PowerColor RX 6800 XT Red Devil Review

Following on from our stock thermal and acoustic testing, here we re-test the operating temperature of the GPU, but with noise levels normalised to 40dBa. This allows us to measure the efficiency of the overall cooling solution as varying noise levels as a result of more aggressive fan curves are no longer a factor.

For the noise-normalised temperatures, both BIOS modes again provide a reduction in operating temperature when compared to the reference card – at least when looking at edge temperature. The OC BIOS hit 68C with noise output configured to 40dBa (requiring a fan speed of 1570rpm, for those interested) while the Silent BIOS managed to reduce this by another 3C.

If you're wondering why the noise-normalised results are different between the two BIOS modes, despite the fact they obviously use the same cooler and are therefore running at the same fan speed, the answer is that the OC BIOS has a higher operating frequency and power target. Given both the Silent BIOS and the reference RX 6800 XT target 300W, this means comparing those two results is the most ‘apples to apples' comparison.

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