Testing

To assess how efficient the KuForumla VF1 Plus is at cooling a graphics card, I picked a usually rather warm card to test it with, my trusty Sapphire x1900XT. To test the cooler I ran RTHDRIBL (Real Time High Dynamic Range Image Based Lighting) along with artifact scanning in ATI Tool. This combination of 3d applications stresses a card much more than running a simple 3dMark will as between tests the load is dropped from the card while the next test loads; this way there is constant load on the card.

Test Rig

Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.2ghz
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Sapphire x1900XT @ Stock
2gb OCZ Special Ops Urban Elite @ 900Mhz
Hiper TypeR 580w PSU (Rear 90mm Exhaust fan removed).

The case is a SLK3800B-UK with one intake 120mm fan and one exhaust 120mm fan.
Arctic Silver 5 Heatpaste was used
Ambient temperature was 19 Degrees C.

I took the temperatures of the core (Using ATI Tool) while at full load and at idle on each of the different fan settings: High, medium and low. This way you can see the effect of running the fan at lower speeds to find your own perfect balance of noise/performance.

As you can see the temperatures this cooler leaves you with is very impressive. At high 36 degrees at idle, and a cool 45 at load makes this cooler the best that I have tried on my x1900XT, and I have tried a few. However, the best part is that even on the lowest setting, where the fan is very quiet indeed, the temperatures are not much worse; only 4 degrees difference at idle, and 5 degrees at load.

Since the temperatures were so low, I was able to increase the overclock on my card from a very slight 8% overclock to a much more impressive 25% OC. I really noticed the difference in frame rates with settings maxed out in BF2142. Needless to say, I was very happy with this cooler.

Noise

With the fan running at its highest RPM, it does give off quite a lot of noise, however as the results show, the temperature drops that extra few degrees. Although the temperature does increase as the fan slows down, on the "Low" setting the fan is almost silent making it a really viable option for those that don't want extremely low temperatures but need a quiet pc. It is simply a matter of taste with this one, which you want more, quiet or performance.

Price

The price for this cooler is around the £22 mark which to me seems perfectly reasonable for the performance this cooler gives you. If you don't want the full blown "Plus" version you can buy just the heatsink for around £14 and perhaps add your own fan later.