Page 12 - Power Usage, Temperature, Noise
Using a wall power measurement device, I noted down the total system power consumption with the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB installed. Do keep in mind this includes every component of the system -- including power supply efficiency loss -- and not just the graphics card only. With that in mind, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB's power consumption reached a maximum of 235W load from 69W idle -- a difference of 166W. It was a noticeable improvement over the GTX 760 in both tests; saving the entire computer 3W while idling, and 27W under load.
Gigabyte likes to promote their lower RDS(on) MOSFETs, quality solid capacitors, 2oz copper PCB, and low power loss ferrite core design. In the past, I have seen a difference in power consumption as much as 10W against reference cards with regular components. The above results were obtained when running 3DMark's Fire Strike Extreme test, and your graphics card is not likely to see any higher loads, especially under normal usage. To be honest, you are not going to get anywhere near this under intense gaming sessions, so really -- this is just for interest's sake, haha.
For the purpose of this review, I left the fan on default settings, so its speed is allowed to vary accordingly with temperature. I also wanted to see what the card is capable of doing inside my low airflow chassis configuration. Most people should get better results in real life than our hot running test bench environment. In the tests, I left the stock paste intact for testing before taking it apart for the photo session on Page 3. Its thermal interface material was applied properly from the factory, which we have seen during disassembly. Even under our intense Furmark load tests, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB peaked out at only 65c; a figure that is simply amazing, thanks to the 600W WindForce 3X cooler and the GM206's low TDP. It is important to point out this is the worst case scenario -- you will not hit this temperature under normal gaming sessions. Most cases should have better airflow than my configuration anyway.
At this point, you may pull up my Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 4GB and wonder why these numbers are so much higher than its higher performance counterpart with the same cooler. There are several reasons for this; hence I did not compare the results on the same chart. Firstly, testing my PC upstairs will have some variance in room temperature, which will contribute to one or two degrees of difference. Obviously, this is not the biggest factor, which brings us to the second point. The G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB is highly optimized for silence. While idling, the fans are completely stopped, so the graphics card is actually passively cooled. When it is under load, the ramp up is fairly slow for the fans, so it is more tolerant to higher temperatures at the expense of reduced sound emission. They are all well within the designed thermal envelope, and being a quiet PC enthusiast and all, I this this is the way it should be.
As far as noise is concerned, while this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise, and the loudest component in my entire system is probably my Noctua ultra low noise fans -- and they are not loud at all. In my opinion, there is no objective measurement of noise, as measuring sound pressure level is often impractical, because human ears are more sensitive to some frequencies than others. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB to be at 0/10 idling. The fans are completely shut off at this stage, so it makes no noise at all.
With the fans active, they will not produce a significant amount of noise until it goes above 50%, but as I have mentioned earlier, the ramp up is pretty slow, so the Gigabyte GTX 960 is pretty quiet, even under load. Obviously, you can force the fan to full speed. Just for fun, on a scale from 0-10, where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 970 4GB to be at 7.0/10 at 100% fan speed. Seriously, it is pretty loud at that speed -- but at least the fan runs smoothly. If you want your card to be appropriate in a quiet PC configuration, just leave the stock programming intact. Once you bump it past that magic mark, you are going to hear it quite clearly. At the end of the day, if you are a silent PC enthusiast, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB even at stock fan programming will definitely not disappoint even the pickiest of all.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Architecture
3. A Closer Look, Installation, Test System
4. Benchmark: 3DMark
5. Benchmark: Battlefield 4
6. Benchmark: BioShock Infinite
7. Benchmark: Crysis 3
8. Benchmark: GRID 2
9. Benchmark: Metro: Last Light
10. Benchmark: Thief
11. Benchmark: Unigine: Heaven 4.0
12. Power Usage, Temperature, Noise
13. Overclocking and Conclusion
