Thermal Performance (cont.)

Estimated Water Temperature

From the previous Radiator Comparison, the most popular charts were that of Estimated Water Temperature. Building on that, mix in the broader testing and we get all new charts here too. These charts are very telling, especially with all of the performance right in front of you for all of the radiator data we have released thus far. Pay close attention to how radiators perform differently at lower flow. We chose a 400-Watt load as the general measuring stick, obviously, loads will vary, but the 400w bar gives room for a high heat output CPU and a significant single GPU load as well.

 

Overall Performance

Overall Performance seems like a simple and straightforward indicator… Maybe, but not the journey in creating the system. In order to arrive at a single score from all the data and one that reflects the performance of the radiator across all of the tests turned out to be quite an endeavor. In the end, we came up with a composite that accounts for all aspects of the radiator’s performance–thermal performance (with an emphasis on low/mid-RPM performance) and flow restriction. Even still, the composite includes every thermal restriction data point, but the emphasis on low/mid RPM reflects the market preference.