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We take our noise level measurements with the decibel meter on the top and middle section of the case, overhanging the side panel (power supply side, not motherboard tray side) by exactly 1 inch to avoid any airflow pressure coming from the exhausting AIO cooler.
I measured the sound floor to be 34 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled.
Noise levels were measured after 5 minutes under three scenarios: desktop idle, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 4K, and the Fire Strike Ultra stress test.
Starting with noise levels under load, Sapphire's card isn't the quietest around – but compared to AMD's reference design it is a vast improvement. In any case, it isn't the loudest aftermarket card we've ever tested, so it wouldn't be fair to be overly critical here, but you do get lower noise emissions with a GTX 1080 or 1070 Ti.
Idle noise levels are interesting, however, as Sapphire does advertise a ‘fan stop' mode when the GPU core is below a 55C threshold. However, the fans wouldn't turn off with my card and stayed at a constant 21% while idling, resulting in the slight noise bump at idle.
We did get in contact with Sapphire about this – as the fans should not spin under 55C – and we were told that it is a known driver issue, as AMD's drivers can occasionally interfere with a card's fan curve. We can expect a fix in the near future.
Seems like a no brainer to skip the early vegas cards and stick to a 1080GTX if you want performance for the money. The 1080TI absolutely runs the vegas architecture in its current form into the ground, but at the extra cost, the 1080GTX looks like the best thing going.
…better than GTX1080?
TL;DR Nope!
Not sure why latest driver’s weren’t utilised? I’m pretty sure UK has internet! 😉
i can’t see the ” better performance ” of gtx 1080.-
It really depends on the game and card settings
A 1070 can beat a Vega 56 sometimes
Undervolt, oc and raise its power limit and within like 5 minutes it trades blows with the 1080 and Vega 64
Throw that same card into gta and it gets floored
The Vega cards are a really weird series overall
Also this is crimson not adrenalin
Still considering getting a VEGA, looks to me the better future proof card. But I’m thinking the PowerColor Red Devil instead of the Sapphire one, looks better and that cooler also seems to cool things down more.. waiting for the reviews.
I would say the same thing amd likes prolonging cards, eg the hd 7000 series still getting updates
I would say let them refine vega first before diving in though
Even with the latest Adrenalin drivers this card’s performance is inconcistent, where sometimes its even slower than the reference card. It seems to be the same kind of issues that plagued Powercolor Red Devil at the beginning, and they fixed it with the driver later on.
ahahhahahahahahah, good one!
Unless they review it before they came out!
Sadly miners will pick all of them!
Faster than a 1080 on every other site.
I would stay away from powercolor. I kid you not comparing the powercolor to a sapphire is like comparing a kit car of a lambo to a real lambo.
the weird thing is vega looks better than nvidia in gta5.(its like the amd driver has its own sort of msaa happening with out the game being told to do so.) also it is a smoother game to play on vega. nvidia cards have weird rubber banding that happens when driving fast in some area’s.