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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
Both cards are quiet when gaming, although the Sapphire R9 285 ITX Compact performs slightly better, holding at 34.4dBa. That said, it is worth pointing out that a moderate spinning chassis cooler is likely to mask any noise emissions from either card.
Why are many reviewers of the R9 285 card saying that it has 32 ROPs when it has 64 ROPs? (GPU-Z) its funny because they state that it has 32 ROPs and they have a picture of GPU-Z saying 64 in the same page lol
The fact that the Sapphire card is able to consume so much more power and stay cool and quiet while being that size really is quite impressive, and I hope it means we see more high-end cards in that form factor. But yeah also means the new 970 ITX that’s coming will likely stomp it quite badly, 20nm can’t come soon enough!
970 is in other range of performance, but product and price too. it would be more comparable to a itx 960 or 950 ti.
That is very fair and I must admit I didn’t even consider what the price difference is, I was mainly thinking from a performance in ITX perspective.
I have this exact problem: GPU-z the latest version says 32 ROPs whereas most of the online reviews of the R9 285 ITX state 64 ROPs. Does anyone have a clue what the issue is here? Software bug in GPU-z? Thanks.