AMD Radeon R9-290X review - Performance vs Noise vs Temperature targets

Performance vs Noise vs Temperature targets

An interesting question came up from one of our forums readers. He was interested to see what kind of an adverse effect lowering the temperature target on the R9-290X has in relation towards performance. So in the following tests we'll look at just that. We'll first heat up the GPU with a stress application and then in the Catalyst Control panel we'll lower the temperature target to:

• Temp target 95C
• Temp target 80C
• Temp target 70C

We'll fire off the following benchmark sessions at the card: BioShock, Hitman, Tomb Raider and 3DMark FireStrike.

These are the results at 2560x1440:

As you can see the lower temperature target does not effect 80 Degrees C in performance that much. The big downer however is that noise levels really become a problem. If the GPU is under full stress then yes, the performance will go down a notch but nothing dramatically. However the volume pressure from the cooler rises dramatically in DBa as the cooler starts to spin a lot faster in RPM. Anything after 44~45 DBa really gets annoying. Realistically with the reference cooler you probably want to stay clear of temperature targets.

Here's where aftermarket cooling and upcoming custom cards are going to make a big difference alright.