Test Set Up
We have changed our testing set up to an X99 Chipset supporting DDR4, 2011-3 Socket CPUs and some serious power and bandwidth for the GPUs to play with. All updates to the Operating System, games and Synthetic benchmarks are assumed, and a full de-fragmentation on the SSD after a fresh install before any benches are carried out.
Today we are using the Nano Release Driver and 15.17.1 AMD Catalyst drivers for all tests which are the latest WHQL drivers at the time of writing.
- Processor: Intel i7-5820K
- Motherboard: Asus Rampage V Extreme Motherboard
- Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz
- PSU: Corsair HX1000i
- Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
- Storage: Crucial BX100 500Gb
- 1920 x 1080 and 3840 x 2160 UHD 4K resolutions
- Driver Version 15.17.1/Nano Release
Driver settings used for synthetic and gaming tests.
Sound Performance
We tested the sound performance at idle and during heavy load. We used a certified Db meter at 15 inches range.
It is not loud, but it is the noisiest card here. It is important to note we used the MicroCool Banchetto 101 Chassis for testing which is an open chassis. This means you are hearing the GPU cooler fan unobstructed.
Testing Methodology
All synthetic and gaming tests are carried out three times with the best result taken. If the game is an online multi player, the same map is used each time and a ping constantly under 30ms is required before a test is valid. We always try synthetic and real world tests, and for graphics cards, there is no better real world test than gaming.
The results depend on several elements, internet connection, other applications running, heat and the basic specification of the chipset, CPU and memory. We always run the benchmarks several times, taking the best results and recording them on the graphs, and only with the minimum diagnostic software running to capture the results.
Synthetic Tests
- AIDA64 Engineer
- 3DMark Professional
- Unigine Heaven 4.0
Real World Tests
- Battlefield 4
- Crysis 3
- Alien Isolation
4K Tests
- 3DMark Professional
- Battlefield 4
- Alien Isolation
4K tests are run at 3840 x 2160 UHD 4K resolutions in-game. Normally we would run Far Cry 3, but the little Nano crashed out every time when setting to UHD resolutions. This wasn’t a card issue, but defiantly a driver or game compatibility issue.
