Open-loop cooling provides some of the best results, particularly when you have the right water block to put on your graphics card. However, when you have start putting in your own coolant, cutting the tubes and filling a reservoir, it's an expensive hassle and risky should your coolant leak onto your components.
Lynk+, a German startup, has a solution. Why not build the ultimate water block into your graphics card and then sell AIO coolers that can attach to it. At Computex 2024, Lynk+ and GPU-maker Palit teamed up to make a prototype RTX 4090 card that has a an aluminum water block on it and connects to one of Lynk+'s modular AIOs.
Unlike normal AIO coolers, Lynk+'s doesn't come with the tubes already connected to the block. You take a plastic piece called the quick connector and put it in a crevice in the graphics card's water block, using one screw to secure it. Then the tubes themselves screw onto the quick connector. The pump itself is located on the radiator.
Because you're never putting coolant into the tubes or touching the coolant, there's no risk of leaks. In theory, you could use one AIO to cool both your CPU and GPU. Or you could daisy chain multiple radiators with multiple water blocks for a system that had more than one GPU.
When we visited Palit's Computex 2024 booth, there were two different prototypes on display. The one which was sitting on a table had a 7-inch color screen on the top of its water block. So, not only would the GPU stay cool, but it would also be able to show you stats about the graphics card's performance or your fps in a game.
The other prototype, which was inside a desktop, was the same expect that it didn't have the screen on it. To be fair, a lot of enthusiasts don't need a screen in side their case; they just want excellent cooling.
A Lynk+ representative told us that the aluminum water block has a built-in, patented vapor chamber that allows it to cool even better than most open-loop systems. He claimed that he was able to run the graphics card pulling a 500W load, which is less about 50W above average, while keeping the temperature to just 60 degrees C. He said he hadn't tried overclocking the card, but with that kind of thermal headroom, the GPU maker or the user could really boost clock speeds.
In a YouTube video which was filmed before Computex, Overclocker and Cooling Expert der8auer tested the Palit + Lynk+ GPU . After 15 minutes of gaming, his RTX 4090 was consuming 390 watts, but was only 58.2 degrees C.
Right now, Lynk+ and Palit only have a protoype graphics card, but it sounds like this sound soon become a real product. We have no idea what it could cost, but if it gives you epic performance without the need to handle coolant, it could be worth every penny.
