HIS Radeon HD 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1GB 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 HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo did at idle and under a full load.

HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Video Card Idle Temperature:

HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Card Load Temperature:

As you can see from the screen shots above, the idle state of the HIS Radeon HD 6800 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 HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo video card temperature was observed at 36C during idle.

We fired up FurMark and ran the stability at 640×480, which was enough to put the GPU core 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. The fans on the video cards were left on auto during temperature testing. When we hit the space bar to stop the rendering the temperature dropped.

HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Video Card Furmark Load Temperature:

It was nice to see that the IceQ-X cooler that is on the HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo kept the card from going over the 70C mark. During the whole benchmark I don’t think the fan speed reached over 43%. That’s some pretty good cooling, imagine it at 100%.