Power consumption and temperatures, plus further examination
Power-draw numbers refer to a system-wide consumption measured with a mains-connected meter.
The GTX 470 is competitive with the Radeon HD 5850 and HD 5870s when connected up to a single screen and idling in Windows.
But the FurMark power-draw is significantly higher than the default-clocked HD 5870 and HD 5850.
As
a result the temperature creeps up close to 100°C. Remember the
threshold of the GPU is 105°C.
Further examination
Examining the whole noise/heat/power issue in more detail and taking a real-world game into account, we played through Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and noted where system-wide power-draw was highest. The game works the CPU's cores and gives the GPU(s) a good going over. We then left the card rendering the high power-draw scene for 10 minutes and logged the maximum temperature, fan-speed, and power-draw. The table, below, highlights our findings and provides a subjective analysis of the fan noise.
Let's explain the table. The noise perception is a subjective rating out of ten for the quietness of the card when under gaming load. Simple rpm don't always tell the full story. The HD 5870 TOXIC and HD 5850 win out here, helped by the fan spinning relatively slowly due to low-ish temps.
There are two figures for the GeForce GTX 4x0 GPUs. The first fan speed/noise relates to the card's standard settings. We reckon the fan-speed settings are too conservative and let the GPU hit close to 100°C. With that in mind, we manually change the fan speed and increase it to ensure the GPUs keep below 80°C. This is why both the GeForce GTX 400-series cards' fans spin up and push the noise profile up, and the Radeons win out here.
Further examination
Examining the whole noise/heat/power issue in more detail and taking a real-world game into account, we played through Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and noted where system-wide power-draw was highest. The game works the CPU's cores and gives the GPU(s) a good going over. We then left the card rendering the high power-draw scene for 10 minutes and logged the maximum temperature, fan-speed, and power-draw. The table, below, highlights our findings and provides a subjective analysis of the fan noise.
| GPU | Power-draw (maximum) | Temperature (maximum) |
Fan speed (maximum) |
Quietness /10 |
| GeForce GTX 470 | 354W | 94°C | 2,350rpm/3,290rpm | 5/3 |
| GeForce GTX 480 | 419W | 94°C | 2,720rpm/3,785rpm | 4/2 |
| Radeon HD 5970 | 366W | 77°C | 2,460rpm | 5 |
| Radeon HD 5870 TOXIC | 324W | 66°C | 1,950rpm | 7 |
| Radeon HD 5870 | 288W | 76°C | 2,350rpm | 6 |
| Radeon HD 5850 | 260W | 63°C | 1,650rpm | 7 |
Let's explain the table. The noise perception is a subjective rating out of ten for the quietness of the card when under gaming load. Simple rpm don't always tell the full story. The HD 5870 TOXIC and HD 5850 win out here, helped by the fan spinning relatively slowly due to low-ish temps.
There are two figures for the GeForce GTX 4x0 GPUs. The first fan speed/noise relates to the card's standard settings. We reckon the fan-speed settings are too conservative and let the GPU hit close to 100°C. With that in mind, we manually change the fan speed and increase it to ensure the GPUs keep below 80°C. This is why both the GeForce GTX 400-series cards' fans spin up and push the noise profile up, and the Radeons win out here.
