GeForce 7800GTX: EVGA's KO Edition

Power, Heat and Noise

Power

We tested power load on the computer with the EVGA e-GeForce 7800GTX OC in the same way as the other 7800s that we've reviewed, and we found that this card is the most power-hungry. This didn't come as a surprise to us, given that both its core and memory clocks are higher than any of the others. As you can see, clocked at 490MHz, we see a power usage of 280 W; and overclocked at 500MHz, 284 W. For reference, the power load while the system was idle was 145 W.

Heat

One thing that we noticed while testing the heat level of this card was how it stayed relatively cool to the touch. We've found that these 7800s can generate lots of heat after rigorous testing, enough to make them uncomfortable to handle. This card didn't seem to break a sweat, though. We think it's pretty safe to say that this 7800 will be able to handle hotter climates better than any of the others out right now, especially given the fact that heat damage is one of the things that EVGA's warranty covers for this card.

We reached the same temperature while testing the cards at both the factory and manual overclock. At 79 degrees C, it runs cooler than both the 450MHz and 475MHz EVGA tests, as well as the 473MHz BFG test. MSI still holds its title as the coolest running card, despite EVGA's modified heat sinks.

Noise

The ability of the human ear to distinguish SPL differences is diminished between .5 and 1 dB, so it may or may not be possible to hear a difference between some of the cards that we've tested (depending on the person listening). Less noise is still preferred of course, even if the difference isn't incredibly clear. Let's see how the EVGA KO measures up.

As our noise graph clearly shows, the KO edition scores the win. With the lowest sound pressure level calculated in our lab, it seems that, while not impressively less noisy, the EVGA ACS3 cooling solution contributes less to the noise of the system than the reference HSF.