AMD Radeon HD 7790 Video Card Review w/ Gigabyte & Sapphire

Temperature & Noise Testing

Temperatures are important to enthusiasts and gamers, so we took a bit of time and did some temperature testing on the pair of Radeon HD 7790 factory overclocked cards that we have.

Gigabyte GV-7790OC-1GD GPU-Z Idle:

Sapphire HD7790 Dual-X OC GPU-Z Idle:

Both cards had an idle temperature of 28.0C in a room that was 22.0C (72F). We expected to see a difference due to the radically different GPU coolers, but that was not the case for idle temperature testing.

Gigabyte GV-7790OC-1GD GPU-Z Furmark:

Sapphire HD7790 Dual-X OC GPU-Z Furmark:

When it comes to load results things were certianly not identical! The Gigabyte GV-7790OC-1GD peaked at 70C and the Sapphire HD7790 Dual-X OC peaked at just 61C! That means that the Sapphire HD7790 Dual-X OC was 15% cooler than the Gigabyte 7790 OC card!

Sound Testing

For sound testing we use an Extech sound level meter with ±1.5dB accuracy that meets Type 2 standards. This meter ranges from 35dB to 90dB on the low measurement range, which is perfect for us as our test room usually averages around 36dB. We measure the sound level two inches above the corner of the motherboard with ‘A’ frequency weighting. The microphone wind cover is used to make sure no wind is blowing across the microphone, which would seriously throw off the data.

When it comes to noise levels the Sapphire HD7970 Dual-X OC was the quietest of the bunch at idle, but it was louder than the Gigabyte 7790 OC when gaming and in FurMark. So, you have a toss up on your hands. At idle both cards are the same temperature and the noise level is comparable. When gaming the Sapphire HD7790 Dual-X OC card was 15% cooler, but it is also a tad louder.