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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 20-28dBa. 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 Sapphire HD6670 registers at the limits of our testing equipment when idle, 28 dBa. When gaming, the fan spins up a little, and due to the small dimensions, the noise levels rise to 32.4 dBa. It is worth pointing out that this is still very quiet. When loaded with Furmark, the fan spins higher, raising noise levels to 33.8 dBa. When watching a BluRay disc with hardware acceleration enabled, the noise emissions measured around 30 dBa, which in real world terms means the card is basically inaudible.
Another good card from the Sapphire team. Id like a new media center, just have never gotten around to building one.
The fan on that card must spin very slow cause its tiny and the noise levels seem very good.
If I was building a media center id opt for a passive card, like their ultimate series.
Shame they couldnt engineer it to be passive and low profile/single slot. Would have made a nice deal indeed.
Been waiting for a good review of this, thanks.
Fascinated with the power drain, 8 watts is very tempting. I wonder would it be possible to use another heatsink on the card for completely passive cooling without taking up much more space? I have a completely silent media center with an underclocked 2500 processor, undervolted. This would be ideal, but I dont want a fan in it. my case is small so the ultaimte cards dont work
Here is a score more realistic for a low profile htpc, A c2d E4700, DDR2 800Mhz 4Gb. I have never seen a low profile htpc / light lanbox with a i7 EE.
Min: 5.7
Max: 31.0
Avg: 14.8
Score: 372
Hi Nian,
I agree, but it is possible and a lot of people are doing it, Why? When combined with a decent graphics card the audience can also play all the latest games with high IQ at 1080p – as well as doubling up as a media center. Some of our audience are also performance freaks who just want the fastest possible system.
http://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/zardon/building-a-core-i7-htpc-with-sapphire-mini-itx-h67/
I hate the anti spam box…. the refresh from an incorrect entry clears a comment. Ack.
Anyway I know there are speed freaks with high end lanbox/htpc systems that use i7, but its rare for them to ever use low profile cases, thats almost exclusively for those people who bought a budget pc or went for a very small case for the most basic of stuff. Many people would love to know how it performs on a low to mid level cpu and a <300watt psu.
I forgot to say that bench was for Unigine at 1680×1050 same settings as what you used. I have benched the hell out of this card and it is only ever a minor few fps worse than your own benchmarks with the i7.
We normally test graphics cards with the same system so they are interchangeable, although driver updates can change performance a little over time.
Your results are close because the card isnt that powerful and fps scores will be gpu limited, not cpu limited.
If you lose a comment in reply, dont hit refresh, press ‘back’.
Oh I understand why you reviewed the card in the system you have, its your standard test box and the best way to compare it to other cards.The thing tho is Its an unusual card released for a specific market, It wouldn’t have been a bad thing to include a couple of benchmarks showing what it can realistically do with low end systems that the card was targeted for. Still, I am thankful for your review, only two sites bothered and that’s a shame.
By the way, don’t you think its temperatures are alarming for such a small gpu? I am quite surprised how hot it gets, certainly a bother in such a space constrained low profile case.
Oh and yes the back button still wipes the comment if I enter the antispam incorrectly. (On Firefox atleast)
Hi nian, what case do you use?
Its actually an old Acer office pc. Picked it up for a htpc cheap, decided to play with it. The cooling is not the best but its hitting the same temps your review hit. I wouldn’t have expected under load to hit 80c like it does.
Hi Nian. Thanks. Yeah, the temperatures aren’t quite as low as maybe some people would expect. I had a few emails about it also.