ASUS Radeon HD 6870 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 ASUS Radeon HD 6870 did at idle and under a full load.

ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card Idle Temperature:

ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Card Load Temperature:

As you can see from the screen shots above, the idle state of the ASUS Radeon HD 6870 series drops the GPU core clock frequency down to 300MHz and the memory clock down to 300MHz to help conserve power and lower temperatures. At idle in the NZXT Phantom the ASUS Radeon HD 6870 video card temperature was observed at 41C during idle.

We fired up AvP and ran it at 1920×1080, which was enough to put the GPU core at 100% load in order to get the highest load temperature possible.

ASUS Radeon HD 6870 Video Card AvP Load Temperature:

As you can see, the card drops down to 300 MHz on both the core and the memory to not just save energy but to keep the heat to a minimum as well. Even though it is a faster card, our ASUS Radeon HD 6870 ran a full 5 degrees cooler than the 6850 card we tested. Not too bad considering it’s a faster card and the fan was actually running about 10% slower than the fan on the 6850.