Following on from our stock thermal and acoustic testing, here we re-test the operating temperature of the GPU, but with noise levels normalised to 40dBa. This allows us to measure the efficiency of the overall cooling solution as varying noise levels as a result of more aggressive fan curves are no longer a factor.
Bringing together thermals and noise levels, we test noise-normalised thermals. Here, the results almost converge, with just a 1C difference in terms of junction temperature, and a 3C difference when looking at edge temperature. This does mean the reference design is a little more efficient, but we do also have to factor in power to the equation – as we will see on the next page, Gigabyte has increased power draw compared to AMD's reference spec.