NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Video Card Review

Temperature & Noise Testing

Temperatures are important to enthusiasts and gamers, so we took a bit of time and did some temperature testing on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan video card.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX Idle Temperature:

The NVIDIA GeForce Titan video card had an idle temperature of 33.0C in a room that was 22.0C (72F). Not bad temperatures at all for a flagship graphics card that features over 7 billion transistors!

NVIDIA GeForce GTT Titan in Furmark:

With Furmark fired up and running at 1024×768 we saw the temperature reach 62C on one core and 64C on the other after things warmed up and leveled off with the use of two fans on the radiator. When just one cooling fan is used on the radiator the GPU temperature was observed at 70C and 72C. The fan noise was also significantly louder due to the higher temperatures, so using two fans really does help cooling.

When it comes to temperature testing the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan is different than any other card that we have ever tested due to the temperature targets that this card has. The temperature target for this card is 80C, so when it’s being used it will reach this temperature and level off. This is why when at load the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan is right around 80C.

Sound Testing

We recently upgraded our sound meter to an Extech sound level meter with 1.5dB accuracy that meets Type 2 standards. This meter ranges from 35dB to 90dB on the low measurement range, which is perfect for us as our test room usually averages around 36dB. We measure the sound level two inches above the corner of the motherboard with ‘A’ frequency weighting. The microphone wind cover is used to make sure no wind is blowing across the microphone, which would seriously throw off the data.

When it comes to noise levels the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan was the quietest video card of the five at idle and was in the middle of the pack when it came to load noise levels. For a reference GPU cooler design, it is very good at cooling and the noise levels are in check. This card shouldn’t be heard in most systems!