The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 20c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.
Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.
The Sapphire cards rate very highly in regards to cooler efficiency, taking the top positions in the chart, next to the XFX H7770 Core which claims the top position. The most remarkable result is the powerful Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X, which hits only 57c when gaming. While the card is closely matched against the Zotac GTX670 in performance, the Sapphire cooler is much better.
Fantastic reading thanks GTX660ti all the way for me !
I have wanted the HD7950 now for quite a while, but cant afford it. ive decided to wait until the next gen, later this year. good article, shows the good GTX660ti performance well.
Im very happy with my HD7870, will do me for some time, and when it doesn’t ill pick one up cheap to CF them,
Now this will totally affect my decision on buying a vga
GTX670 is great, but GTX660 ti is the bargain right now. I like that Sapphire card though, im sick of fan noise 🙁
Good article, very helpful as im thinking of buying one for my new system soon.
Greg, you might want to look at the Asus Direct CUII version of the GTX660Ti – I got one recently to replace a Gainward GTX260GS and the reduction in fan noise is astonishing.
I agree with Andrew. Even though the Gainward GFX cards are very durable, but if you want high quality Nvidia cards that are also silent you should look at the ASUS cards with the Direct CUII cooling solution. It’s really no comparison.
Kitguru said: “Today’s article won’t be featuring the AMD HD7970, HD7990 or Nvidia GTX680 or GTX 690/Titan. Not because we don’t like them, but because very few people can afford to buy them.”
This seems very disingenuous. There’s hardly any difference between the avg. 670 and 7970 prices. Does put nVidia at the top of the charts with the O/C’d 670 though. :
Well its not meant to be disingenuous. the GTX680 is the flagship to battle against the HD7970. If we included the HD7970 then we would need to include the GTX680, sometimes seen for £350.
The point was to try and get a variety of cards and not focus on the flagship single GPU cards.
Bear in mind the GTX670 didn’t get a top award in this test, due to the pricing. The Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X did due to cost, cooling, noise etc.