Power Consumption (Idle and Gaming)

In order to get an idea of a GPU's power draw, we run our Unigine Valley 1.0 benchmark, which is our most GPU limited test. We use a watt meter to measure the maximum total system power draw during the test, and also take an idle reading at the Windows desktop (2,560 x 1,440).

Thermal Performance (Idle and Gaming)

Thermal output is also measured using Unigine's Valley 1.0 benchmark, as its DirectX 11 features will stress all parts of a modern GPU. We leave all GPU fan profiles and settings as they come and leave the benchmark running for ten minutes so that temperatures plateau. We record the peak GPU temperature using GPU-Z, and present the data as the delta T (the difference between the GPU temperature and the ambient temperature in our labs). We also take an idle reading at the Windows desktop (2,560 x 1,440).


*As we do not have stock samples of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or the AMD Radeon R9 280X, R9 285, R9 280, R9 270 or R7 265, they are not included in the thermal performance graphs.