ATI Radeon HD 5830 Review

Temperature

Temperature is a vital part of the whole balance between noise and cooling. We all want to know that when we sink our hard-earned money into our hardware, it won’t fail due to overheating caused by inadequate cooling solutions.

FurMark 1.8.0 – the new Hot Like Hell Edition – was used to load the GPU for 10 minutes and the peak temperature recorded. The idle temperature was taken before and after the test and verified to be the same in each case.

Both of the cards in question idled in the low-50s. The HD 4870 had a peak temperature of 73°C, while the HD 5830 crept up to a high of 87°C. These results were obtained in an air-conditioned room, with the ambient temperature maintained at 27°C.

The difference in the temperature between idle and load was also noted. The HD 5830 had a 34 degree increase while the older HD 4870 got 23 degrees hotter than when idling. In both cases, the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) was left to automatically adjust the fan speeds.

Note:

The HD 4870 card has an aftermarket cooling solution with a heat-piped design that may allow for cooler temperatures. The HD 5830 uses the reference design. The AiB partners will no doubt offer their own cooling solutions which may or may not be better.