To test power consumption, we monitor the overall power of the system through a plug-in electricity usage monitor at an idle and load state. This allows us to show the fluctuation between how much power draw the graphics card takes at idle and at load. By monitoring the overall usage of the whole system, it gives an easy comparison if you wish to do the same yourself as opposed to buying very expensive individual testing equipment.
As expected with any overclocked card, the full load power consumption is up in relation to reference power levels, with an extra ~30w needed to give the card the power it needs.
The Windforce cooler, although effective, is the ugliest cooling solution ever conceived, It’s a real eyesore IMO. Yuck.
I totally second this. There are many better looking dual-fan coolers from Asus, MSI..
Gigabyte should learn from them.
It’s really a good cooler (although it’s ghastly). If you ever buy a Gigabyte card with that cooler all you have to do is yank it off, get rid of that over applied glop the manufacturer calls thermal grease, replace it with a good quality paste (applied properly of course) and you’ll see the temps plummet even further.
Well, that’s bad.
P.S. I never used Gigabyte cards..
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. They’ve cleaned up the blue PCB and other than that its just a rather standard looking triple fan black VGA cooler
It’s just personal taste. I actually use a Gigabyte GFX card with the Windforce cooler but I can’t see it so it doesn’t bother me but I have no complaints about it’s cooling prowess. Although the colour of the PCB is important to some people, somebody pointed out to me that that it was no longer blue but black, I hadn’t even noticed. Working with these things all day long for a number of years, one tends to become jaded & cynical. I think it’s time for a break.
Except for the ugly outlook, it is good if not great in terms of performance.
GTX770 is itself a very good chip though.
Having a window in your PC is so 2001, who cares what it looks like? You only see the top of the PCB anyway, all that matters is how good it cools.
I actually liked Gigabyte’s cooler design and PCB color enough to buy two of them…670 style…but to each their own I guess.
Can’t let these vain naysayers convince people not to get the card just from its looks.