NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 GF100 DX11 Video Card Review

Temperature Testing

Since video card temperatures and the heat generated by
next-generation cards have become an area of concern among enthusiasts
and gamers, we want to take a closer look at how the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 graphics card does
at idle and under a full load.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Video Card Idle Temperature:

At idle on an open test bench the GeForce GTX 480 had some pretty good temperature numbers
for being such a hot card. We were seeing right around 51C at idle, which isn’t as bad as we expected to be honest. As you can see from the screen shot above, the idle state
of the GeForce GTX 480 drops the GPU frequency down to just 50MHz and the
memory clock down to 67.5MHz to help conserve power and lower
temperatures. The fan spins at 1750RPM at 44% rotation speed when at idle.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Video Card Load Temperature:

We fired up FurMark and ran the stability at 640×480, which was
enough to put the GPU at 100% load in order to get the highest load
temperature possible. This application also charted the temperature
results so you can see how the temperature rises and levels off, which
is very nice. The GeForce GTX 480 maxed out at 96C. The fan on the GeForce GTX 480 video card was left on auto during temperature testing and the fan speed is
dynamic. This means that it will increase/decrease depending on the GPU
temp and GPU load. You can see a slight dip in temperatures at the start of the test as the GPU fan was still spinning up to a higher speed to keep up with all the heat. The card peaked at 96C then the fan speed increase was able to cool the card down and keep the temperature level at around 92C. The CPU Fan peaked at around 88%, which meant the Delta cooling fan was spinning at ~4500RPM. When we hit the space bar to stop the rendering the temperature dropped, but since a 2D application was open the card wouldn’t go back to a complete idle state. Since the fan then slowed down again and the temperature started to rise again.

This picture was taken during the temperature testing shown above and it shows the GeForce GTX 480 screaming along at 67dB at 85% fan speed, which is ~4200RPM. This is not a silent video card by any means.