First Preview of Gigabyte's Radeon HD 7970 With 5 Fans

[merikafyeah]

I am quite a "fan" of this design! Hurrhurrhurr....

 

[verbalizer]

^
boo..

 

[mouse24]

Wait, under silent 30c? True I haven't seen the thermals with this cooler but my 6870 IDLES at 45-50c...

Not sure if this is going to be quiet at all. (my proc idles at 25c if that helps discern my room temps)

 

[mouse24]

[citation][nom]mouse24[/nom]Wait, under silent 30c? True I haven't seen the thermals with this cooler but my 6870 IDLES at 45-50c...Not sure if this is going to be quiet at all. (my proc idles at 25c if that helps discern my room temps)[/citation]
Damn no edit button, meant to say "silent under 30c?"

 

[pliskin1]

Can't decide if I like this or not, will have wait for the benchmarks. But hey, at least their trying something different.

 

[jamie_1318]

[citation][nom]mouse24[/nom]Damn no edit button, meant to say "silent under 30c?"[/citation]
click the "read the comments in the forum" hyperlink for editing capabilities. It's right at the top of the comments section, underneath the red "add your comment" button.

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]soldier37[/nom]Impressive but still doesn't beat my 2 x 4GB GTX 680s in SLI at 2560 x 1600 res.[/citation]

Impressive, but I think 2 x Radeon 6990s will run in circles around your setup.

Oh wait, it has nothing to do with this topic.

 

[therabiddeer]

In my experience with 40mm fans, this thing is going to be anything but quiet when its above 30c.

 

[AusVip3r]

I'd love to see the results once the tests have been run. For sure i thought these 5 pissy little fans would be loud as hell but not according to this article. Also bigger fans aren't just quieter but better at cooling. So i'd love to see how Gigabyte achieved better temps and lower noise levels, should be an intresting read.

 

[schnitter]

5 Fans? I see four only, or are you adding the AMD Fan that buys this to the equation?

 

[razor512]

that card is designed that way so when it is placed next to another card, the fan wont be blocked, causing 1 of the cards to overheat. As common with many multiple videocard setup, 1 card always runs hitter than the other when the 2 slots do not leave any room in between the cards. By placing the fans on the side, you can have 2 cards pretty much touching each other and it wont really effect the temperature.

If you do not plan to use multiple videocards then that is not the card for you since multiple small fans is not as efficient as one large one.

 

[halcyon]

After long and hard consideration I've decided that I'm willing to place 2 of these units in MY rig for a long-term (12-24 months) test. No no, you don't have to pay me...this time. ...just make sure the units arrive in flawless condition and that they arrive to me quickly.

Yes, I'm willing to do this for you...this time.

 

[TheBigTroll]

looks softer than than the 680 version

 

[shin0bi272]

What concerns me is that the fans are blowing all that hot air into your case. They take the nice cool air from the side fan (or barring that the inside of your case) and blow it across the gpu towards the mobo where its then deflected downward and backward by the mobo and into the case environment. What they've created is a wonderful system heater that will bench well on an open air bench (like toms will probably run it) and cook your pc when you get it home.

Huge thumbs down on this one Gigabyte.

 

[Vorador2]

That thing is massive, and i wonder how it's "quiet" if 40mm fans are quite noisy. Waiting for the full review.

 

[Onus]

I'm concerned about the failure rate on these little fans. Let's assume that the massive heat sink works well even with a low enough rate of flow that the fans won't need to scream. I still think they aren't going to last. In your review, please check how easily they may be replaced individually.

They way I read the description, these fans pull air from the mobo through the heat sink. This means that if you have a side fan, it should be EXHAUST rather than intake.
In your testing, please include things like this, and monitor temps of other components, not just the video card.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]urban legend[/nom]it's still a Gigabyte and Gigabyte GPU's are the most buggiest of all the major manufactures.looks cool, not sure about the effectiveness vs MSi Twin Frozr III design,I think Tom's needs to have a shootout.[/citation]

I don't think that there is such a thing as a Gigabyte GPU. The GPU is an AMD GPU. The card can be called a Gigabyte card and sure, this is nitpicking, but it's still not a Gigabyte GPU. I also don't share your apparent experience with Gigabyte building buggier cards. They don't make the GPU, the memory, the drivers, or really much of the card at all except for designing the heat sink and maybe the PCB. So, buggy or not, most of that would be in AMD's control, not Gigabyte's.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Schnitter[/nom]5 Fans? I see four only, or are you adding the AMD Fan that buys this to the equation?[/citation]

The fifth fan is in the back and another comment already describes this in further detail if you go back to the first page.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]razor512[/nom]that card is designed that way so when it is placed next to another card, the fan wont be blocked, causing 1 of the cards to overheat. As common with many multiple videocard setup, 1 card always runs hitter than the other when the 2 slots do not leave any room in between the cards. By placing the fans on the side, you can have 2 cards pretty much touching each other and it wont really effect the temperature.If you do not plan to use multiple videocards then that is not the card for you since multiple small fans is not as efficient as one large one.[/citation]

They don't need to be as efficient as a larger fan or multiple larger fans because the heat sink is much more efficient than it would be in that case. They just need to move some air, not a whole lot. They undoubtedly do at least a decent job of that. With a heat sink that large, they probably don't even need to move very fast at all for cooling to be excellent, so they shouldn't need to get very loud either.

 

[ko888]

[citation][nom]Schnitter[/nom]5 Fans? I see four only, or are you adding the AMD Fan that buys this to the equation?[/citation]
The Tom's Hardware image, above, is a poor perspective. Here's a better view of the fans on that card:

 

[TheBigTroll]

40mm fans have gotten quieter. for example fractal has some 4000rpm 40mm fans at 10-19 dba

 

[A Bad Day]

They could fit one more fan if they made the card a little longer...

 

[badaxe2]

To mobile/tablet computing: "Stick that in yer pipe n smoke it".

 

[shin0bi272]

They way I read the description, these fans pull air from the mobo through the heat sink. This means that if you have a side fan, it should be EXHAUST rather than intake.
In your testing, please include things like this, and monitor temps of other components, not just the video card.

They edited the description of the thing after I posted my comment. originally it didnt say which way the fans went. Plus fans that pull are less efficient than push fans... so it will be fun to see how long those fans last and how cool they keep the card long term. I mean lets be honest they are still exhausting inside your case unless you have a fan or a vent on the side right next to the video card.

The whole purpose of the rear facing grill was to exhaust the hot air out of the pc but with this model its what... decoration?

 

[Zeh]

This is going to be a disaster... No way such tiny fans can beat 3x80mm or 2x120mm. That is, unless they have something else up their sleeves.