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We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.
Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
When idle, the small R7 260X fan spins at 1,100rpm which is basically inaudible. Under load however this rises to just over 3,000 rpm – very noticeable with an annoying pitch.
After analysing the thermal curve and noise characteristics of the reference AMD cooler, there is only one conclusion – it is very disappointing. We are confident AMD partners will be releasing technically superior solutions over the coming weeks however.
Well I think partner cards will be better not difficult looking at this mind you.
is this the only card with programmable audio today? why?
So the only card with the new audio features is a budget model? what? The 270x is basically the same performance as a HD7870 Tahiti LE and 280X is a 7970ghz ed?
Anyone else wondering if AMD have anything new at all to release? 290x? come on. its going to be £600, no one can afford that!
will you also review the r7 250? I’m about to get an HD 7750 then the r7 250 came along. Now I don’t know which one should i get. From the initial opinions i have read, the 7750 should be faster than the r7 250 but the latter is newer.