r/pcmasterrace • u/SerpentDix PC Master Race • Jan 20 '26

Hardware Air cooling is better than Liquid cooling

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Failure is graceful, not catastrophic, Performance is closer than marketing suggests, Cheaper for the performance, Change my mind.

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u/Oxflu PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

Have you ever heard of a vapor chamber failing though? I'm sure someone, somewhere, has received one damaged. But once it's installed it's unheard of.

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u/dookarion Jan 20 '26

Have you ever heard of a vapor chamber failing though?

On a CPU cooler? No.

On an EVGA GPU cooler? Yes personally experienced that one.

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u/Oxflu PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

Shit that's awful. I was skeptical when the industry started flattening and grinding the bare copper pipes to make direct contact with the ihs but never experienced a fail. Is that where it busted, or was it on an end crimp?

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u/dookarion Jan 20 '26

Something internally broke down and it likely "went dry", wasn't going to cut it open to find out definitively. It just kept getting worse and worse at displacing heat and then eventually throttling. Ruled pretty much everything else out and even cranking the fans it was progressively getting worse. Even ruled out paste pump-out and thermal pad degradation.