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ATI Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX Review
[Abstract]
The Apex of Graphics PerformanceATI has just launched the Radeon 5800 series to mostly positive reception. With no serious competition in sight from NVIDIA till possibly early next year, the on...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Temperature
One of the biggest concerns with running multi-GPU configurations is the heat they produced, and it is indeed something a user should look into. During our tests, the systems hung quite frequently in the early morning when air-conditioning in our offices wasn't yet turned on and our labs were still warm and stuffy. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 especially, were incredibly hot to touch, and the despite the cooling efforts of the Storm Sniper casing.
It certainly seemed as if the heat was too much to take, causing it to hang a couple of times. So many a times, we just waited till the air-con kicked in when official work hours begins. Of course, we always conduct temperature testing when our office air-con is in full force and the temperatures have stabilized, but the above are just our notes to relate to you on how picky such multi-GPU setups can be if ventilation and temperature is poor.
According to GPU-Z, the pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards recorded a staggering 90 degrees Celsius on both cards, and it certainly felt like it. The Radeon HD 5870 fared better, clocking a lower 80 degrees Celsius temperature per core.
Power Consumption
To ensure our two Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards get enough juice, we are using a PSU rated for a whopping 1200 watts! |
Power requirement is another crucial aspect that users should not overlook. The Radeon HD 5870 has rather modest power requirements, comparable to that of other high-end cards, and so a PSU rated for 600W would suffice for a two-way CrossFireX configuration. The Radeon HD 4870 X2, however, is not so easily appeased, and ATI has stated that a PSU rated for a whopping 1000W is needed for two HD 4870 X2 cards to work in tandem.
From our graphs, we can clearly see the monstrous power requirements of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX pair. Peaking at nearly 700W, its power requirement is nearly double that of the Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX pair. Furthermore, when measuring the power draw of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 pair, we noticed that the power draw was prone to wild fluctuations, sometimes surging as high as 770-plus watts. A formidable PSU is a must for a HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX setup and thankfully such a requirement isn't necessary on the new Radeon HD 5870 cards.
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