The GTX 780 ACX SC represents something off of EVGA’s typical path. Until now, they’ve been mostly content to stick with the reference heatsink or a close approximation thereof for many of their high end cards. From the Superclocked to the Classified, there hasn’t been all that much of a departure from the norm but with the 700-series, they’ve decided to compete with the Gigabytes, Zotacs and MSIs of this world. How? By introducing a completely custom designed heatsink.

As long as there have been axial and exhaust-style heatsinks, a debate has raged about which is better for cooling performance. While the blower-type setup guarantees hot air is exhausted outside of the GPU’s immediate vicinity, attaining ultra low temperatures is difficult. On the other hand, axial “downdraft” coolers are highly efficient at cooling off a hot-running GPU core, they dump that heat back into the case, potentially playing havoc with the temperature of other components.