Graphics Card Temperatures

Graphics Card Temperatures

So here we'll have a look at GPU temperatures. First up, IDLE (desktop) temperatures as reported through software on the thermal sensors of the GPU. IDLE temperatures first, overall anything below 50 Degrees C is considered okay, anything below 40 Degrees C is nice. We threw in some cards at random that we have recently tested in the above chart. But what happens when we are gaming? We fire off an intense game-like application at the graphics card and measure the highest temperature of the GPU. 

So with the card fully stressed we kept monitoring temperatures and noted down the GPU temperature as reported by the thermal sensor.

• The card's temperature under heavy game stress stabilized at roughly 84 Degrees C. We note down the hottest GPU reading, not the average.

Below, you can spot a temperature plot overview under heavy stress (looped FireStrike Scene 1). You'll notice that once the card hits its thermal limit, it will down-clock a tiny bit. But overall the Boost frequency stays above the advertised value, which is good.

However I am not very impressed by the reference cooler as it is a limiting factor on the dynamic clock frequency (it throttles - turbo however remains above advertisied boost frequency). The board partners cards with improved cooling will likely address this.