Benchmark: Power, Temperature and Noise
Gigabyte's card consumes more power than a regular GeForce GTX 670 when under load, but that's no surprise when you consider the ramped-up core clock speed.
Temperature is usually where custom-cooled cards aim to excel, and the WindForce 3X does well to lower GTX 670 temperatures another notch or two. 28ºC when idle is practically cold in graphics-card terms and 74ºC under load is impressive, too.
Cast your memory back to our review of Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 680 OC, and you may recall that we found the card's fan profile to be overly aggressive; it forced the fans to spin up to almost 4,000rpm (75 per cent of maximum) after 10 minutes of gameplay.
Fortunately, Gigabyte has relented somewhat. The GeForce GTX 670 WindForce 3X runs warmer, but during gameplay it kept fan speeds below 3,200rpm (58 per cent of maximum). This change in fan profile helps lower noise output, but the card still isn't as quiet as NVIDIA's reference design; though, that's no surprise when you consider that the number of fans has gone up from one to three.
