• The instruction manual could have been more informative, but it's not as uninformed as some have said
• Packaging could have been better

Conclusion

The Accelero XTREME Plus II is without question, one of the best — if not the best — coolers available for today's Dante Class video cards (i.e., hellishly hot). The amount of heat produced by such products these days is personally concerning and troubling, given the technology should be headed for cooler temperatures and smaller form factors. Until such a day where manufacturers can produce such a product, we must turn to aftermarket companies who can do the required job. Arctic Cooling has successfully been taking up the slack for many years, and demonstrates its effectiveness on a massive scale with the Accelero XTREME Plus II.

Installation was not too complex, however I've dealt with many installations over the years and somewhat knew what was coming — instruction manuals always are lacking. The instruction manual seemed to do the job in this case, however it did not emphasize the need to use 3mm spacers, and that it was not an option. The instruction manual does include the mention of using 3mm spacers, but I would have preferred bold letters, indicating these spacers are necessary to clear the VRAM heatsinks.

My initial temperatures reached up to 80°C at full throttle, using distrRTgen, a BOINC program. For those who are curious what this program does, it basically squeezes every little bit of juice out of a video GPU as it can, consistently and continuously — until you say otherwise.

After installing the Accelero XTREME Plus II, my temps decreased to 55°C — a 25°C difference. Idle temps went from 55°C to 33°C. The stock cooling design of the HD 6900 series is flawed, and I would completely understand if the design was placed on a non-gaming video card, but the 6970 (as well as others before it) was meant to be a Gamer's Card. And being a Gamer's Card, I would have expected from ATI, a better cooling solution, because not only does the card create more heat than what it can handle — but this heat accumulates inside your computer case. Not a good combination.

Thankfully, Arctic Cooling comes to the rescue once again. Big time. If you own an ATI HD 6900 series video card or some beefy nVidia video cards, this cooler should be a mandatory purchase.