Fan Noise

In the past years users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays this has changed with people being more aware of the fan noise and power consumption of their graphic cards.
In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits we are using a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.


The tested graphics card is installed in a system that is completely passively cooled. That is passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard and Solid-State HDD.
This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified) the measurement is conducted at 100 cm distance and 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room is well below 20 dbA for all measurements. Please note that the dbA scale is not linear, it is logarithmic. 40 dbA is not twice as loud as 20 dbA. A 3 dbA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dbA increase doubles the perceived sound level.

Fan noise of PowerColor's HD 5770 is acceptable, but not more. It runs at similar noise levels as AMD's reference design Radeon HD 5850 which offers considerably more performance.

PowerColor's new BIOS puts the fan noise of this card right where it should be. In idle the card is barely audible, even though you might notice it in a quiet room in a quiet computer (HTPC). Under load the fan ramps up slightly to keep the card cool but does so in a very civilized manner. For the performance offered, this is one of the quietest cards available right now. Also it is considerably quieter than AMD's reference design card.