This is the first time that Swiftech have released a Komodo block. Previously the Swiftech blocks were sold as the EVGA Hydrocopper block. Finally Swiftech decided there was enough demand to sell both. While the Hydrocopper is by far the most expensive GPU block on the market the Komodo is more affordable even though it’s still pricey. The Titan and 780 blocks are the same except for the labelling. The box is plain:

It does however come with some things that no other block does come with:

The steel bracket in the bottom right of the photo can be mounted around the GPU core itself. This does not come with the default card and is not provided by any other manufacturer. Swiftech claims that it will reduce any stress effects on the PCB from mounting a block. This seems like a good thing and it’s good to see it here. The accessories themselves are quite minimal:

Two stop fittings, some TIM and a bunch of different screws. The stop fittings can be tightened with a wrench of a hex/allen key (not provided). The block itself looks far better than the EVGA version. The insert is larger and matches the rest of the block a lot better:

Simply put it looks a bit classier. The underside shows the chrome plated copper base with pre-fitted thermal pads, the screw threads are not tapped into the copper but instead are of a stronger metal that is then pressed into the copper and tapped as a blind hole:

It’s a nice to pre-fit the thermal pads, sadly as we’ll see later they are not very good. In addition there is a little 2 pin connector to power LED lighting inside the bridge connector, while the EVGA logo will light up red, on the komodo the Swiftech symbol lights up green:

This is a nice touch given that the air cooler on the Titan also lights up green. The backplate itself is milled out of chunky 6mm aluminum. The swiftech logo however is a bit too large for my liking. I tend to favor a subtle classy style, and a huge blingy label doesn’t do that for me:

The thermal pads for the backplate are again attached, interestingly they are not the same as used on the block itself:

Internals

These are taken after testing so some wear and tear on the block is expected. Unlike most blocks the routing channels are not carved out of the copper but instead the acetal:

The chrome plating looked like it had been polished off a bit around the main coooling engine:

There is no additional surface area added for VRM/VRAM cooling.

Performance

For more detail of the testing check out the detailed analysis page. The Komodo is a strong thermal performer coming in second place on single GPU core temperatures:

For lower flow rates, the Komodo loses some ground:

However it is the VRAM temperatures where the Komodo starts to show it’s weakness:

The theme continues where it’s VRM temperatures are nearly 30C worse than the EK block:

Flow wise the block is the least restrictive of any block, however it’s not much better than the EK which produced significantly better results on VRMs/VRAMs.

Fitting

The Swiftech design is by far the hardest and most complicated of any block to fit. While it is nice that Swiftech do have you screw the end PCB bracket down to the block itself, it also uses 5 different types of screws to mount the block properly. Nearly every other manufacturer uses only one type of screw. Two or three I could accept if they were necessary but five is just strikingly unnecessary and smacks of poor design.

Summary

A strong showing at 1GPM and high flow design is not enough to offset the poor VRM and VRAM results and ridiculous method of attaching the block using so many different screws. On top of that this is still quite pricey.

7/10 – Better value than the near identical Hydrocopper but the weak VRM performance really hurts. Sadly for Swiftech the XSPC outperforms it on every metric except flow.

Where to buy: PPCs $150 (Includes backplate)

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17 COMMENTS

  4. Your tests make absolutely no sense at all. They contradict themselves. For example your average GPU temps vs. flow chart puts the EK block as the worst performing. That is pretty much the meat of a block’s performance, it’s ability to cool tge GPU. Yet you gave the EK your best score. Do you put that much importance to VRAM temps? Hell, I don’t even look at that. I couldn’t tell you my VRAM temps without looking at them first.

    How could you give your hottest GPU running one your best award?

    • Did you read the whole thing?

      A gold award was also given to the XSPC block as well which had the best core performance and decent VRM performance. It was pointed out that if you favor core temps then choose XSPC and if you are overclocking hard and are concerned about VRM temps (not VRAM temps) that you might want to consider the EK. In both cases at normal flow rates the difference in core temps between the EK and the other blocks is not that large. It only significantly departs at low flow rates. Bear in mind the hardcore overclockers will run 1.3V on the core while I was running 1.212V and hadn’t even overclocked the memory. Hardcore overclockers will have far worse VRM temps that I saw where the worst blocks were already 60C over ambient. I agree VRAM temps don’t matter as much, but I do care about VRM temps when they are 60C above ambient. I tried to give the reader a choice and if like you they only care about core temps then they should choose the XSPC 🙂

  5. Could you explain why the EKSE block has a higher Delta, despite it having a larger coverage over the gpu? It seems like a mixup or it could be something I don’t understand.
    Thanks.

    • The core cooling depends on a lot of factors – total surface area e.g. number of fins, depth of fins, total cooling engine size etc. Also distance and bow of block from the GPU core and of course flow rate. Back during the 2012 CPU block roundup I took a look at the cooling engine sizes and tried to see if I could find any patterns between the performance and any of the metrics I could measure. Sadly I could not correlate the two, although I was unable to measure the depth of the channel which is a pretty big deal.

  6. […] Nvidia GTX780/Titan Water Block Roundup | ExtremeRigs.net | Page 2 VRM temps on EK blocks are quite a bit better. I have found this has a big impact on GK110 reference card overclocking. __________________ CMS83X MK3 Stacker Big Lian Li Forever Alone […]

  7. […] Nvidia GTX780/Titan Water Block Roundup | ExtremeRigs.net | Page 2 VRM temps on EK blocks are quite a bit better. I have found this has a big impact on GK110 reference card overclocking. __________________ CMS83X MK3 Stacker Big Lian Li Forever Alone […]

  11. Well, all comes down to looks, performance differences are small, all better than air, sadly this review does not include VRAM & VRM on air.
    But I really like the looks of aqua computer nickel/plexi+back plate, even it’s so restrictive, that can be solved.
    Water cool seems the most balanced! but looks so annoying, not for me.

  13. Im having a hard time understanding why you would give the EK block a gold award based on the tests that you admit weren’t at all accurate and the data was showing issues with the tests “so you knew it couldn’t be right” and yet you still decided it was accurate enough to use, and as a result the EK block received a 9/10.. Im not saying it does not deserve a 9/10 as i cant say how inaccurate the vrm and vram tests were, but when the card jumps up to a 9/10 because of the tests. then they really do need to be pretty accurate.

    • This was the first time we measured VRM temps so there was some uncertainty. It was later verified by improved testing on later block round ups. At some point the core results seemed similar enough and so decisions had to be based on other factors. At the end of the day we hope that the reviews educate you enough to rate the blocks in your own way (which may lead to a different overall conclusion) 🙂 There’s never one single correct answer on all of this 🙂

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