If you have a high-end graphics card such as an RTX 4090 or RTX 4080, it almost certainly has three fans because it needs all the cooling it can get. A hot card is a slow card, but a card with three fans that’s running at load is also a source of noise. Some folks try to address this problem by replacing their GPU fans with custom water blocks, but that requires them to use open-loop cooling which is expensive, difficult and a bridge too far for most people.
Cooler Masterhas a different idea. AtCES2024, the company showed off a prototype GPU cooler with dual fans that PC builders would use to replace the triple-fan setup that came preinstalled on thebest graphics cards.
Company reps said that the two fans would be its Mobius fans, which they claim will provide superior airflow at lower noise levels. Without testing, we can’t verify this claim, but probably there’s room to improve upon the fans that at least some high-end graphics cards come with.
In addition to the fans, the prototype cooler has an all-white or silver casing that covers the front of the GPU and is emblazoned with a Cooler Master logo. In the prototype I saw, the logo was just silver colored, but the company could decide to make it an RGB light before this becomes a shipping product.
While the idea of upgrading your graphics card’s cooling sounds appealing, there are a few big challenges facing this product. First, Cooler Master would need to create multiple versions of the cooler that are designed to fit on specific graphics card models. So the company would need to decide exactly which makes and models to design for. The model we saw on display was replacing the fans on an Asus graphics card.
Second, many users might be wary of removing their graphics card’s stock fans for fear of damaging the card and voiding its warranty. And, finally, users might like the aesthetics of the graphics card they bought and not want a white or gray shield covering it up.
However, if Cooler Master can show that its third-party GPU cooler provides performance improvements, it will find an audience among enthusiasts who like to push their components to the limit. We’ll have to see if this concept ever becomes a shipping product.
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Avram Piltch is Managing Editor: Special Projects. When he’s not playing with the latest gadgets at work or putting on VR helmets at trade shows, you’ll find him rooting his phone, taking apart his PC, or coding plugins. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram developed many real-world benchmarks, including our laptop battery test.
