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The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 25c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.
Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test.
A result of around 60 degrees when gaming is fantastic, although in a confined HTPC with lesser airflow you can add about 5c to this figure. Under Furmark load this rises to around 68 degrees, which would translate to mid 70s within a small media chassis with limited airflow.
Return to ambient is a feature we have recently added to our reviews … we measure the time it takes for a solution to return to idle temperatures, immediately after full load. The faster the time, the better the cooler – for example a Noctua NH D14 cooler will return an Intel processor to idle temperatures much faster than a reference cooler. This is a good indication of how quickly a heatsink can dissipate heat.
As this card is passively cooled, the performance is going to rely on case cooling and airflow performance. With our side fan on exhaust, it took 30 seconds for the card to return to ambient, taking a longer time in the region below 50c to expel heat through the air. A side mounted fan, with a forced intake flow would probably help, but this is very much going to depend on your specific chassis design.
Gotta love these boards. they look just as nice as Sapphires, which is going to piss them off 🙂
Love them, im building a new media pc and I think ill send dabs a few quid tmoorrow.
The heatsink looks quite big on the back of the PCB. would that be an issue for some smaller chassis designs?
@ Jonathan – I wouldnt think it would be a problem. only thing would be on an mini itx board, if the slot was close to the cpu slot and the cpu cooler was a little wider than reference. Tough one to call for all situations, but generally, no.
Need to talk my parents into this for christmas, my old nvidia board is knackered.
Onmly downside with one of these is that in a year it will be not able to power anything. maybe you could pick another up early next year, but im not sold. I like the silent operation and media IQ performance, but for gaming , not a good move imo.
People buying this probably wont even be gaming at 1080p. that is maybe a little misleading, although I apprecaite its good testing for TV resolutions. 720p is this market, and the hardware is fine.
Also this is ideal for media HD playback. blueray, MKV etc. and you get the benefits of AMDs driver options for noise reduction etc. onboard solutions just dont cut it for this. its a better buy than the 5550 which is so weak.
no power connectors and fans. This excites me more than a 5970 :p
Once you go fanless, you never go back.
hm… looks really nice, and with the current price at 65 euro’s, it is impossible to ignore.
and will get one of these asap, as my passive 5450 is starting to die TT_TT.
also, maybe ill zip-tie an 80mm fan at (very) low rpm to keep the card a few degrees cooler, without adding to the sound
So much about these gadgets revolves around style and being
an early-adopter. It is very compact to carry and easy to operate as well.
With this mobile phone you will be able to program it to recognize your own handwriting alone.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button!
I’d without a doubt donate to this brilliant blog!
I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to brand new updates and will talk about this site with
my Facebook group. Chat soon!