Noise
We want to shed some analytical light on the system noise levels generated when high-end cards are installed. To this end, we're using a PCE-318 noise meter placed near front of a Corsair Obsidian chassis that has the side panel on and card(s) screwed in. Only the test system is running in a quiet room with a sound floor of under 30dB. Decibel readings are noted for idle, load (COD: Black Ops) and super-load (FurMark) after 10 minutes have elapsed.
It's a mixed bag on the noise front. Sapphire's card is the quietest in our line up when idle, but in an effort to keep the 970MHz core cool under load, the fan becomes noisy and somewhat obtrusive. The card's noise output is roughly on par with a reference Radeon HD 6870 when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops, but crank up the load using Furmark and the fan soars - creating close to 50dB of noise in the process.
The TOXIC card is unlikely to be an ear ache during real-world use, but it is quite clearly noisier than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti.
