Testing methodology
To put the VGA cooler performance into perspective we're benchmarking against the standard reference cooler using a high-end Intel Haswell test platform. A detailed description of the GPU cooler being reviewed, our test platform and all comparison coolers can be found in the tables below.
Corsair HG10 Specification |
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|---|---|---|
| GPU compatibility | AMD (A1) | Radeon R9 290X, 290 |
| Compatible Water Coolers | Hydro Series | H55, H60, H75, H80, H80i, H100, H100i, H105, H110 |
| Bracket | Dimensions | 240mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 5mm (H) |
| Materials | Black Anodized Aluminium with Black ABS Shroud | |
HEXUS GPU Cooler Test Bench |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware Components | HEXUS Review | Product Page | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4790K (quad-core, overclocked up to 4.40GHz) | June 2014 | Intel.com |
| Motherboard | Asus Z97-A | May 2014 | Asus.com |
| Memory | 16GB GeIL EVO Veloce (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1866MHz | September 2012 | Geil.com.tw |
| Graphics Card | AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) | November 2013 | AMD.com |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i | - | Corsair.com |
| Storage Device | Hynix SH910A 256GB SSD | August 2014 | SKHynix.com |
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | October 2010 | Corsair.com |
| Monitor | Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) | - | Philips.co.uk |
| Operating system | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | October 2012 | Microsoft.com |
Benchmark Process
To get a feel for how the GPU coolers compare we run them using stock and maximum stable overclocked settings. In order to push the coolers to their maximum, the GPU voltage is upped by 100mV on the core and auxiliary when running overclocked tests.
We tested with a reference AMD R9 290 and three different VGA coolers; the reference cooler, the Raijintek Morpheus and the Corsair HG10 paired with a H75.
Clock speeds used are stated in the graphs using the format (core / memory) MHz. For example (947 / 5,000) denotes stock speeds of 947MHz core and 5,000MHz effective memory.
3DMark and Bioshock Infinite were used to gauge performance while Grid Autosport was used to record gaming load temperatures, noise and power consumption.
Notes
All three coolers managed similar maximum overclocks. The reference cooler managed 1,120MHz core and 6,000MHz memory, the Raijintek Morpheus achieved 1,135MHz core and 6,000MHz memory while the Corsair HG10 and H75 edged ahead with 1,135MHz core and 6,100MHz memory. Lower temperatures on both custom cooling solutions should enable better results from higher boost frequencies, as well.