Alphacool Eisblock Aurora GPX-N RTX 3080 / 3090 / 3090 TI

Mit dem Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Plexi GPX-N RTX 3090/3080 will ich die neue Runde der GPU-Wasserblöcke beginnen, aber diesmal für Ampere und nicht Turing. Eine Wasserkühlung ergibt bei Verlustleistungen über 300 Watt durchaus einen Sinn und schafft einen echten Mehrwert. Beginnen wir jetzt mit dem Alphacool-Produkt, das mir als erstes Modell zur Verfügung stand, der mögliche Rest kommt später.

With the Alphacool GPU water block Aurora Plexi GPX-N RTX 3090/3080 I want to start the new round of GPU water blocks, but this time for Ampere and not Turing. A water cooling system makes sense with power losses of over 300 watts and creates real added value. Let’s start now with the Alphacool product, which was the first model available to me, the possible rest comes later.

Wer wie ich eine RTX 3090 Founders Edition (FE) zum Launch zur UVP erstehen konnte, der kann sich eigentlich nicht beschweren. Reichlich Leistung für 144 FPS in den meisten Spielen auch noch bei den höchsten Grafik-Einstellungen und, wenn wir ehrlich sind auch die Wertsteigerung von über 50%, tragen natürlich zur Wertschätzung bei. Nur gibt es wie so oft auch negative Facetten, in diesem Fall die Kühlung und besonders die des GDDR6X VRAMs.

As threatened last week, the Alphacool ice block GPX-N won’t be the only modification to my RTX 3090 Founders Edition. Today we’re going to look at the shunt resistors, the ones the GPU uses to measure how much power it’s consuming and if necessary downclocks itself if Nvidia’s limits of 350 or 400 W are reached. While we’re at it, let’s take another look at the water block assembly, because while the 19°C delta between the water and GPU wasn’t bad, it could admittedly be better.

I mentioned in the review of the Eisblock ES Acetal that I was not expecting Alphacool to be the best value offering when I went in testing the first batch of GPU blocks I received. That was a touch misleading on purpose since I only mentioned Alphacool, but was actually referring to this block. Coming in at ~$135 with an included backplate, it is the least expensive of the six combinations tested thus far and beats out the other Alphacool option by $15. I was not sure I read that right initially since an acetal top block with no lighting typically ends up costing less than a plexi top version with integrated RGB lighting, but the cooling engine and top construction is basically identical here, and the ES Acetal ends up employing the side-mounted I/O that requires more thought than the more typical top terminal unit seen here.