ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra SLI Video Card Kit

Temperatures

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 these cards generate heat under load.

In order to get proper temperature readings I used the temperature sensor in GPU-Z. At idle the video cards were running at a low power state with reduced clock frequencies. The temperature was right at 38C, which is nice.

Firing up ATI Tool and running the ‘3D View’ I was able to get the graphics card to top out at 46C, which is nothing compared to other cards. The water cooling solution really does help keep the temperature of the GPU core down! The memory chips do get warm to the touch though as the water doesn’t flow over them. This is one of the reasons that the cards still have a fan on the heat sink as the memory chips needs air cooling under load.

When you compare these temperature results with other competing graphics cards it becomes clear just how well these cards are cooled. The load temperature on the ECS GeForce 9800 GTX water cooled graphics cards are 33.3% lower than that of a stock GeForce 9800 GTX+. Keeping the temperatures down means increased longevity and the possibility of higher overclocking. Cooler is always better and the ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra is clearly a winner on this front.