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Recently 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
These results are excellent and are lower than a reference dual slot HD5770 cooler. The only HD5770 based card we have tested which has better acoustic performance is the Powercolor HD5770 Vortex which rated 29.3dBa under load.
These are so sexy lookin’. XFX and Sapphire rocks !
Very capable and the noise levels and power consumption is excellent.
Very impressed with these little boards. the cooler looks quite crap on the pictures due to the t iny little blades but it seems to handle the cooling fine.
I want to see Sapphire passively cooling these though with an Ultimate Edition 🙂
Temperatures look a bit higher than normal, but its expected with such a cooler. Regardless im impressed with how good they are and the work XFX put into designing a custom cooler for the cards.
Well these rock, I wasnt expecting them to run so well, thought the fans might be spinning at 10k to keep the temps down. if it wasnt for XFX, powercolor and Sapphire ATI would be losing a lot of sales due to their average coolers.
Nice one XFX and usual quality review Zardon, very thorough.
Wait a minute did you say no Crossfire connector was bundled? what a miss. I hope thats not the case on the retail bundle. Otherwise a lot of people will be pissed off.
Wait a minute did you say no Crossfire connector was bundled? what a miss. I hope thats not the case on the retail bundle. Otherwise a lot of people will be pissed off.
These are really sexy little boards. I know powercolor have some out, any differences you know?
Great review KG, very efficient boards all round. good in CFx, even if scaling isnt always quite as good as it might be.
Shame they never seem to ship anything in those awesome X packages now. they used to do that, and I loved to use to see them in stores.
ohhh, wasnt expecting a review of this today. Read it and they seem really good. pricing is spot on, but its a shame they didnt hit the 250 inc vat price point.
XFX aer such a quality company, imagine the GTX460 boards they would be producing NOW if nvidia werent such tools.
HONEY I SHRUNK THE VIDEO CARDS !
Nothing much to fault with these, its the way all the lower end boards should be shipping anyway. ATI take note
XFX have overcharged a little with these, they should be £5 less than the reference boards, and aim for a £240 price point, not 265. I think its going to be hard for them to sell these as people wont understand what Crossfire is. not the mass punters anyway.
The news here yesterday pissed me off big time. Nvidia kicking XFX into touch.
Well I hope someone high up is reading this review, cause this is the quality product they release. Idiots.
Well these really appeal to me, i love small things, and things that dont make a racket when you game. Ideal configuration for a powerful gaming focused media center in a shuttle chassis.
XFX have been quiet quite lately. so this is welcomed.
HD5770 is ATis best card right now. thats my opinion. its open to such a huge market at this price. quality gaming without spending a fortune. CFx is lovely.
One of these is enough. I dont think XFX have created enough incentives to buy two in a bundle deal. same price and you still dont get a crossfire connector !
I would not buy this until I found out if XFX are bundling a crossfire connector. Neither single card box has one included, so why bundle two in a CFX bundle if people can’t use it. Very few motherboards that actually support Crossfire bundle them anymore either. so its useless until I know.
Hi all, my name is Dunc from dabs.com – just wanted to assure you that in the DABS exclusive XFX 5770 Single Slot Crossfire bundle that a CrossfireX Bridge is included in the box.
http://www.dabs.com/articles/promotions/products/s-9076.html
PS: First 10 to buy and leave a review on the item will also get a bonus free game download – either Stormrise or Stalker: COP.
Duncan thanks for letting us know, thats great. ill be on after work tonight ordering for myself. cheers.
No worries at all! Happy to help! Thanks for all the feedback to the offer so far, keep it coming!
No worries! Enjoy the card – anyone ordering this week gets a FREE copy of Bad Company 2 worth £35 too!
Thanks Dunc, im ordered it tomorrow evening when im paid.
Saw the link from XFX to this today in email, putting in my order this weekend when im paid.
Great review kitguru, bookmarked this site, all my friends are talking about it.
Is the battlefield offer still ok ?