ASUS EAH5870 Voltage Tweak Video Card

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 Radeon HD 5800
series does at idle and under a full load.

ASUS EAH5870 Idle Temperature:

At idle the ASUS EAH5870 had amazingly low temperatures that
shocked even us. When we first looked at the Radeon HD 4870 in June
2008 we found that it had an idle temperature of 74C.
The new Radeon HD 5870 idles at just 38C, which is impressive
considering how fast this card is and that this is a reference heat
sink. As you can see from the screen shot above, the idle state of the
Radeon HD 5870 drops the GPU frequency down to just 157 MHz and the
memory down to 300 MHz to help conserve power and lower temperatures.
AMD has nailed idle temperatures on this series from the looks of it.

ASUS EAH5870 Load Temperature:

We fired up FurMark and ran the stability at 1280×1024, 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 ASUS EAH5870 maxed out at 85C, but fluctuated
between 83C-85C once it leveled out. The fan on the ASUS EAH5870video card was left on auto during temperature testing. The fan never
got over 35% during testing, so manually increasing the fan speed in
CATALYST Control Center would help lower the temperature some more if
you don’t mind the extra noise.