14 DAY TRIAL // Sparkle has just announced that it has finalized a new custom cooled Thermal Guru series graphics card, based on Nvidia's GTX 570 core, that offers enthusiast users improved thermal performance as well as better acoustics.
Compared with the reference cooler used by most of the GTX 570 graphics cards available on the market, Thermal Guru cuts the weight of the cooling solution nearly in half while also offering better performance.
To achieve this feat, Sparkle's card features a full-length aluminum radiator that draws the heat away from the GF110 core via four direct contact copper heatpipes.
The whole assembly is then chilled by two 80mm fans covered by a so-called “wind collecting cover.”
According to Sparkle, this setup lowers the GPU temperature in full load by 5 degrees Celsius as well as the noise generated while in operation.
But, no matter how well all these claims may sound, the Thermal Guru design isn't without its flaws, and the most important one has to do with the fact that, compared to Nvidia's reference cooler, the heat generated by the card while running will be expelled right back into the system's chassis.
In addition, it isn't clear if any sort of heatsinks or heatspreaders are used for cooling the memory chips and VRMs, or if these rely only on the airflow generated by the two 80mm fans.
Specs wise, the card is nothing out of the ordinary as the GPU runs at 732MHz while the 1.25GB of memory buffer is run at 950MHz (3800MHz data rate), the same clocks that Nvidia used for its reference card.
The GTX 570 is based on the Nvidia GF110 core and packs 480 stream processors, 60 texturing units, 40 ROP units as well as a 320-bit memory bus.
Sparkle didn't announce the price of the GTX570 Thermal Guru graphics card.