BFG 8800GT OCX & 9600GT OCX Video Card Review

The New Thermointelligence Heatsink

While the last Thermointelligence cards had a custom-designed heatsink which looked very close to the one used on reference 8600-series cards, BFG has gone a bit different route with their newer cards. Both the 8800GT OCX and the 9600GT OCX have Zerotherm’s GX815 “Gamer Edition” installed to keep temperatures under control. Instead of the copper finish the stock GX815 comes with, BFG seems to want to stick with a bit more understated dark chrome finish.


The center-mounted fan is rated to spin up to 3000RPM depending on the temperature of the core while pushing air outwards towards the fins which are mounted in a radial pattern around the core. All 120 of these thin fins is designed to take advantage of the air movement from the fan in order to pick up and then cool the heat from the heatpipes.


This cooler comes with a single 6mm heatpipe that makes direct contact with the base of the heatsink and then transports the heat away from the core to be distributed to the fins. All in all, it is an interesting heatsink design but its major downfall is that all of the heat is left within your case with no way out.

The ramsinks are attached with a simple pushpin mounting method and are oriented to take advantage of the direction the air circulation takes from the heatsink’s fan.


Both cards have identifying markings placed on one side of their ramsinks which is great for those of you with a side window on your cases. If you are spending this kind of money on either an 8800GT or a 9600GT, you are sure going to want people to know it…


The crowning glory of these coolers is their green LEDs which are sure to catch anyone’s eye. It is a nice touch and even though we usually look down on these needless touches of “bling” BFG has kept this tasteful and somewhat understated.