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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
In Crossfire, the cards are easily heard inside a system, although I never found them to be that intrusive. When gaming, the fans on both cards hover around 2,900 rpm. When running Furmark the fans increase to 3,500 rpm (translating to around 56%).
under £140 for an overclocked HD6870? Im not often impressed, but ill mark this day down as one of them.
Shame its a reference cooler, thats disappointing for a black edition. I wonder why they do this? I suppose it would add to the price, right?
Excellent, cant go wrong with those. AMD seem to be forcing down prices in the 100-170 area
Yeah thats a mega price. I was going to buy dirt 3 for £30 on steam at the weekend, but I need a new card. ill wait another few weeks and pick one of these up
real shame about the reference cooler, its pretty average at best. although for £60, two of these could get a good upgrade to the artic cooling solution
Its basically an overclocked reference card. bit lazy from XFX.
Factoring in the price however I can forgive them. seems they hand pick them from batches as the OC headroom seems decent.
what a great price for the performance. makes the 6970 almost redundant, unless you dont like relying on driver profiles
I dealt with Crossfire years ago and it was dire, never again. GTX570 for me im afraid.
Crossfire is much better now. unless its a sponsored Nvidia game, drivers are quick.
The ideal thing about these are , buy one ‘now’ get another ‘later.
I doubt they sell many 6990s or GTX590s’
revisiting this hardware is great. I didnt know the 6870s had dropped this low. they were 180 last time I looked, for a stock clocked card.
The only other card I would consider would be the overclocked sapphire 5850 with new cooler. its much less expensive than this, although not as quick.