Swiftech released a pair of hybrid cooling solutions for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480, GTX 470 and GTX 465 graphics cards, that are aimed to provide better cooling compared to full-coverage water blocks. The principle revolves around treating the GPU as a separate thermal zone from the rest of the card, so that water-cooling can focus on cooling the GPU, while heat from the GPU isn’t transferred to the rest of the relatively cooler heat producing parts (such as memory chips, VRM FETs, etc.). Swiftech’s offer includes MCW-GTX480 and MCW-GTX470 (which should be compatible with GTX 465 reference design, too). These consist of the MCW80 GPU water block that’s designed to handle the thermal loads of GF100, and a full-coverage aluminum heatsink that covers all critical heat-producing areas on the PCB, including the memory chips and the VRM. The heatsink is further designed such that the user can mount an 80 mm fan onto it, for even higher cooling performance. The sets are priced lower than most full-coverage water-blocks, the MCW80-GTX480 is priced at $99.95, while the MCW80-GTX470 goes for $98.95.

Without making much noise, Swiftech introduced its latest creation, a successor to the MCW60, the MCW80 universal GPU water-block. This water block has a wide-range of compatibility with this generation of GPUs. It uses a copper block with a high-density pin matrix to increase surface area of heat dissipation. The housing is made of black Delrin. It measures 49.6 x 49.6 x 32.2 mm, and weighs 141 g. The block is compatible with eurostyle fittings with built-in o-ring, and sticks to G 1/4 thread specification for the ports. With the appropriate hold-down, the MCW80 supports the latest GPUs, including ATI Radeon HD 5800/5900 series, and NVIDIA GeForce 400 series. It is priced at US $56.95. The GeForce 400 series kit is coming soon, at a price of $11.99.