Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition 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 GeForce GTS 450 graphics card does at idle and under a full load. We fired up FurMark and ran the stability at 1280×1024, which was enough to put the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW at 100% load in order to get the highest load temperature possible. This application also charts the temperature results so you can see how the temperature rises and levels off, which is very nice.

• Ambient Temperature: 79.3 Degrees Fahrenheit

Last week we took a look at the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW graphics card which, as the name suggests, uses water cooling. While the cooling performance of water is hard to beat, it does have several drawbacks such as added cost, set up time and the constant worry about leaking. The GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Edition may not run quite as cool as the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW did, though under a full load it was still sitting pretty at a maximum temperature of only 81 degrees Celsius. This is cooler than the EVGA and Galaxy GeForce GTX 465’s did back at the end of May. As I am writing I have the Galaxy GeForce GTX 465 in the test bench and it is running at 91 degrees Celsius with an ambient temperature of 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit which is lower than the 79.3 degrees Fahrenheit we tested the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 470 SOC Edition in.