by RivaTuner. Not to forget, the Eagle is still an early sample, compared to the on-the-shelves Vvikoo.

Maximal load temperature.