The potential of vapor chamber in consumer electronics?

[Aimer]

I recently looked into the technology of vapor chamber (abbreviate as VC) even though I have seen Linus' video on the ROG and Razer phone being VC cooled.

There were some CPU coolers made by the likes of coolermaster that uses a VC, but those don't seem to have much popularity.

VC seems like it would be a powerful technology for cooling compact PCs and low profile laptops with powerful CPUs (like the overheating Macbooks).

Is there a reason to why VC is not as popular as it should be? Also any information about VCs are welcome, still learning on this subject.

[minibois]

There are some CPU coolers that use vapor chambers that are used quite a bit; some of the Ryzen stock coolers use a vapor chambers (I believe the entry level one don't, but the ones you get with Ryzen 5's and up.. Maybe Ryzen 3 and up have it).

I don't have much to add onto this subject and I think that kind of sums up the average consumer: they don't know much about cooling technology in general, especially stuff like these vapor chambers. Most people will understand the basics of the technology and why it is better, but most will also say "who cares" in a "as long as my product get adequate cooling, it's all good"-way.

[Ryujin2003]

16 minutes ago, Minibois said:

There are some CPU coolers that use vapor chambers that are used quite a bit; some of the Ryzen stock coolers use a vapor chambers (I believe the entry level one don't, but the ones you get with Ryzen 5's and up.. Maybe Ryzen 3 and up have it).

I don't have much to add onto this subject and I think that kind of sums up the average consumer: they don't know much about cooling technology in general, especially stuff like these vapor chambers. Most people will understand the basics of the technology and why it is better, but most will also say "who cares" in a "as long as my product get adequate cooling, it's all good"-way.

If you go to the Mac forums, the argument is apparently that vapor chambers use square pipes instead of circles, and Mac's already use them.... So I'd probably wait and see if someone else here has more technical know how, or go and take a look over at GN. Maybe there's something over there?

 

With it being a vapor chamber, my only thought (because I'm not an expert) is the pipes can't be too thin (which Apples are very flat) and I'm not sure if there needs to be some vertical distance for the liquid to vapor phase change to occur. I don't think it'd work on a horizontal surface that doesn't redirect the liquid back towards the source of heat. And on the issue with flat pipes, this could impact the ability for vapor to move and condense, so again why it might not be included.

 

Edit: Source of forum comment:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/vapor-chamber-in-macbook-pro.2135353/

[Juniiii]

Xbox is vapor chamber cooled. Not all of them though

[Aimer]

1 hour ago, Minibois said:

There are some CPU coolers that use vapor chambers that are used quite a bit; some of the Ryzen stock coolers use a vapor chambers (I believe the entry level one don't, but the ones you get with Ryzen 5's and up.. Maybe Ryzen 3 and up have it).

I don't have much to add onto this subject and I think that kind of sums up the average consumer: they don't know much about cooling technology in general, especially stuff like these vapor chambers. Most people will understand the basics of the technology and why it is better, but most will also say "who cares" in a "as long as my product get adequate cooling, it's all good"-way.

I agree with the lack of awareness on the consumer level. So you think it will get more attention if some manufacturer come up with a VC cooling solution that dramatically outperforms traditional heat pipes in ways like size or heat transfer rate?

[Aimer]

54 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

If you go to the Mac forums, the argument is apparently that vapor chambers use square pipes instead of circles, and Mac's already use them.... So I'd probably wait and see if someone else here has more technical know how, or go and take a look over at GN. Maybe there's something over there?

 

With it being a vapor chamber, my only thought (because I'm not an expert) is the pipes can't be too thin (which Apples are very flat) and I'm not sure if there needs to be some vertical distance for the liquid to vapor phase change to occur. I don't think it'd work on a horizontal surface that doesn't redirect the liquid back towards the source of heat. And on the issue with flat pipes, this could impact the ability for vapor to move and condense, so again why it might not be included.

 

Edit: Source of forum comment:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/vapor-chamber-in-macbook-pro.2135353/

I believe you are correct on VCs limitation on vertical surfaces, but laptops stays flat on a surface most of the time, so it shouldn't affect the performance as much. Also if gaming phones can take advantages of VCs, I figure why don't more laptops use it instead the larger heat pipes since it probably will increase headroom for higher clock speeds. I haven't seen many laptops using it personally, but I might be wrong too.

[Aimer]

18 minutes ago, Juniiii said:

Xbox is vapor chamber cooled. Not all of them though

Seems like only the Xbox One X has it

[Aimer]

Thanks for the responses.

Just wondering, has anyone seen any content comparing cooling performance of VC vs heat pipes?

Also, has anyone used a VC cooler on their desktop build? Interested in hearing the performance/experience with that verses a traditional heat pipe cooler.

[Juniiii]

1 hour ago, Aimer said:

Thanks for the responses.

Just wondering, has anyone seen any content comparing cooling performance of VC vs heat pipes?

Also, has anyone used a VC cooler on their desktop build? Interested in hearing the performance/experience with that verses a traditional heat pipe cooler.

Not big of a difference,some graphics cards by GIGABYTE use vaporchambor heatpipes but I don’t see how big of a advantage it has given it’s consumers.