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To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and record the results.
In such an energy aware climate, AMD are making a big deal out of their new ‘ZeroCore Power’ technology. Many solutions today use power gating, clock gating and memory compression to reduce idle power requirements, but ZeroCore power technology can completely power down the core GPU while the rest of the system remains active.
The Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition drains a lot of power at the socket, and when two are combined into a CrossfireX system, you will easily be sucking over 500Watts from the power supply under gaming load. The fastest configuration is also the most power hungry.
The VTX3D HD7990 demands just over 300 watts when gaming, rising to over 560 watts under a synthetic stress test. The Asus GTX690 takes our top position, a very efficient design which only demands 276 watts when gaming.
It would be fair to say that none of these solutions are a great choice to reduce your electricity footprint however!
Ideally you would want a quality 850watt+ power supply for the VTX3D HD7990.
dear lord, my epenis is so small right now 🙁
Seems like a great price point, even though it costs as much as my system im working on right now!
Bit of a bargain for the high end gamers with loads of disposable budget.
both this and the GTX690 are quite power efficient, considering!
Would have been nice to see two HD7870 Tahiti LE’s in CF, just to give a viewpoint of what could be achieved with around £400.
Good review otherwise, dream system material
Seems I got one of the five left 🙂 just in time ! thanks for review ! awesom!
what power supply will you be using Tom?
just ordered a 1000W Seasonic, as I needed to move up from my older 750W corsair.
Costly day, I hate this site sometimes 🙁
Sadly the framerates DON’T tell the whole story as Hardocp and Tech report have shown, crossfire might show higher framerates but real world game play is not as smooth as SLI.
Real world gameplay was perfectly smooth on the HD7990 with the latest AMD beta drivers – unless there is a Crossfire glitch with a specific game I didn’t test (which is possible as that can happen). I was playing games on it for a few days.
Wow, this thing is ridiculous, I need a new card lol
AweSoMe!!!