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. That said temperatures are one of the most important non-performance related properties on a graphics card. For details on our temperature testing procedures please see the test systems and procedures page.
After reading your review Ryan I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like it as much as you, I would’ve taken XFX down a few more notches for having the cheek to print “The Ultimate Gaming Experience” on the box.
I agree, they definitely should have marketed it more towards the HTPC user. No one will ever buy this card for gaming because it is poor for gaming. This kind of card should come with single slot versions that have dual HDMI and single display port outputs (so it is capable of doing 4K playback). They should be sold as HTPC/Media playback cards.
What I wonder is how it fares compared to the passive Radeon 5550 I have. It’s a newer architecture and a little faster on the core clock (and a little lower power), but I wonder how this translates to performance.