Late last year we reviewed the Thermalright HR-03 GTX, the first aftermarket air cooler to support the nVidia GTX 260 and 280 video cards. Thermalright subsequently released a Rev.A version of this same cooler to expand compatibility for the newest 55nm die-shrunk GT200 core cards, the revamped 260 core 216, the 275 and the 285. While the HR-03 series are certainly great coolers, yielding on average 20°C reduction in load temperatures, they are also quite large and take up a good bit of space regardless of whether you install it with the heatpipe fins wrapped over the back of the card or hanging out the front. Depending on the size of your CPU cooler, other motherboard components and how much space there is in your PC case, you may run into interference issues using the HR-03, especially in SLI or Crossfire.

So in response to this Thermalright developed the T-Rad² specifically aimed at supporting multi-card configurations. With its slim 25mm height the T-Rad² offers the same nickel-plated copper heatpipe and aluminum fin cooling as the HR-03 series, but in a much thinner package. The original T-Rad² supported nVidia 8800 and 9800 series as well as ATI 3800 and 4800 cards. Once again however the nVidia GT200 core cards were left out. I'm happy to report that Thermalright has addressed this and have sent over their latest revision of the cooler for review, the T-Rad² GTX.


The T-Rad² GTX continues support for nVidia 8800/9800 and ATI 3800/4800 cards while adding the nVidia GT200 55nm core cards to the compatibility list, although for some reason the 65nm GTX 260 and 280 cards are not included. The T-Rad² GTX uses the same overall design as the original, including six copper heatpipes, large aluminum fin surface area and dual 92mm fans included. Can the compact T-Rad really cool as well as the awesome HR-03 series though? Join me as I aim to find out!