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For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load, as well as the GPU temperature with the card idling on the desktop. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes.
At the beginning of this review, I commented on the very basic cooler that Gigabyte has used for this card – it isn't big and uses a single copper heatpipe. Clearly, TU116 doesn't need more than that as this card still ran very cool, with a peak GPU temperature of 65C. Compared to the MSI Gaming X, this is only 1C warmer, although as we will see on the next page, the Gigabyte card is a bit louder.
The results from our thermal gun were initially very surprising for me – both hot spots were under 50C which is exceptional. However, when I took the card apart I realised why this was the case. In a nutshell, the plastic shroud on the front of the card, as well as the backplate, don't actually contact with the PCB or the heatsink of the card.
That means there isn't nearly as much thermal transfer between the GPU and the shroud/backplate – the latter is for aesthetics and structural support, not heat dissipation. So while these results might initially look fantastic, they aren't comparable to most other cards we have tested for the reason outlined above.
