Power consumption, temperature and noise
True to Gigabyte's word, load power consumption is lower than a reference GeForce GTX 470.
Although we're only seeing a five per cent drop, it's impressive to see a heavily-overclocked card consume less power than a stock-clocked alternative.
Now that's useful. On a surprisingly-hot September afternoon, the custom-cooled Gigabyte GTX 470 SOC proved to be more than 11 per cent cooler than reference during a session of Crysis.
The drop-off is dramatic, and it's enough to prevent any hot-running Fermi jibes; this GTX 470 is no hotter than a Radeon HD 5870.
A word on noise
Power consumption and temperatures are better, but noise is the area in which the GeForce GTX 470 SOC really proves its worth.
Although a reference GTX 470 is known to annoy with a single loud fan, Gigabyte's SOC is practically silent when idle and it's almost inaudible when under heavy load, too.
It's quite simply one of the quietest high-end cards we've tested. Top marks for keeping noise levels down to a very minimum.
