When we first reported on the GeForce 8800 GT graphics card back in November, we were impressed with its performance and a cooling solution that occupied a single case slot. Although the design was sleek with its components concealed under an all-metal enclosure, the heat generated from a busy GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) at stock fan speeds approached 100 °C.
We demonstrated that GPU and memory temperatures can be reduced by increasing the speed of the graphics card cooling fan. However, there was a point at which noise became a distraction, which resulted in an exercise to achieve a balance between fan noise and the amount of cooling provided. If the owner is unable to achieve that balance, they may resort to purchasing an aftermarket cooler or a graphics card with specialized cooling such as Inno3D's i-ChiLL Series.
Inno3D GeForce 8800 GT i-ChiLL
Inno3D's i-ChiLL Series is comprised of graphics cards with custom cooling solutions from ArticCooling and Zalman. The i-ChiLL product line comes with a three year warranty and includes the following features:
Gold plated TV out and DVI connector for better signal quality and less oxidization
Solid capacitors for stable power voltage and advance durability
Stylish Ramsinks that assists with heat penetration
Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction
Exceeds normal overclocking speeds with up to 10%
The i-ChiLL model being reviewed is the GeForce 8800 GT Accelero X1 (cooling provided by ArticCooling). The Accelero X1 features a large 60mm cooling fan with technologies like fluid dynamic bearings, vibration absorbtion, heat pipes and voltage converter cooling. The unit retails for approximately $20.
For additional information about the cooler, please check out OverClocker Cafe's review, where they took the opportunity to disassemble it.
PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES
The retail packaging of the i-ChiLL Series is distinct with its black coloring and round holes that are neatly punctured from the box. Underneath the product sticker, which bears the i-ChiLL logo and lists core (700MHz) and memory speeds (2000MHz), are thumbnail images of the features mentioned previously.
Packaging
Accessories include a well documented user manual covering the graphics card and driver control panel applets, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, a PCI-Express power adaptor, S-Video and HD connectors, an installation kit that includes a software and driver CD (v169.06) and the full version of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) 2.
Accessories
SPECIFICATIONS
With a custom cooling solution, Inno3D took the opportunity to increase clock speeds over the reference model as shown by the GPU-Z report below. NVIDIA's reference model calls for core, shader, and memory clock speeds of 600MHz, 1500MHz, and 900MHz respectively.
GPU-Z Report
Inno3D's i-ChiLL exceeds the reference core by 16.7% and memory by 11.1%. Even higher clock speeds are possible - especially with the shader processors, which are running at the default of 1500MHz.
