AliExpress GPU Backplate Coolers Examined, Largely Ineffective

Der8auer examined two very uncommon cooling options from Aliexpress aimed toward decreasing the floor temperature on the backplate of the Greatest Graphics Playing cards. Nevertheless, upon testing with a Gigabyte RX 6900 XT, he discovered each coolers underwhelming of their execution and supplied no tangible enhancements to graphics card temperatures.

Backplate cooling is nothing new, however the cooling units Der8auer confirmed off are very uncommon, being very huge and ponderous units with lively cooling. That is extremely overkill for many graphics playing cards because the backplate (typically) doesn’t home any high-wattage elements that might require beefy coolers. The one exception can be the RTX 3090 (non-Ti), which options half of its GDDR6X reminiscence ICs on the rear of the cardboard. However even on this case, passive cooling from a backplate is mostly ok except you are trying into reminiscence overclocking.

The primary cooling unit Der8auer examined was made totally out of copper, comprised of two followers put in inside a copper heatsink — made out of 5 giant copper sheets stacked on prime of one another. The set up mechanism concerned zip ties and tape to “securely” mount the cooling machine to the GPU backplate.

The subsequent machine is much more unusual, with a really uncommon L-shaped design that includes three very lengthy heatpipes related to a distribution plate on one finish and a heatsink on the opposite. Der8auer experiences that directions didn’t include this mannequin, however apparently, the machine makes use of the identical zip tie mounting mechanism as the previous machine since there aren’t any screw holes or any refined cooling mounts situated on the machine in anyway.

In testing, Der8auer discovered that each cooling options didn’t stay as much as expectations, solely dropping backplate temperatures on a Gigabyte RX 6900 XT by 5C and 8C, respectively. Even worse, each options didn’t drop GPU temperatures in any respect, offering no tangible advantages to GPU longevity or efficiency.