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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
We don't often include videos with our acoustics testing, as they are not at all scientific – how close is the camera? is the microphone sensitive? Is the sound compressing close to the camera? There are too many variables. It doesn't take a scientist however to listen to the noise emissions above and realise that these cards are painfully loud when pushed hard. The fans would spin up to 95% when loaded with the latest version of Furmark.
lol, bet you wish they could run in a 3x 6x setup !
14,000 in 3dmark 11. I thought i was doing well, breaking 5k last week 🙁 I suck.
Wow. just wow. AMD are owning everyone this week……..
YAY! 48k in vantage. insane, this card just friggin rocks.
I wouldnt be getting all too excited just yet, Nvidia have yet to unleash the GTX590 which I would think might kick the 6990’s arse.
The nvidia architecture is slightly more powerful overall, but its all about temperatures, otherwise they would both slap three cores on a PCB and duke it out. its not quite that simple.
its actually a feat of engineering in itself that AMD got this crappy single fan to cool such a powerful card. I almost choked on my cornflakes when I saw that tiny red fan, used YET again.
Man I’d love four screens and two of these. Best start saving.
Oh yeah and a new psu
And a new CPU
Damn…..
Crazy frame rates, do we really need kind of power? Best game in months was dead space 2 and it could run well with a 6850.
Portal 2 should be the same….
Hey quick question. Whats this sticker over the bios switch, do you void warranty by running the card at full speed? Is it dangerous? I really really don’t get this…
hell when you limit an overclocked 12 core intel processor at 2560 then you know you have something special !
One thing is certain, you wont be running this setup on a 650W psu. I think a 1200w is a minimum for this setup. might get away with 1000w, but it would be rather highly loaded with the rest of the components in the mix.
That performance is just stupid. as in stupid good, not stupid sucky.