Zalman VF3000N

Zalman VF3000N GPU Cooler

When someone is evaluating their options for getting their PC to run cooler, one of the first places they tend to look is at CPU cooler. But today, it seems like that should be one of the last places to look, since today's CPUs are more power efficient than ever, resulting in temperatures that rarely reach dangerous levels. Our graphics cards haven't enjoyed quite the same perk, though. While they've continued to experience die shrinks and lower power consumption, the performance is continually beefed up and in many cases, today's GPU cores can run almost twice as hot as a current CPU under hard stress. Between AMD and NVIDIA, users of cards from the latter have been on the rough end of the stick, as the company's GPU dies have been overly large across the past two generations, and while they are powerful, the larger dies result in a lot more heat, and with them fitting into the same form-factors, they've proven difficult to keep cool. As a result, there have been many after-market coolers available for consumers who don't mind investing in improved cooling, while also seeking lower noise.