Temperature Tests

With the TES 1326 Infrared Thermometer literally in hand we found ourselves getting real-world temperatures from the products we test at load (3D clock speeds).

There are two places we pull temperature from - the back of the card directly behind the core and if the card is dual slot and has an exhaust point we also pull a temperate from there, as seen in the picture.

Due to the boost in voltage it doesn't come as a surprise that the card runs warmer than the HD 5970 TOXIC 4GB when running at its stock speeds. Even with the extra voltage, though, the card still runs cooler than the HD 5970 with a reference cooler.

Sound Tests

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

Noise levels on the card at load are almost identical which means the fan didn't decide to speed up anymore.