The test the performance of this card, we use the latest drivers direct from the manufacturer and run each test three times to obtain a fair average set of results.
Test System:
- Asus Rampage IV Extreme
- Intel Core i7 3960X
- 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz
- Corsair H100i
- Corsair HX1050W
- Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
- Lian Li T60
- Dell U3011
We would like to thank Asus, Corsair, Kingston, and Lian Li for supplying us with our test system components.
Games used:
- Aliens Vs Predator
- Dirt Showdown
- Hitman: Absolution
- Metro 2033
- Sleeping Dogs
Hardware used:
- Plug-in electricity usage monitor
- Sound level meter
Software used:
- 3DMark 11
- HWMonitor
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
I would struggle to get used to a totally silent PC. I’m so used to the whirring off the fans that I don’t even notice them.
Fans are required? Tell that to my Nofan-cooled, fanless PSU, FT02 system which has no fans at all apart from those on my Geforce 660 Ti. How about putting the card in a rotated case like the Silverstone FT02 and make use of the fact that heat rises? It seems to me that Powercolor have done themselves a disservice by limiting themselves to two slots: as a specialist card, I don’t think anyone would blink if it took up 3 or even 4 slots.
Your benchmarks indicate that this card gives a decent gaming performance at 1080p and as such would be a shoe-in if I weren’t looking to move to 4K. Here’s hoping for a fanless Titan.
Just so you realise something…
Heat does generally rise, but in a small environment like a computer case, with any airflow, it is not going to take its natural course. Maybe If there is no fan at all, but even then it’ll just eventually heat up the whole area since there wont be any flow to move the heat out.
That’s why there are vents, just like you have on cards with blower fans. See my build log at http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1740852 for my complete system.