How to improve an existing design? Stand out from the crowd? When it comes to GPU cooling options, it mostly comes down to the same senior thing: a choice of one, two, or three fans and fancy graphics on shrouds and greebla, or maybe almost none at all.
XFX, on the other hand, may have other ideas. While I can’t be entirely sure what we’re looking at here, it’s true he tweeted a photo of what looks suspiciously like a removable fan in the GPU cooler:
Something nippy is coming. pic.twitter.com/oI21L9XCHYJune 12, 2024
Okay, let’s get to it then. Considering the extensive experience of the PC Gamer hardware team, none of us can remember a time when a graphics card fan died and needed to be replaced, although we did encounter the odd squeaking thing. Granted, it’s not a very gigantic sample size, but few people have used more GPUs in their lifetime than we have.
When it comes to squeaking fans, well, as the senior saying goes, there’s always grease. However, I’m sure some of you have experienced a dead GPU fan. Then be ecstatic?
But seriously, while it’s tempting to condemn XFX for teasing a feature that at first glance seems mostly unnecessary, it may be indicative of a deepening commitment to repairability.
And I can really stand behind that. Today, too many technologies are arduous or even impossible to repair when a part fails, and while GPU fans are not known for giving up the ghost too often, making them easier to remove seems like a concession to user repair. And if that’s the case, then congratulations.
On the other hand, maybe I’m reading this image wrong. Perhaps the fans are spring loaded to, err, dampen vibration, and what is shown here is the spring tension.
Or maybe the fans themselves come in different, interchangeable versions, some with higher airflow, others tuned for lower noise levels. The possibilities are… well, it seems there are some possibilities.
I really don’t know. However, something strange seems to be brewing in the cooling department on the XFX, and I’m at least intrigued.