Sapphire R9 390 Nitro 8GB Review

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – 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.

The cooler copes reasonably well, although it does have to deal with quite a lot of heat from the PCB.

We install the graphics card into our system and measure temperatures on the back of the PCB with our Fluke Visual IR Thermometer/Infrared Thermal Camera. This is a real world running environment.

Details shown below.

The rear of the card heats up in one area quite a bit, hitting almost 86c under full load. This is hot, although not critical. There is no doubt that a backplate would help spread this heat out better over the length of the card.

Become a Patron!