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Power Consumption, Noise Levels, And Temperature Readings

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Power consumption is measured in watts for the whole test platform. The 2D idle value comes from the normal Windows user interface without any load and with Windows Vista Aero turned off (minimal value). The 3D value is measured when the CPU and graphics card run under heavy load (peak value). Measurements took place at the wall socket. PSU efficiency averaged around 82.4% (according to manufacturer measurements).

Power Consumption
2D Watts3D WattsPower Adapters

GeForce GTX 285 (1,024 MB)

150

348

2 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce GTX 280 (1,024 MB)

155

347

1 x 6 + 1 x 8 pin PCIe

GeForce GTX 275 (896 MB)

156

351

2 x 6 pin PCIe

Zotac GeForce GTX 260² (GeForce GTX 260 216SPs 896 MB)

150

295

2 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB)

150

295

2 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB)

154

330

2 x 6 pin PCIe

Zotac GTS 250 1 GB (1,024 MB)

156

265

1 x 8 pin PCIe

GeForce GTS 250 (1,024 MB)

156

265

1 x 8 pin PCIe

GeForce 9800 GX2 (2 x 512 MB)

215

381

1 x 6 + 1 x 8 pin PCIe

GeForce 9800 GTX (512 MB)

170

278

2 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 9600 GT (1,024 MB)

145

195

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Asus GeForce 9600 GT (512 MB)

146

206

1 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 GTS (512 MB)

171

282

1 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 GT (1,024 MB)

148

210

1 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB)

160

254

1 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 Ultra (768 MB)

203

328

2 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 GTX (768 MB)

186

298

2 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 GTS (640 MB)

178

261

1 x 6 pin PCIe

GeForce 8800 GTS (320 MB)

170

248

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 4890 (1,024 MB)

182

312

2 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2 x 1,024 MB)

234

465

1 x 6 + 1 x 8 pin PCIe

HIS H487QT1GP ICEQ4+ (Radeon HD 4870 1,024 MB)

196

298

2 x 6 pin PCIe

Sapphire Vapor-X HD 4870 2 GB (Radeon HD 4870 2,048 MB)

189

293

2 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB)

191

288

2 x 6 pin PCIe

Sapphire HD 4850 1 GB (Radeon HD 4850 1,024 MB)

165

257

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB)

166

270

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 4770 (512 MB)

152

199

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 4670 (512 MB)

125

178

None

Radeon HD 3870 X2 (2x512 MB)

186

365

1 x 6 + 1 x 8 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 3870 (512 MB)

139

223

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Radeon HD 3850 (256 MB)

134

197

1 x 6 pin PCIe

Noise Levels
2D dB(A)
3D dB(A)
Fan Diameter

GeForce GTX 285 (1,024 MB)

37.9

51.4

75 mm

GeForce GTX 280 (1,024 MB)

38.0

45.4

75 mm

GeForce GTX 275 (896 MB)

36.8

44.2

75 mm

Zotac GeForce GTX 260² (GTX 260 216 SPs 896 MB)

37.5

41.2

75 mm

GeForce GTX 260 216 SPs (896 MB)

37.5

41.2

75 mm

GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB)

37.8

53.8

75 mm

Zotac GTS 250 1 GB (GTS 250 1,024 MB)

39.6

50.2

75 mm

GeForce GTS 250 (1,024 MB)

39.6

50.2

75 mm

GeForce 9800 GX2 (2 x 512 MB)

37.9

53.5

75 mm

GeForce 9800 GTX (512 MB)

37.2

44.8

70 mm

GeForce 9600 GT (1,024 MB)

36.9

42.3

75 mm

GeForce 8800 GTS (512 MB)

36.4

39.5

70 mm

GeForce 8800 GT (1,024 MB)

36.6

40.8

75 mm

GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB)

36.5

40.8

60 mm

GeForce 8800 Ultra (768 MB)

37.1

44.6

73 mm

GeForce 8800 GTX (768 MB)

37.5

40.5

75 mm

GeForce 8800 GTS (640 MB)

37.1

37.4

75 mm

GeForce 8800 GTS (320 MB)

36.2

37.0

75 mm

Radeon HD 4890 (1,024 MB)

36.7

48.4

73 mm

Radeon HD 4870 X2 (2 x 1,024 MB)

51.2

60.4

73 mm

HIS H487QT1GP ICEQ4+ (Radeon HD 4870 1,024 MB)

36.8

52.1

80 mm

Sapphire Vapor-X HD4870 2 GB (Radeon HD 4870 2,048 MB)

36.0

38.2

75 mm

Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB)

38.0

49.4

73 mm

Sapphire HD 4850 1 GB (Radeon HD 4850 1,024 MB)

36.7

50.4

60 mm

Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB)

36.2

47.9

60 mm

Radeon HD 4770 (512 MB)

36.3

38.5

70 mm

Radeon HD 4670 (512 MB)

36.2

36.2

50 mm

Radeon HD 3870 X2 (2 x 512 MB)

35.8

45.8

75 mm

Radeon HD 3870 (512 MB)

35.9

38.7

75 mm

Radeon HD 3850 (256 MB)

36.4

36.5

60 mm

Temperatures And Slot Width
2D Degrees
3D Degrees
Fan Height

GeForce GTX 285 (1,024 MB)

45

85

Double slot

GeForce GTX 280 (1,024 MB)

45

86

Double slot

GeForce GTX 275 (896 MB)

47

92

Double slot

Zotac GeForce GTX 260² (GTX 260 216 SPs 896 MB)

45

81

Double slot

GeForce GTX 260 216 SPs (896 MB)

45

81

Double slot

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goozaymunanos 17/06/2009 14:07
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wtf?!

no 4850X2, are you people MAD?!

article after recent article tom's has recommended the 4850X2..so why isn't it in this chart???

cheers,
bill

p.s. stuff and nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum

Redsnake77 17/06/2009 20:06
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-0+

Good article. Can you do the same for SLI and Crossfire including the older cards? Then in the summary show the single and dual card tables side by side?

xizel 18/06/2009 14:29
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you guys should go see the comments on the US page...

Solitaire 18/06/2009 23:58
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Surprised that Sapphire submitted the old HD4850 model for testing, the newer one has a much better cooler and with the altered p-states (lowest is 160/250MHz!) its passive at idle.

Solitaire 19/06/2009 12:12
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LOL! Just had a gander at the US page as xizel suggested...

Wondered how Toms had suddenly reversed the set-in-stone law of HD4850>GTS250 and HD4870>(old)GTX260... Well, now we know. They cheated and used dodgy benchmarks (yet again, and I've been forced to say that line A LOT lately!) and then did their usual plug routine.

Looks like Toms is part of nVidia's TWIWMTBP program. Y'know, The Way It Was Meant To Be Paid. Mmm, payola time!

No idea why they still employ Kriess or Roos, no-one in their right mind can believe anything Toms says until those two are locked up on corruption charges in nVidia's inevitable Intel-style anti-competitive suit... XD

zipzoomflyhigh 20/06/2009 13:03
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Tom's just wrote an article on the 4850X2, yet they fail to include it in the test.......smoke another one guys.

zipzoomflyhigh 20/06/2009 13:08
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--1+

Yeah I agree Solitaire, they have always been Intel/Nvidia biased.

Anonymous 20/06/2009 16:10
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Seems The Last Remnant isn't Radeon optimised...wonder how much nVidia paid them :D

God, TH has gone downhill hasn't it? I miss the old site layout too!

Also interesting that the Phenom/II based rigs still do really well in games...of course if i were encoding lots of porn to DVD i'd probably get a Core i7, like battle times of old Intel seems slightly faster at encoding. :D Upgrading soon, still debating whether to go Phenom II or Core i7 as the cost difference isn't as much as it used to be, but is still around 150+ quid more mainly because the motherboards are more expensive for Intel, plus the need for at least 3 sticks of DDR3...and it seems to me that using SLi/Crossfire on Intel chipsets appears to affect their performance compared to a dedicated chipset for SLi or Crossfire, as i get surprisingly similar results with a 4890 and an OLD Phenom 9850 @ just 2.8GHz...weird, isn't it? Pretty sure some driver trickery is going on here, too.

Also, LOL @ nVidia for getting rid of more G92 based GPUs marked as a GTX250 :D God, how big must their stockpile be? Or it's just a cheap easy way to make more money to bribe people. Lol.

Anonymous 27/06/2009 17:11
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Hmm.. down here, you can get 2x 4870 1Gb's for 150€/each, totalling the best thing you can get for under 300€. How's that for you? :)

Anonymous 30/06/2009 07:45
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well i like getting a good deal and i bought a radeon 4830 running it with a fx62 @2.8Ghz and i can play all games at HD with very playable framerates and i reckon if i crossfire it then i'll get about the same as a gtx280 for under £200 so why isnt the best budget card in the bench mark ?
ps toms hardware been using your site for years and years and its a great site well worth reading, sometimes does seem a bit biased one way or another which is fine cos if i was doing the job these big companys could buy my vote for a month or two as well :D

Anonymous 05/07/2009 16:45
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6gb ram on 32bit windows?

revos 13/07/2009 16:35
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I am a big ATI Fan but upgraded my vga card about 7 months ago... went for the Asus 4870 1gb also tried the Shapire version but could not get it going on my dual screen vista 64 pc so had to swap it at the supplier for a Asus gtx 260 896mb .. must say great card and great software ... pitty I could not get the same support from ATi

Anonymous 15/07/2009 16:29
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I think the normalization is lacking a bit.

What I suggest is a method of weighing the average fps rates based on relevance: supposing the refresh rate of most monitors around these days is 60Hz, i would give 100 points to a card that achieves that value (60fps). A card that achieves less than that would get a percentage of those points (30fps->50 points), but for higher values the 'bonus' should not be as high (ie: for 120fps the card should NOT get 200 points because those extra 60fps are mostly irrelevant; maybe one point/fps over 60 resulting in 160points for 120fps or even half a point resulting in 130).
This would make extra 'power' more relevant in titles that actually NEED it.

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