Power consumption
Next up on our testing schedule let's spend some time taking a look at power consumption. Rather than isolate the power consumption of the individual component being reviewed, we'll instead be taking a look at the power consumption of our test system as a whole to get a more real-world example of how an average system will behave in this discipline.
For this review, we've split our power consumption testing into three segments, measuring the power used first when idling at a Windows 7 desktop, followed by testing again while playing back a Blu-Ray movie and then running an intensive 3D rendering task courtesy of 3DMark Vantage's two GPU tests.
At idle and during playback we see little difference in power consumption between our reference and Toxic Radeon HD 5850 boards, as you might expect considering the fact that they both drop to the same ultra-low clock speeds when they aren't dealing with a 3D rendering workload. Once these boards are put under load, we do see a slight increase in power consumption from the Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic on account of its higher core and memory clocks, although it isn't particularly notable in the grand scheme of things.
GPU temperature
Let's now take a look at GPU temperatures using these parts, to see how the Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic and its custom cooling solution handles any heat generated by its Cypress core. We'll be examining GPU temperatures first after idling at a Windows 7 desktop for a few minutes, and then again after thirty minutes under load via looping 3DMark06's 3D game tests.
Oddly, our Radeon HD 5850 Toxic sample proved to run a fair bit hotter than a reference board and cooling solution at idle - A state of affairs which is reversed when both cards are put under a 3D rendering workload. In these circumstances, and despite the Toxic's higher clock speeds, Sapphire's Vapor-X solution reduces temperatures by over seven degrees; great news if you're looking for a new graphics board that is relatively cool running as well as powerful when it comes to gaming.
Noise levels
Finally, let's close out this review by taking a look at the noise levels of Sapphire's Radeon HD 5850 Toxic and its Vapor-X cooling solution - First at its default idle speed, then again under load with 3DMark Vantage's GPU tests running. For this test, we've measured the overall noise level from inside the system chassis, just under the graphics board's cooling fan, thus making these figures very much a worst-case scenario for the overall noise generated by this part.
There's no real difference between a reference Radeon HD 5850 and Sapphire's Toxic board at idle, with noise levels relatively quiet on both parts - However, once we put these two cards under a long period of intense 3D rendering, we soon see the reference cooler's fan ramp up while the noise levels of the Radeon HD 5850 Toxic don't budge, offering further evidence that this card's Vapor-X cooler does an excellent job when it comes to doggedly sticking to its task.
