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The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 25c – 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.
We found the HIS HD6970 Turbo to run a little hotter than our reference sample. The fan idles at 25% and under Furmark load hits 40%. This translates into a 1,300 rpm-2,500 rpm threshold.
We would prefer if HIS had adjusted the fan profile to be slightly more aggressive as we found that by a manual adjustment to 2,800rpm the temperatures dropped by 5c. Noise only increased slightly, but more on this shortly.
Return to ambient is a feature we have recently added to our reviews … we measure the time it takes for a solution to return to idle temperatures, immediately after full load. The faster the time, the better the cooler – for example a Noctua NH D14 cooler will return an Intel processor to idle temperatures much faster than a reference cooler. This is a good indication of how quickly a heatsink can dissipate heat.
As this is an AMD reference cooling solution we weren't surprised to see a rather long ‘cool down' time.
Well this is rather disappointing, especially after that sexy powercolor card you reviewed last week. I hadnt forgotten about it !
£20 for a 20mhz core increase and a bit of an OC on the memory? I can do that myself with CCC and spend that £20 on some drinks :p
Good cards, but I agree, this isn’t really hitting the spot for me, seems a bit cheeky really as its a complete reference design.
This is a nice card, all 6970s are nice ! powercolor card has me spoiled, that was awesome.
Fair score, I was thinking it might be a 7, but the hardware is that good that would be unfair. any higher than 8 is overly generous, as the powercolor one tested here last week is miles ahead and deserves the gold award.
Man, bad time for HIS to release this, after the powercolor PCS+, MSI HAWK, Sapphire Flex and the Asus GTX580 direct CU ! what awesome boards in the last week.
Yeah, dont really think this is such a good deal. id rather get a reference card for £20 less, and oc it myself.
I just bought a 6970 myself, picked it up for £260 and have overclocked it to 960mhz, faster than this HIS, and £40 less 🙂
yeah, im feeling smug, so what :p
Good review, thanks for the testing. ill give this one a miss and get their reference model, as our local store is selling it for £270 inc vat.
I dont mind HIS, good products with some of their range. This one however is a miss for me, because I dont think companies should get away with selling bios adjusted cards for £20 more. there is no extra work, and a ‘turbo’ sticker doesnt cost anything extra.
every HD6970 ever made hits 920mhz, so there is no hand selection going on here Zardon, that was a rather optimistic closing comment from you.
Waste of money, I can modified bioses myself and I dont have to pay £20 for the priveledge.
Good card, but its nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure they will sell many of these when there are alternatives offering better specifications and coolers etc.
very disappointing for a HIS release. Sad that they couldn’t put IceQ X on it. 6870 with IceQ is my dream card for now:)