Introduction

April 7, 2010 is a day that will live in infamy. It was on this date that nVidia officially released the GTX 480 graphics card to the world. The nVidia GTX 480 (code named Fermi) promised and delivered unmatched performance and innovations in gaming and physics, and DirectX 11 tessellation the likes of which had never been seen. It was easy to see why this was the most anticipated graphics release dating all the way back to October 12, 2009 when ATI stunned the world with it's groundbreaking HD5970 (code named Hemlock). But it had been eons since a major release when the HD5970 came out. One would have to look all the way back to January of 2009 to find this type of buildup to the nVidia GTX 295, which was the fastest single gaming card ever available.....well, until the HD5970 came along.....and, well, graphics technology is moving fast. As much as each of these releases was built up, and the graphics wars raged, these products all delivered the goods.

Enthusiasts often have a very deep loyalty to one brand or another. With this, there comes the situation where whenever a rival product is released, the enthusiasts will jump on any flaws they can find. The GTX 480 didn't leave much in the way of performance flaws to jump on. It seemed to do everything quite well, sometimes performing at mind boggling levels. So where does one find the flaws? Well, along with the mind boggling numbers relating to frame rates and geometry calculations, came some pretty mind boggling numbers related to power consumption and heat. It wasn't only rival loyalists who jumped on this, the numbers were plain. While runner cooler and more efficiency was all the rage the GTX 480 came in a bit power hungry but more so capable of reaching temperatures that could cause concerns.

The CoolIT Omni ALC GPU Cooler takes square aim at solving the heat problems of high performance graphics cards. While the CoolIT Omni promises decreased GPU temperatures for increased life and more stable overclockability it also promises to keep the extreme heat of the GPU from warming the ambient temperature of your system. The Omni is comprised of a pump which keeps the closed circuit of liquid moving through a radiator for cooling and over the GPU and PCB components of your graphics card. A 120mm fan bolts easily into a standard case fitting which keeps air moving through the fins of the radiator. The interposer plate which attaches to the entire PCB with direct contact to the GPU channels the cooled liquid over the hotspots of the entire graphics card.