Inno3D GTX 980Ti iChill Black Graphics Card Review

Noise, Power Consumption and Temperatures

Noise

When it comes to noise output, the graphics card is absolutely sublime in both idle and load usage scenarios. As you can see from the data, the GPU is remarkably quiet under during Heaven 4.0 and features a much better noise to performance ratio than the Fury X. This emphasizes the quality of components on offer, and lack of whine from the water pump.

On another note, the radiator is constantly cooled by a 120mm fan which theoretically should increase noise levels compared to other 980Ti air-cooled products opting for a 0dB passive mode. However, the RPM values remain extremely low which allows the system to report a noise level within 1 decibel of 980Ti units with the fans off. This is really striking and showcases the efficiency and silent operation of the included fan.

Power Consumption

The graphics card’s potent cooling solution increases power consumption in load conditions compared to air-cooled designs, but it’s nothing to be overly worried about due to efficiency of NVIDIA’s Maxwell architecture.

Temperatures

As you might expect, the GPU’s liquid cooler in combination with Maxwell’s impeccable efficiency allows for very reasonable temperatures under heavy load. The maximum reported figure is well within the graphics card’s thermal limitations and extremely close to high-end air cooling versions of the same chip. Also notice how the 68-degree result was achieved with an ambient temperature increase of 1 degree. which suggests there’s nothing to choose between the 980Ti models we’ve tested thus far.