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Recently 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 custom cooler is relatively quiet when gaming, hovering between 32 dBa and 34 dBa. Under Furmark testing this rose a little after 10 minutes of extended load to around 36.6dBa.
These look the nicest boards, love that cooler design. performance is great from the 6850. seems to be the better overclocker of the two series.
Wow nvidia just got owned again. although the gtx460 is still competitive, I like these better, power consumption rocks.
Excellent value for money, see it on Scan for 133.
HD6850 seems the massively scalable of the two, those overclocks are fantastic.
I ilke the way they have copied the look of the black edition 4GB 5970.
These look beautiful. what a classy looking design.
What a great price, less than two 5770s for 30% moer performance.
Great cards, shame about the lack of OC tool, I wonder will sapphire make this available on their site for everyone to use?
Great article, very informative
this new range is impressive. good power consumption
Looking forward to the high end cards if this is a sign !
cant wait to see the 6970 next year
the price is brilliant, crossfirex here I come. any ideas who has them to buy ?
A nice card indeed. At the moment I have a HD4870, but I’m thinking of upgrading. The price of the GTX460 also lowered quit significantly to like 140 EUR, so I’m still in doubt. HD6850 is slightly above that price, but I have a Crosshair 4 Formula. It would be nice to run Crossfire like in the review.
@ Zardon
btw Zardon, is your first name ‘Allan’? Since I think I’ve seen you before on another website 😛
XFX cards have been fixed with 1120 cores instead of 960 which is stated which means that these results are unacceptable and you wont get this perforamce out of the 6850s. WTF
These are 960. GPUz screenshot in the review.
oh yeah rofl sorry. that means the 6850 cf and 460 sli are in dead heat wow!
Great review guys. The scalling is awesome.
I did the calcutlations and the stock 460 sli beats the 6850 cf by 4.8% and metro and mafia which the 6850s beat the 460s support physx which makes it more complicated favorign teh 460s. The 460s are better performers but the 6850s are still very competetive and eats less power and new drivers would increase performance so…. its still a war. Great review
not including 3dmark vantage bcse its not a game and it fluctautes
sry 4.8 frames not 4.8 % lol