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We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.
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. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.
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 Refrigerator
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 Dual-X cooler is quiet under gaming load, although audible. Not the greatest result from Sapphire based on previous results, but it is still a good cooler with modest noise emissions. When idle the fans rest at 1,200 rpm. This rises to around 2,200 rpm when gaming and 2,500 rpm in Furmark.
Nice looking card – I think it all depends on the pricing. the HD7850 sold well near the end as they were often offered at £125. at that price they would be onto a winner, but £150? bit high I think
Good performance and at least the shaders are up to 1280 over 1024 on the 7850. Only thing I feel is that AMD partners will sell the 270x at very close to 270 pricing, so not much point in having both. $20 difference? who will buy a 270 – feels like the 6830 and 6850 all over again. the cheaper part never sold as retail prices were so close.
AMD Gaming Evolved is giving away this graphics card, 1 per week and you can enter up to 7 times per week. They are also giving away free pc games.