Power consumption, temperature and noise
Power consumption
Both cards are understandably power hungry, but let's face it, you don't buy a £1,200 GPU if you're worried about the electricity bill, right?
Temperature
What's perhaps more interesting is that Sapphire's TOXIC - cooled by a trio of 92mm fans - is able to keep slightly cooler than ASUS's ARES both when idle and under load when using automatic fan speeds.
Noise
ASUS claims that ARES is 17 per cent less noisy than a reference HD 5970, but that isn't to say the card is by any means quiet.
At idle, with the fan hovering at around 990rpm, the card is admittedly barely audible. Introduce some 3D load, however, and noise levels begin to rise rapidly. At 1,500rpm the fan becomes clearly audible, and after a session of Crysis it speeds past 2,000rpm and becomes noisy.
Crank it up manually to close to 4,000rpm and houston, we have take off.
ASUS's cooler may be aesthetically easy on the eye, but Sapphire's Arctic Cooling derivative maintains lower temperatures whilst remaining easy on the ear.
