Radeon RX 9070 XT cards use GDDR6 from multiple vendors. The biggest differences between Samsung and Hynix appear in temperature and power—Samsung runs notably cooler. Earlier tests with automatic fan control confirmed this. Today I’m adding a temperature comparison at equal fan speeds and, alongside internal sensor data, surface temperatures measured on the chips. That gap is much smaller than expected. Read more “Hynix vs Samsung on RX 9070 XT: in-depth GDDR6 thermal analysis”
I already compared the clocks, temperatures, and power consumption of two samples of the same model, the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC. They differed in memory—the first had Hynix GDDR6 chips and the second Samsung. However, the two tests were months apart. Now I have both units on hand, so I can test performance under identical conditions. We’ll also look at the impact of enabling the fast memory timing option. Read more “Radeon RX 9070 XT: Samsung or Hynix? GDDR6 performance test”
The Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT sits at the top of Sapphire’s lineup. AMD’s current Radeon generation focuses solely on the upper mid-range segment with intense price competition. As a result, Sapphire’s flagship isn’t a pricey premium model with a massive cooler like the previous-gen Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX. Instead, the designers focus on attractive aesthetics and distinctive features, such as the hidden 12V-2×6 power connector. Read more “Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Review: Aesthetics First”
Gamers are likely familiar with so-called coil whine, an unpleasant phenomenon where your graphics card emits tweeting sounds under some loads. It’s especially bothersome with quiet cooling, in which case these sounds—caused by vibrating coils in the VRMs—can get downright grating. OCCT now offers a way to test your graphics card for coil whine, which could be useful when analysing if a PSU replacement might help you, for example. Read more “OCCT V15 adds graphics cards coil whine detection feature”
AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 MASTER 16G sits at the top of Gigabyte’s air-cooled RTX 5080 lineup. The side LCD on the cooler shroud stands out, and the box even includes a fourth fan. Build quality is robust and premium, and the stock overclock is higher than you usually see on OC variants. Not everything is perfect, though—the out-of-the-box fan tuning could be better, and those extras do push up the price. Read more “Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5080 Master Review: Flagship”
When Asus, Noctua, and Nvidia team up, it’s clear the result won’t be a compromise. For those who find the RTX 5090 already too expensive, the GeForce RTX 5080 Noctua OC Edition offers a unique combination of a massive heatsink and three top-tier Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 120 mm fans. An air cooler capable of keeping a powerful 360 W card at low temperatures with the fans spinning at just under 700 RPM is something you rarely encounter. Read more “Asus GeForce RTX 5080 Noctua OC Ed. 16GB Review: Silent Monster”
We recently looked at different profiles in AMD Software, and today we’ll dive deeper into adjusting the fan control settings in more detail. First, we’ll test how fan performance affects the card’s behavior across the entire working range of fan speeds. Then we’ll focus on how fan control behavior differs between automatic and manual fan-speed settings, and on how to set the fan-control curve settings for the card. Read more “Radeon RX 9070 XT: Tuning the Fan Curve in AMD Software”
Last time, we tested a pair of low-profile 140 mm fans on the TUF RTX 5070 Ti. They noticeably reduced noise, but they didn’t offer nearly as much cooling headroom as the stock fans, which can spin at over 3000 RPM. The top-tier Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 fans with the standard 25 mm thickness are much quieter than the originals at the same temperatures, and at full speed they also narrow the temperature gap significantly. Read more “TUF RTX 5070 Ti Deshroud: 2× 140 mm Noctua NF-A14x25 G2”
The TUF GeForce RTX 5070 Ti has a heatsink large enough to mount 140 mm fans. Swapping them is easy: remove a few screws and lift off the shroud with stock fans without breaking the warranty seal. We’ll use that to try a niche option—the low-profile 140 mm Arctic P14 Slim PWM PST. The card gets wider but keeps a reasonable height and, at similar temperatures, runs way quieter. Read more “Asus TUF RTX 5070 Ti Deshroud: Dual 140 mm Arctic P14 Slim Fans”
Last week brought a sensational piece of news. Ever since AMD acquired GPU maker ATi almost twenty years ago, people have speculated whether Intel and Nvidia might one day strike a similar alliance. It seems that time has finally come, though only now that Intel is in trouble and has to push its pride aside. The two companies announced not a merger, but a far-reaching partnership. It will be interesting to watch where this leads. Read more “Nvidia and Intel team up: x86 CPUs with built-in GeForce GPUs”
Over a few months, two nearly identical Gigabyte RX 9070 XT Gaming OC cards passed through my hands. They use GDDR6 chips from different manufacturers. The older card had Hynix; the newer uses Samsung GDDR6, known for lower power draw and temperatures. We’ll examine how this change affects performance, memory temperatures and power, GPU temperatures and clock speeds, and overall card power consumption in our tests. Read more “Same Radeon RX 9070 XT, Different GDDR6: Samsung vs. Hynix”
Many ASUS graphics cards let you remove the fan shroud without breaking the warranty seal. We did that last time with the ASUS Prime RTX 5070 and swapped its fans—noisier than usual at low speeds—for Arctic P12 Slim fans. However, standard 25 mm fans usually provide higher static pressure and can cool more quietly. Let’s see how the card performs with the top-of-the-line Noctua NF-A12x25 and its successor, the NF-A12x25 G2. Read more “Prime RTX 5070 Deshroud: Noctua NF-A12x25 vs. NF-A12x25 G2”
The Intel Arc B580 is currently the most powerful model in Intel’s new generation graphics card lineup. The ASRock Steel Legend 12GB OC version offers more efficient cooling, very low noise levels, and striking ARGB lighting compared to the base models. Its performance beats the RTX 3060, but it falls behind newer rivals. Compared to cards like the RTX 5060 or RX 9060 XT, it stands out more for its larger memory than for its price-to-performance ratio. Read more “ASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend 12GB Review: Third in the Game”
The Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 from the new GeForce generation is aimed at the budget segment. If, like me, you come across a card with a noisy fan bearings, there’s a simple fix—replace it with a quieter one. On the Prime you can even do it without breaking the warranty seal. I swapped the original fans for two 120mm Arctic P12 Slim to see how much the noise has been reduced and what happens to the card’s temperatures and behavior. Read more “Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 Deshroud with Dual Arctic P12 Slim”
Ray tracing is slowly becoming more and more common in games. But that does not necessarily mean becoming a part of all titels. The newly arriving Battlefield 6 does not use it and the developers have now explicitly confirmed that this is intentional and there are no plans to add it later. Instead, the game focuses on being playable for a wide range of users, which might be the better choice for a title that emphasizes multiplayer. Read more “Battlefield 6 has no ray tracing. To run fast “for everyone else””
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