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Recently we have changed our method of measuring noise levels. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with 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 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.
We load the card with FurMark.
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 compared to a reference design, this card is much, much quieter. Even when gaming it is barely audible and will be drowned out by even a few high quality chassis fans.
I am sporting a semi after reading the overclocking page (first thing I skipped too as the default clocks of this are stupid).
Makes that XFX card look really bad.
Very yummy indeed, but the 3 slot cooler is a little extreme. surely they could have done that in a dual slot design. the heatpipes and heatsink arent that big.
that cooler really is insane looking. very similar to MSI’s frozr, which is also great. I dont understand the low core clock speeds. if t his card can hit 1.1ghz with voltage increase then 1ghz should be easy enough. if they sold it as a 1ghz model I bet they would sell tons more. people dont always know how high a card will OC. now we do !
THey always made good boards, but they can be slow getting them out. all the early adopters miss these cards cause they already have other ones.
Thats a fucking kick ass product. 3 slot cooler is really massive, wouldnt fancy trying to fit three of these in a system for 3 way CFx
id rather have their GTX580, but both are pretty class leading designs whatever way you look at it.
whats next? sapphire with a four slot cooler?
Asus have probably the best engineers in the world, look at their mars and ares cards for instance. we will all never forget em.
I would be more then happy with a card of such calibre running in any of my desktops and I think this card is going to be truly amazing when it comes to staying cool which as we all know opens up lots of over-clocking possibilities
i have bought one 6970 direct Cu 2 and i fails bad
here is forum with the real temps
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4151379&posted=1#post4151379