Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse Review 40

Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XT Pulse Review

by
W1zzard
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on ,
Manufacturer: Sapphire
Cooler Performance Comparison »

Temperatures

Temperature & Noise Comparison
IdleGaming
GPUNoiseGPUHotspotNoiseRPM
AMD RX 7900 XT34°CFan Stop58°C74°C37.2 dBA1747 RPM
ASUS RX 7900 XT TUF39°CFan Stop53°C71°C29.8 dBA1179 RPM
ASUS RX 7900 XT TUF (Quiet BIOS)39°CFan Stop59°C76°C27.2 dBA926 RPM
Sapphire RX 7900 XT Pulse41°CFan Stop69°C82°C28.7 dBA1504 RPM
XFX RX 7900 XT Merc 31039°CFan Stop61°C83°C42.2 dBA1706 RPM
XFX RX 7900 XT Merc 310 (2nd BIOS)39°CFan Stop54°C72°C45.8 dBA2041 RPM
Testing notes & interpretation
  • GPU temperatures listed here are based on GPU-Z measurements of the on-chip temperature sensor.
  • We report these GPU temperatures under a constant load for ease of comparison, as well as an idle state most end users will experience often. This combination helps dictate cooling needs and provides context for how well the thermal solution performs.
  • Please note that GPU temperature is contingent on a variety of factors. Some, including clock speed, voltage settings, cooler design, and production variances, are beyond the control of the end user. Others, such as ambient temperature, case design, and airflow pathway affecting the GPU, can be mitigated to certain extents.
  • The data in the table above shows results for similar cards, achieved in identical conditions during previous TechPowerUp reviews.

Thermal Analysis

For this test, we first let the card sit idle to reach thermal equilibrium. Next, we start a constant 100% gaming load, recording several important parameters while the test is running. This shows you the thermal behavior of the card and how the fans ramp up as temperatures increase. Once temperatures are stable (no increase for two minutes), we stop the load and record how the card cools down over time.

GPU Clock, Voltage Temperature, Fan Speed over Time


Fan Noise

Noise Testing Details
  • The tested graphics card is installed in an open bench system. The system does not emit any noise on its own, all components are passively cooled.
  • All cards are loaded with the same test: a custom-engineered game-like load in Unreal Engine 4 that always renders the same frame at 60 FPS to minimize variance.
  • To ensure 100% loading of the GPU, the render complexity is set dynamically so that each card operates at peak performance without being CPU limited.
  • We're not using Furmark because it creates too high a load that forces fans to run faster than what is encountered during typical gameplay.
  • Noise results of other cards on this page are measurements of the respective reference design.
  • We let the card heat up and wait for fan speed to no longer change. Depending on the fan-control algorithm, this can often take quite some time.
  • Noise level measurements are conducted using a 1/2" calibrated measurement microphone that records onto the host PC using a digital audio processing pipeline. The microphone is recalibrated at least once a month.
  • Measurement distance is 50 cm. Our previous noise-level measurements took place at a distance of 1 m. We reduced the distance to be able to better distinguish acoustics of the very quiet graphics cards.

All modern graphics cards support idle-fan-stop nowadays, so no reason to report idle fan noise.

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Aug 16th, 2024 14:30 EDT change timezone

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