Noise, Power Consumption and Temperatures
Noise
Noise can be the deciding factor for some users. Some may want the graphics card to be icy cold (figuratively); so won’t mind the fans being cranked up, others would want dead silence, where only low end passive cards, or extremely quiet fans can keep the card cool enough to be silent. Gigabyte have revamped their Windforce x3 cooler for the G1 Gaming Edition. The main feature changes being adapted fans and a metal shroud. However, The GTX 960 range brings an Ace to the table, let’s find out shall we?
That’s right, passive mode at idle and general use, zero decibels. Even when the graphics card is being strained during a benchmark program, it only produces a mere 45 decibels, simply amazing.
Power Consumption
With electricity becoming increasingly expensive across most parts of the world the need for computer components to become power efficient has never been more relevant. Graphics cards are often the most power hungry components inside a desktop system so having an efficient graphics card is very important to keeping power bills under control. Power is often correlated to heat and so lower power consumption means a graphics card is likely to run slightly cooler and put out less heat into your system meaning your other components will run cooler with improved longevity. AMD and Nvidia have both made power consumption an integral part of the way graphics cards dynamically overclock so the need for graphics card vendors to use efficient VRM and PCB designs is becoming important to maximise performance. We take power readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load.
Power consumption is one of our lowest scores! Very impressive considering Gigabyte has given this card a 160w boost to help keep those overclocks stable; that’s Gigabyte 6-phase power supply coming into its own.
Temperatures
Along with noise, temperatures are what some users go by. Some won’t mind higher temperatures during a review due to the intent to overclock, but some would be very particular. They may have a computer stashed in a cupboard somewhere with poor air flow and require a decent cooling solution to take the extra strain.
The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 960 holds very well at idle and performance is amazing at full load during Heaven benchmark. If the ambient temperature was reduced to 23°c, then this graphics card would be joint best for the coolest card we’ve tested so far.
