Graphics card temperatures

Graphics card temperatures

So here we'll have a look at GPU temperatures. First up, IDLE (desktop) temperatures.

IDLE temperatures are always a tiny bit tricky to read out as Windows Aero could have an affect on this. Overall, anything below 50 Degrees C is considered okay, anything below 40 Degrees C is very 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 on the GPU. 

So with the card fully stressed we kept monitoring temperatures and noted down the GPU temperature. As you can see, quite remarkable results. Both IDLE and LOAD temperatures are just seriously good. Mind you that the temperature we display is representable to heavy gaming, there are many ways to heat up the card much hotter but the point is to show you heat and noise levels based on heavy gaming.

With today's graphics cards, please make sure your PC is well ventilated at all times, this will seriously help you on the overall GPU temperature.

I've already shown you this photo in the photo gallery, but when the card gets warmer the center core of the fans will slowly change it's color to white, the whiter the core, the hotter the card. All the way to the lower right we (deliberately) heated up the card toward 90 Degrees C, it is one of these funny additions to the product that makes it really unique.