Power Consumption
My power testing was done using the famous Kill-A-Watt P3. For our idle tests we allowed the computer to sit at the desktop for 15 minutes so that everything could settle in, we then measured our power usage. For our load tests we used Furmark to measure the maximum power draw. We ran the test for 15 minutes and then noted our power usage. Power usage shown is for the entire system, not just the graphics cards that are tested.
Test Results: I was honestly surprised by the results I was able to get from this test. I knew very well how much of a power hog my other cards were, but the XFX 7850 Black Edition drew a very surprising amount of power. This is due to the 28nm fabrication process of the 7000 Series of GPUs from AMD. Using just 260 watts at full load means you could effectively run a crossfire setup of these cards on a quality 550 watt power supply.
For our temperature testing we allowed the XFX 7850 Black Edition to come to an idle for 15 minutes before we measured our load temperatures. For our load temperature testing we loaded up Furmark and ran the default burn-in test for 15 minutes and recorded our results. Our gaming temperature tests were done while we ran our Heaven 3.0 benchmarks.
At idle the XFX 7850 Black Edition is very cool, coming in at just 31 degrees Celsius when the card goes into 2D power saving clocks.
Our load test is what really matters. We can see that the XFX 7850 Black Edition got up to 69 degrees Celsius after our 15 minute burn in on Furmark. This is surprisingly cool, especially considering how powerful this GPU has proven to be. In game, we only maxed out at 59 degrees Celsius. The DD or Dual Dissipation cooler that XFX has put on this card has really proven to be very effective.
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