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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.
We load the card with FurMark.
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 cooler is exceptionally good, only generating around 33 dBa of noise under full gaming load. This rises a little under extended Furmark stress testing, but its not really indicative of a real world gaming situation.
Christ thats a lot of work. those cards are brilliant for 145. great for a future upgrade if you bought one now.
fucking A1 man. great work
Very very very very nice. I like the cooler design from XFX. these guys are delivering
Lovely. liked the videos too. I must get that battlefield game, keep meaning to.
great design from XFX< especially the power drain and noise. excellent
Also, have to hand it to you, quality of reviews this week has been top drawer.
A good point was made on the crossfire driver profiles. are they any faster out of the drawer with them now ? they seemed to be slow in the past.
nice performance, but im saving for a 6990. if its good, It better be.
Keep em coming, but I too am waiting on 6990 review next year. im all set for reading. you got one already Zardon?
Read this over a cup of tea. what a great article and i liked the rating system, its hard to work out later what did what and what is performing better in which engnie.
HAWX2 seems like a total farce to me.
Wicked. The prices of all these cards now are great. still got my GTX460 and love it, no need to move, but ive my eyes on the GTX580, if I ever get the money.
Am I the only one who finds the new AMD range a little underwhelming? id expected the HD6900 series to do more. these are good cards though for the money.
I am ordering these for my son for his birthday in January. if I order now I might get them in time, due to the crap weather here 🙁
Hard to beat this at the price, I’m sold
Excellent idea. Unfortuantely AMD can be slow with profiles for CFX sometimes so performance would be much worse
Good detail, 6850s are good value cards, I like this design from xfx
Shame scan won’t deliver before Christmas because of our shitty weather. 🙁
I’ve no idea why AMD and XFX are selling 6850s with such low core clocks, they have huge headroom.
Ordering anything in the UK now is a waste of time, but this card is worth 144 quid ! will wait till new year before deciding anything, but its one of the top 3 choices for me. (not ordering two though, ive only one screen).
nothing to say, but well done. liked the article.
Excellent editorial piece from KG. cards are very good, I already have a powercolour HD5850, but I might upgrade next year to a 6950. Crossfire is great in principle, but I had issues with a older cfx setup. never again.