Noise Levels
The noise levels produced by a graphics card is an increasingly important consideration for PC users and Gamers these days. While fan noise is unlikely to ruin the gaming experience, no one likes a noisy graphics card and no one will argue with the fact that quieter is better. Many users are willing to sacrifice temperatures to gain a silence advantage, but with better cooling solutions being developed it is increasingly common to be able to get both better cooling and better acoustic performance than a reference solution on most custom cooled graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD partners. That said both AMD and Nvidia have stepped up their game too with regards to acoustics on their reference coolers. Ultimately, acoustics will always be a big deciding factor when there is often very little differentiation between graphics cards using the same GPUs. To acquire the noise levels of graphics cards in our benchmarks we run three different load scenarios for 5 minutes and take an acoustic reading using our decibel meter at the end of those load scenarios. The measurement is taken approximately 30cm horizontally away from the graphics card and the CPU fan is disabled and other background noise minimised to reduce interference. The three load scenarios are desktop idle, Furmark load and Unigine Heaven load. The reading in Unigine Heaven is always taken in the first scene of the sequence after one loop is completed.
Thanks to the new passive feature implemented on the R9 380 series, these cards didn’t require fans at idle and the incredible cooling solutions provided adequate cooling to keep temperatures down at load.
So a crossfire of 380 eats only 10W extra than a single 380?
I was confused by this also, but after multiple re-tests, this was the average figure at the point of recording.
That is clearly wrong. You need to figure out what’s happening with that part of the review.
Looks like amazing scaling… Just bought 2 MSI ones
Can you rerun it for the 4gb variant?
I’d like to see that too! I just got the r9 380 4gb yesterday and it is a beast! Paired with my 4690k @ stock speed and my old kit of 16gb 1333mhz ram I can run, for example, GTA V with mixed high/very high setting and get very good fps and smooth gameplay.
I would definitely consider getting another 380 for CF in the future.
Definately get a second 4gb one – I can play GTA V in 4K VSR Max settings with Stable 45 FPS. If you tone it down slightly it can get to 60 fps
Wow, nice! What kind of PSU do you use and roughly how hot do your GPUs get while under load?
Hey I manage it with a 650 watt gold NZXT Modular – the GPU Coolers dont get that hot at all but my air flow setup is decent in the NZXT Noctis 450 case il upload a pic
Nice! I have a 750w modular Corsair PSU so I guess that should be enough. I’m also considering switching my current case for a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 or a Phanteks Enthoo Pro M so airflow should not be an issue.
So are you planning to crossfire? – Id go for the phanteks enthoo they are suppose to be great. You make any really small form factor builds?
I wouldn’t dismiss the idea of crossfire 🙂 Right now my build is in a Corsair Air 240 so I’d say it’s a rather small build, got a 4690k cooled by a H100i, the R9 390, 16gb 2400MHz RAM in it, but I’m looking to switch to a compact ATX case so that’s why I’m speculating between the Arc Midi R2 and the Pro M. I don’t feel like cramming 2 GPUs inside the Air 240, that would certainly get too hot.
I wouldn’t dismiss the idea of crossfire 🙂 Right now my build is in a Corsair Air 240 so I’d say it’s a rather small build, got a 4690k cooled by a H100i, the R9 390, 16gb 2400MHz RAM in it, but I’m looking to switch to a compact ATX case so that’s why I’m speculating between the Arc Midi R2 and the Pro M. I don’t feel like cramming 2 GPUs inside the Air 240, that would certainly get too hot.
my smallest build is in the RVZ01 by silverstone an amazing case its only 14Liters. Looking to make an even smaller Mini ITX Gaming case using this little beauty. may put a nano in it.
That air 240 would be absolutely fine for Cross fire. id be more concerned with the phanteks
Sweet, a small build with the Nano would be awesome.
And I donno really, the Air 240 has 2 front intake fans and 2 top mounted exhaust fans, wich is basically the same as the Enthoo Pro M and the Arc Midi R2 except it doesn’t sport any rear fans. (It does have mounts for 2 80mm fans in the rear, but 80mm fans would probably make too much noise for most peoples taste so they don’t count 😉 )
But the Midi R2 and Pro M seems to be basically the same, so I guess it’ll come down to the looks for me, the Arc Midi, in my opinion, does look a bit better with the curved edges and it seems to be a little bit easier to build in. Although none of them is sound isolated so I’ll have to get some sound dampening foam and install it myself, if any of the cases have enough room behind the motherboard to fit the foam that is.
Be quiet do some small fans that are silent for the rear google be quiet 80mm fans
Sweet, a small build with the Nano would be awesome.
And I donno really, the Air 240 has 2 front intake fans and 2 top mounted exhaust fans, wich is basically the same as the Enthoo Pro M and the Arc Midi R2 except it doesn’t sport any rear fans. (It does have mounts for 2 80mm fans in the rear, but 80mm fans would probably make too much noise for most peoples taste so they don’t count 😉 )
But the Midi R2 and Pro M seems to be basically the same, so I guess it’ll come down to the looks for me, the Arc Midi, in my opinion, does look a bit better with the curved edges and it seems to be a little bit easier to build in. Although none of them is sound isolated so I’ll have to get some sound dampening foam and install it myself, if any of the cases have enough room behind the motherboard to fit the foam that is.
my smallest build is in the RVZ01 by silverstone an amazing case its only 14Liters. Looking to make an even smaller Mini ITX Gaming case using this little beauty. may put a nano in it.
That air 240 would be absolutely fine for Cross fire. id be more concerned with the phanteks
I wouldn’t dismiss the idea of crossfire 🙂 Right now my build is in a Corsair Air 240 so I’d say it’s a rather small build, got a 4690k cooled by a H100i, the R9 390, 16gb 2400MHz RAM in it, but I’m looking to switch to a compact ATX case so that’s why I’m speculating between the Arc Midi R2 and the Pro M. I don’t feel like cramming 2 GPUs inside the Air 240, that would certainly get too hot.
Also when you do the 4gb version can you test usi g 15.7
4gb crossfire please and compare it to r9 fury.tell more about crossfire issues encountered.
yeah i opted for crossfire 380s as the performance is around the same but its about £100 cheaper…also you can set the frame cap to reduce heat and power consumption using Frame Rate Target Control
you got good scaling please explain how
CF has had a good scaling almost always.
I really think you need to rerun it Rikki the 15.7 patch was extensive and added improved profile for a number of games on your testing list including GTA V
i have one pci 3.0 x16 and one pci 2×16(x4 mode) what will be the performance hit
Same as me I get hardly any performance hit maybe 5% if that
no bridge???
More recent AMD cards don’t need a bridge for crossfire