32
Sapphire R9 Fury Tri-X OC 4 GB Review
Fan Noise »Power Consumption
Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially with users asking for a quiet cooling solution, which is why engineers are now paying much more attention to the power consumption of new graphics card designs. An optimized fan-profile is also one of the few things board vendors can create to impress with reference designs where they are prohibited from making changes to the thermal solution or components on the card.
For this test, we measure the power consumption of only the graphics card via the PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 digital multimeter with 6.5-digit resolution is used for all measurements. Again, the values here only reflect the card's power consumption as measured at its DC inputs, not that of the whole system.
We use Metro: Last Light as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage because it offers the following: very high power draw; high repeatability; is a current game that is supported on all cards; drivers are actively tested and optimized for it; supports all multi-GPU configurations; test runs in a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.
Our results are based on the following tests:
The blue bar in these charts is for the ASUS R9 Fury STRIX. Sapphire includes a dual-BIOS feature on their card. The right BIOS, which is stock, is displayed in green, and the left BIOS with an increased power limit is displayed in gold. For this test, we measure the power consumption of only the graphics card via the PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 digital multimeter with 6.5-digit resolution is used for all measurements. Again, the values here only reflect the card's power consumption as measured at its DC inputs, not that of the whole system.
We use Metro: Last Light as a standard test representing typical 3D gaming usage because it offers the following: very high power draw; high repeatability; is a current game that is supported on all cards; drivers are actively tested and optimized for it; supports all multi-GPU configurations; test runs in a relatively short time and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity.
Our results are based on the following tests:
- Idle: Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1920x1080) with all windows closed and drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle mode until power draw was stable.
- Multi-monitor: Two monitors connected to the tested card, both using different display timings. Windows 7 Aero sitting at the desktop (1920x1080+1280x1024) with all windows closed and drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle mode until power draw was stable. When using two identical monitors with same timings and resolution, power consumption will be lower. Our test represents the usage model of many productivity users, who have one big screen and a small monitor on the side.
- Blu-ray Playback: Power DVD 9 Ultra is used at a resolution of 1920x1080 to play back the Batman: The Dark Knight Blu-ray disc with GPU acceleration turned on. Measurements start around timecode 1:19, which has the highest data rates on the BD with up to 40 Mb/s. Playback keeps running until power draw converges to a stable value.
- Average: Metro: Last Light at 1920x1080, representing a typical gaming power draw. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the benchmark was rendering (no title/loading screen). In order to heat up the card, we run the benchmark once without measuring power consumption.
- Peak: Metro: Last Light at 1920x1080, representing a typical gaming power draw. Highest single reading during the test.
- Maximum: Furmark Stability Test at 1280x1024, 0xAA. This results in a very high no-game power-consumption that can typically be reached only with stress-testing applications. We report the highest single reading after a short startup period. Initial bursts during startup are not included, as they are too short to be relevant.
Power consumption of the card is improved over previous products because of the energy efficient HBM memory. There are also some efficiency improvements to the GPU, which should help close the gap to NVIDIA Maxwell's fantastic efficiency.
In non-gaming states, we see a significant improvement over the Fury X because AMD's Fury has no watercooling pump that needs to be running at all times. The difference is smaller than on ASUS' board, though, which seems to be just a bit more power efficient.
Single- and multi-monitor power consumption is now almost as good as with NVIDIA's latest offerings; especially the long overdue improvement in multi-monitor power draw is good to see.
Blu-ray playback is still horribly inefficient on AMD's latest cards, so you had better stick with NVIDIA in such a usage scenario.
Gaming power consumption is much improved as it is even lower than with the R9 290, but with much higher performance, of course.
Furmark maximum power is definitely a good way up from what we've seen on ASUS' card, but it unfortunately makes no difference in out-of-the-box performance because of the way AMD's Boost technology works. Well, Furmark will run faster, but your games won't. The increased power limit of the 2nd BIOS could be useful in more extreme overclocking situations, though.
Nov 25th, 2024 03:58 EST
change timezone
Latest GPU Drivers
New Forum Posts
- test memory cards PS2 (22)
- NVME SSD Longevity without use? (8)
- What are you playing? (22261)
- Is this a good build? Plz let me know if I am missing any components. (5)
- Scratched mobo traces with a screwdriver (41)
- 9800x 3d vs 12900k - Battle of the Century (212)
- Different low reading (38)
- Dell Workstation Owners Club (3211)
- Why aren't there many cases without glass? (3)
- 2022-X58/1366 PIN Motherboards NVME M.2 SSD BIOS MOD Collection (770)
Popular Reviews
- STALKER 2 Performance Benchmark Review - 35 GPUs Tested
- Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master Review
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review - The Best Gaming Processor
- ARCTIC P12 PWM PST 120 mm Fan Review
- Sennheiser HD 490 PRO Open-Back Headphones Review
- Chieftec Visio Review
- NVIDIA SFF-Ready System Build & Benchmark Review - Build Small, Play Big
- Upcoming Hardware Launches 2024 (Updated Nov 2024)
- DDR5 Memory Performance Scaling with AMD Zen 5
- Intel Core Ultra 7 265K Review
Controversial News Posts
- AMD Falling Behind: Radeon dGPUs Absent from Steam's Top 20 (222)
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Stocks Vaporized in Retail, Being Scalped (153)
- AMD Introduces Next-Generation AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Processor, $479, Nov 7 (124)
- Apple and Samsung in the Fray to Acquire Intel: Rumor (123)
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Comes with 120W TDP, 5.20 GHz Boost, All Specs Leaked (120)
- Microsoft Offers $30 Windows 10 Security Extension for Home Users (118)
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Has the CCD on Top of the 3D V-cache Die, Not Under it (110)
- TechPowerUp is Hiring a Power Supply (PSU) Reviewer (110)