The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.
Load measurements were acquired by running Furmark and Cinebench together. We included results from a diode which we placed beside the motherboard and the exhaust fans.
The Arctic Cooling custom solution really help improve the cards performance when compared to the reference cooler. The cooler is not only basically inaudible, but it manages to maintain a 60c threshold when gaming.
Return to Idle 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.
The Artic Cooling unit is really proving to be a fantastic implementation for this card, returning temperature to idle within 14 seconds. One of the fastest RTI time frames we have recorded.