Thermal Performance

To thermally test the cards we recorded GPU temperatures for each individual core using RivaTuner. Idle readings were taken at the desktop in Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium with Windows Aero enabled, while the load reading taken while the GPU configuration was running our Crysis benchmark at 1,920 x 1,200 with 0xAA.

This is one of the most demanding tests in our benchmarking suite, and is sure to get those GPUs sweating. We didn't go higher because we felt that if we increased the load too much, some of the slower cards wouldn't deliver realistic numbers because they'd be bottlenecked in other ways.

All temperatures were taken with the cards cooled using only their standard stock coolers and running on our open air test benches, which have no additional airflow other than that present in the room.


After little distinction between the two cards in games testing we finally start to see some differentiation between the Gigabyte and reference design. The custom cooler managed to keep the GPU a whole (!) two degrees cooler at idle. This is most likely down to the fact that the fan is single speed so while the reference model is fractionally hotter when the GPU is idle, its PWM makes the fan spin slowly and quietly.


Fire up the Crysis benchmark and the cracks start to appear in Gigabyte's custom cooler. The reference design kept the GPU three degrees cooler with the GPU under load and was also quieter even with the fan spun up.