AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB Graphics Card Review

Noise is generally the bain of most consumers lives and in the hope of finding the quietest operation, we feel it’s necessary to show you the audio level of components. We use the same components throughout this test and use a sound level meter to record the audio level of the system with a passive graphics card installed. Once we have the level recorded with the passive card, we continue to change the graphics card for the one that we are testing. Due to us having the audio level recorded before installation, it gives us a guide to work with and shows that anything over our initial level is an audio gain.

AMD believe that the new vapour cooler provides a quieter environment, which is mostly true at idle, though at load, it’s still very noisy, and seems to peak in stages as the fan spins faster. It’s still fantastic for a reference design, but we’re keen to see what others come up with when it comes to custom designs.