Power, Temperature, and Noise
We know coming into this section that the 7790s are not very power hungry, and the 650 Ti BOOST is a bit more so. It should also be quite interesting to see how the 40 nm HD 5870 compares to these solutions, especially since it is neck and neck with the new HD 7790s.
Things shake out as expected. The MSI board pulls the least amount of power at load due to its slower clock speeds, while the 650 Ti BOOST has the best idle performance with the monitor active. The 650 Ti BOOST is pulling 55 watts more at the plug than the other two cards, and is only 15 watts lower than the HD 5870. I find it somewhat interesting that the 650 Ti BOOST does not outstrip the overall performance of the HD 5870, but is that close in power consumption.
In terms of temperature all of the cards are very well behaved. At max load we see them hit around the same temperatures, but the Asus card seems to do a little bit better even though the temperature hits 60 C, it is only doing around 30% speed on the fans.
Noise was somewhat interesting here. The Asus board was dead quiet, even when overclocked. I never heard much more than a whisper from that card. The MSI card was slightly louder, but it was essentially inaudible under most circumstances. It had the highest percent RPM at load, but the design of the fan kept it very quiet. The loudest by far was the Galaxy card. It was audible outside of the case at load, but it was not annoying. I still could hear it clearly above the others though.
You forgot to mention how to
You forgot to mention how to do the ole’ pencil mod to enable that extra SMX unit in the 650 Boost 🙂
GTX Got the 650 Ti Boost. Not
GTX Got the 650 Ti Boost. Not sure I understand everything about it but it is a huge improvement over the 260 that came in the computer. On the other hand this is a dell 30 inch monitor…Kind of thinking a GTX 770 might offer a little more umph.
Yeah, a GTX 770 is somewhat
Yeah, a GTX 770 is somewhat of a must anymore for modern games and a 30" 2560×1600 monitor. The 650 Ti BOOST could push the pixels, but in games like Metro it (and the others) choked.
As a side note I’m still
As a side note I’m still amazed at how well a 5870 holds up considering it’s age.
It really was a great card.
It also costed a whole lot
It also costed a whole lot more back in the day than either 7790 or 650Ti BOOST.
Yes, it did. But consider
Yes, it did. But consider that if you had bought it new at $400, that is a pretty good investment going on 4 years and still very useable.
I have had a 5850 1GB for 3
I have had a 5850 1GB for 3 years and it works well for 1080p gaming.
Bought it for Dirt 2 mostly as it was one of the first DX 11 games I think.
DiRT 2 was one of the first
DiRT 2 was one of the first DX11 games. I remember watching the first footage they released during QuakeCon that year. Was really impressed… it sorta inspired me to get back into racing games.
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The 7790 models you tried,
The 7790 models you tried, are both 2 GB?
Both are 1 GB models.
Both are 1 GB models.
How did the galaxy not win
How did the galaxy not win this with the better average benchmarks for games and others?