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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
When idle, the card rests at around 40% fan speed, which is actually very quiet. GPUz records the fan speed to be around 1,600 rpm. When gaming, it is clearly audible, but not intrusive.
Yay, thats a mega card from Zotac !
I like that a lot. Great price, its £30 less than the HD6950 too.
that is one seriously fast clocked card. 1ghz? 460 eat your heart out !
as always, great review man. I like the cooler. but I agree, it can get a bit toasty considering thedual fans etc.
Im impressed, and I didnt think that was possible this year with nvidia. any ideas who is stocking it?
Pretty good price, although I see a lot of sites complaining they are priced too high. Dont know how thats worked out. This one is faster than a Ti isnt it ? going on results.
I think this updated series is a waste of time, the Ti was fine, just needed to price them better.
I dont think that cooler is doing that good a job considering the heatpipe design and dual fans? Have zotac overvolted the card to make it stable at 950?