[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
The Arctic Accelero Hybrid is a video card cooler with a liquid cooling system for the GPU and conventional air cooling for the rest of the card components. Let’s test it!
The Accelero Hybrid comes in a huge box, shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Package
Figure 2 shows the contents of the box: liquid cooler for the GPU, frame with fan, radiator fan, manual, thermal adhesive, heatsinks for memory chips and voltage regulator transistors, power adapter, thermal compound, and installation hardware.
Figure 2: Accessories
This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.
[nextpage title=”The Accelero Hybrid”]
Figure 3 reveals the sealed liquid cooling system that cools the GPU. It is a premounted system, with the coolant liquid already inside it.
Figure 3: Sealed liquid cooling system
The radiator is shown in Figure 5. It looks exactly like the radiator we saw on the Antek Kühler H2O 620 and on the Thermaltake WATER2.0 Performer CPU coolers, which is not a surprise since all these liquid cooling system are made by Asetek.
Figure 4: Radiator
Figure 5 shows the top of the GPU block, which has an integrated pump.
Figure 5: Block
[nextpage title=”The Accelero Hybrid (Cont’d)”]
In Figure 6, you can see the base of the block, which is a pure copper plate with rough finishing.
Figure 6: Base
Figure 7 shows the frame of the cooler, where the 80 mm fan is that will cool the video card components, such as memory chips and the transistors from the voltage regulator circuit.
Figure 7: Frame with fan
Figure 8 unveils the 120 mm PWM fan that must be installed on the radiator.
Figure 8: Fan
[nextpage title=”Installation”]
In order to run a performance test, we installed the Accelero Hybrid on our Point of View GeForce GTX 460 video card. Figures 9 and 10 show the card with and without its stock cooler.
Figure 9: GeForce GTX 460
Figure 10: GeForce GTX 460 with the cooler removed
The first step of the Accelero Hybrid installation is to fit the GPU block inside the frame, as shown in Figure 11. You also need to connect the wiring present on the frame to the cable on the GPU block. The radiator fan is also connected to the system. A standard peripheral power connector from the power supply powers the entire system. A cable is connected on the video card’s original fan power connector in order to control the whole system based on the PWM signal from the card.
Figure 11: Block installed into frame
Figure 12 shows the Accelero Hybrid installed on our video card.
Figure 12: Cooler installed
[nextpage title=”Installation (Cont’d)”]
The solder side of the video card is shown in Figure 13. Here you can see the backplate where the four screws that hold the cooler in place are inserted.
Figure 13: Backplate
Thanks to the several threaded holes at the base of the cooler, the Accelero Hybrid is compatible with most video cards.
Figures 14 and 15 show the four sides of the Accelero Hybrid installed on our video card.
Figure 14: Front view
Figure 15: Rear view
After installing the cooler on the video card, you must install it on a motherboard’s slot, and then install the radiator with the 120 mm fan. Arctic suggests several places and ways to instal
l it on the front or rear panels. We decided to install the radiator on the top panel in order to avoid the hot air coming from the processor cooler. See Figure 16.
Figure 16: Installation finished
[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]
We tested this VGA cooler with a Point of View GeForce GTX 460 card with 1 GB RAM. The GTX 460 GPU has a TDP of 160 W. In order to get 100% GPU usage, we ran the Folding@Home GPU client.
We compared the Arctic Accelero Hybrid to the VGA stock cooler, the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III, the Arctic Accelero Twin Turbo II, the Gamer Storm Dracula installed with two Xigmatek XLF-F1453 fans (140 mm, 1,000 rpm), and to the Deepcool V6000 VGA cooler.
Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the GPU thermal sensors). During the tests, the left panel of the case was closed.
The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed at the side of the case. We reduced the rotation of all the other fans so they wouldn’t interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which isn’t the case here.
Hardware Configuration
- Processor: Core i5-2500K
- CPU Cooler: SilverStone HE01
- Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
- Memory: 6 GB OCZ (DDR3-1600/PC3-12800), configured at 1,600 MHz and 8-8-8-18 timings
- Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
- Video card: Point of View GeForce GTX 460 1 GB
- Video resolution: 1920×1080
- Video monitor: Samsung SyncMaster P2470HN
- Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
- Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
Operating System Configuration
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
Software Used
Error Margin
We adopted a 2°C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2°C are considered irrelevant.
[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]
The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the GPU at full load.
| Cooler | Room Temp. | Noise | GPU Temp. | Temp. Diff. |
| GamerStorm Dracula | 11 °C | 47 dBA | 45 °C | 34 °C |
| Arctic Accelero Xtreme III | 13 °C | 42 dBA | 49 °C | 36 °C |
| Arctic Accelero Twin Turbo II | 11 °C | 41 dBA | 54 °C | 43 °C |
| Deepcool V6000 | 11 °C | 50 dBA | 57 °C | 46 °C |
| Stock cooler | 11 °C | 58 dBA | 85 °C | 74 °C |
| Arctic Accelero Hybrid | 15 °C | 43 dBA | 50 °C | 34 °C |
In the graph below, you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the GPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
The main specifications for the Arctic Accelero Hybrid VGA cooler include:
- Application (AMD): Radeon 4850, 4870, 4890, 5830, 5850, 5870, 6770, 6790, 6850, 6870, 6950, 6970, 7850, and 7870
- Application (NVIDIA): GeForce GTX 460, GTX 460 SE, GTX 465, GTX 470, GTX 480, GT 520, GTX 560, GTX 560 SE, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 570, GTX 580, GTX 670, and GTX 680
- Dimensions (video card module): 4.4 x 9.6 x 1.7 inches (112 x 243 x 44.2 mm) (W x L x H)
- Dimensions (radiator): 4.7 x 5.9 x 2.1 inches (120 x 150 x 52.8 mm) (W x L x H)
- Maximum TDP: 320 W
- Fins: Aluminum
- Base: Copper
- Heat-pipes: None
- Fan: 80 mm (video card module) and 120 mm (radiator)
- Nominal fan speed: 2,000 rpm (video card module) and 1,350 rpm (radiator)
- Fan air flow: 13.1 cfm (video card module) and 74 cfm (radiator)
- Maximum power consumption: 1.56 W (video card module) and 2.64 W (radiator)
- Nominal noise level: NA
- Weight: 12.8 oz (363 g, video card module) and 1.1 Lb (503 g, radiator)
- More information: https://www.arctic.ac
- Avarage price in the U.S.*: USD 170.00
* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
On our CPU cooler tests, we learned that liquid cooling systems with relatively small radiators don’t perform much better than huge heatpipe-based air coolers. The Arctic Accelero Hybrid, the first liquid cooling system for video cards we tested, followed the same rule.
The Accelero Hybrid showed a cooling performance similar to the best air coolers we tested so far, keeping a low noise level. The advantage of this product is the space required around the video card, which is far less than that of high-end aftermarket air coolers. This can be particularly important for users who use two or three video cards in the same computer.
It’s a shame, howev
er, that the Accelero Hybrid was not designed keeping in mind the limit of two slots. A video card with this cooler installed will use a little more than two slots, so if you need to install another card, it must be three slots away (i.e., leaving two unused slots) from the first one. In this case, maybe if you install only the block, without the frame, the card can use only two slots. Another drawback of the Accelero Hybrid is its price tag.
For its high cooling performance and overall quality, the Arctic Accelero Hybrid receives the Hardware Secrets Silver Award.
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