Noise, Power Consumption and Temperatures
Noise
Everyone has their own reasonable noise level when it comes to comes to components in a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down, some want a completely silent computer.
NVIDIA have made some of the quietest reference coolers I have dealt with, just 51 decibels at load is seriously quiet.
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.
NVIDIA doing what they do best, offering top performance with as small as possible power draw.
Temperatures
The cooling solution which graphics card vendors choose to implement is one of the main differences that consumers have to contend with when choosing a graphics cards. Apart from their acoustic properties, the thermal properties of graphics card coolers are extremely important. Lower temperatures are always better and with AMD and Nvidia opting to use dynamic overclocking algorithms that take temperature into account it is important that graphics card vendors use high performance cooling solutions in order to maximise performance. The era of graphics cards reaching dangerous temperatures are now in the past but the importance of lower temperatures still remains. Lower temperatures mean better stability, longer component longevity and lower fan speeds .We take temperature readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load. We always record actual temperatures and make a note of the ambient; in the case where more than 1 GPU is used an average is created.
At stock, the GTX 980Ti has a suggested thermal limit of 83°c; this can be raised or lowered to suit your tastes, but I found it fine for testing.
Hmmm
It is interesting how every review of late talking about the new Titan and now the Ti fail to mention how badly NVidia has crippled the “new” Titan and 980Ti’s FP64 capabilities. They are now a mere shadow of their original Titan roots. And for the record, even the 2 year old R9 290X stomps all over the “new Titan” and the new “Ti” in FP64 apps. Cherry picking benchmarks hardly gives the true picture of just how hamstrung the NVidia cards are in many non gaming applications. It is also fascinating to watch how the very same websites that have been bashing AMD on heat and power issues now white wash the fact that these “new” cards now run significantly hotter than the R9 290X. They also “save” the user a little more than half a 60 watt light bulb in energy saving (assuming zero overclocks) at best. Then there is the fact that these cards at present cost 2-3 times the R9 290X. What happened to the value equation in evaluating “consumer” graphics cards? And finally there seems to be little mention of the fact that most of the titles in many of these initial reviews of the Ti are specifically written to favor NVidia cards.
It is not that I am claiming that the “new” cards are not fast fster than the R9 290X in FP32) it is the manner in which they are being so actively promoted instead of reported. It makes it impossible for the casual user to a clear picture and hence make an informed purchasing decision.
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