Power Consumption, Noise, Temperature

I performed the power consumption test with a multifunctional Zalman ZM-MFC2 panel. This panel measures the overall power draw of the computer (without the monitor) from the wall outlet. There were two test modes: 2D (Word and Web surfing) and 3D (FurMark 1.6.5 running in Burn mode in a 1280x960 window). FurMark seems to be the heaviest load possible for a graphics card, so I chose it for the testing purposes.

Here are the results:

It is clear that the system with one Radeon HD 4770 is the most economical as its overall power draw is no higher than 260 watts. The Radeon HD 4850 512MB goes next, and the GeForce GTX 260 896MB is third in terms of power saving. Interestingly, each GeForce GTS 250 consumes more than the GeForce GTX 260, which must be due to their high frequencies and GPU tech process (65nm for the GTS 250 and 55nm for the GTX 260). The system with two Radeon HD 4770 in CrossFireX mode has about the same power consumption. The Radeon HD 4870, GeForce GTX 275 and Radeon HD 4890 are the most uneconomical. Note also that Nvidia’s products consume less power in 2D mode.

The amount of noise produced by the graphics cards’ coolers was measured with a digital noise-level meter Center-321 at night in a totally quiet apartment from a distance of 1 meter from the closed system case. The speed of the five 120mm system fans was reduced to 660rpm for the test. The background noise of the system case was as low as 32.9dBA. When the PC was turned off, the sound-level meter reported 28.8dBA. Subjectively, the noise is comfortable at 34.5dBA, which is marked with a red line in the diagram. The test method is simple: the speed of the cooler’s fan is being changed with RivaTuner from 100 to 20% (or 25%) stepping 5% and the amount of noise was measured at each step.

The diagram shows the results of four graphics cards for easier reading. The Radeon HD 4770 is always working at 35.6dBA but can give an occasional wail up to 50.2dBA for a couple of seconds. Both GeForce GTS 250 are as noisy as 37.2dBA in the automatic fan control mode and 46.7dBA at full speed. The diagram shows the results of the most interesting products (in my opinion).

Easy to see, both Radeon HD 48xx cards are louder than their opponents. The bad news is that their noise is growing up faster than that of the GeForce cards (you can see a steep rise of the graphs in the diagram). The GeForces differ in terms of noise and fan speed control. For example, the GeForce GTX 275’s cooler works at the same speed (of about 1400rpm) and produces 36.0dBA of noise until 40% capacity. The GeForce GTX 260’s cooler works at 900rpm and is quieter. The fan speed control can be adjusted in the graphics card’s BIOS (this works for both AMD and Nvidia products). So, you can achieve an acceptable ratio of noise and temperature by doing such adjustment. The more radical way is to install an alternative cooling system.

The final diagram in this section shows the temperatures of the tested cards’ GPUs.

The more advanced graphics cards have higher temperatures. The only exception is the Radeon HD 4770 and HD 4850: these cards were roughly equal in the performance tests but the Radeon HD 4770 is preferable in terms of heat dissipation (and power consumption). On the other hand, the HIS Radeon HD 4770 comes with an alternative cooler (although it is not as effective as the Thermaltake S-Orb, for example) whereas the HIS Radeon HD 4850 has the reference cooler with a shrieking and inefficient blower.