HIS HD6970 Turbo Edition Review

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 25c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.

Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.

We found the HIS HD6970 Turbo to run a little hotter than our reference sample. The fan idles at 25% and under Furmark load hits 40%. This translates into a 1,300 rpm-2,500 rpm threshold.

We would prefer if HIS had adjusted the fan profile to be slightly more aggressive as we found that by a manual adjustment to 2,800rpm the temperatures dropped by 5c. Noise only increased slightly, but more on this shortly.

Return to ambient is a feature we have recently added to our reviews … we measure the time it takes for a solution to return to idle temperatures, immediately after full load. The faster the time, the better the cooler – for example a Noctua NH D14 cooler will return an Intel processor to idle temperatures much faster than a reference cooler. This is a good indication of how quickly a heatsink can dissipate heat.

As this is an AMD reference cooling solution we weren't surprised to see a rather long ‘cool down' time.

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