KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
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 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
The card is much quieter than the reference solution, as we expected. It is roughly equivalent to the VTX3D HD7970 X Edition card that we reviewed a few weeks ago.
Lovely, very nice, and yet again very expensive……… we can only dream!
Wow… so thats £500 for a card with no copper used as a cooling material, and Aluminum used instead,
thats a less ductile material = an inferior cooling solution, using a cheapr material for more money…
MSI really know how to impress – or charge more for using cheaper materials!!!
Good point from muppett, copper might have improved on the results by 1-2 c more.
however, the end result is great as the testing shows.
@muppet:
Actually the Cooler material is copper, but it’s nickel coated, so it doesn’t corrode (very, VERY easy with copper)
Only the fin array is made of Aluminium
I take it 12.3 drivers were used for this test and the other custom 7970’s?