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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 20-25dBa. 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.
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 very quiet, and we were hard pressed to even tell that it was in operation most of the time, even when gaming. This makes it ideal for a media center, although we are sure many enthusiast users will opt for the passive version of this card.
interesting little card, looks almost like a plastic toy, but yet the cooler seems very good.
Ideal little board for a small form factor machine hooked into a plasma.
I like this series of cards, but the only issue I have with it, is AMD’s forced pricing levels. they need to drop them to 60 before I think they are really worth the cost
I was doing a little research, arent these guys associated with powercolor?
@ frankie, same parent company TUL. yes. Not sure why they need two sections of the company to produce graphics cards?
Cheap poor excuse for a card, mine broke before i even used it as the cooler fails to keep the GPU cool. Wouldn’t touch with a barge pole and the Customer support is non existent