System Power Consumption
To obtain accurate results we have connected the system to a Power Angle power meter that has in turn been attached to a 1500watt UPS. This ensures only 120volt power is supplied to the PSU and removes an variances that could potential crop up because of brownouts and power spikes.
In order to stress the video card we have once again used Unigine’s Valley benchmark and ran it for 20 minutes to determine peak system power consumption. For idle results we have let the system idle at the Windows 8.1 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak idle power consumption.
This is one area that Intel is clearly ahead of AMD in; however, in return for more power consumption consumers get access to an integrated GPU that is actually worthy of the name ‘Graphics Processing Unit’.
Temperature Results
For all temperature testing the cards were used in an open test bed environment. Ambient temperature was kept at a constant 20°C (+/- 0.5°C) and if the ambient room temperatures rose above 21°C or dropped below 19°C at any time, all benchmarking was stopped until proper temperatures could normalized.
For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 8.1 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak temperature. For Load tests we ran AIDA64 for 20 minutes.
While the stock cooler is not as good as the new Wraith it still is more than up to the task. More importantly it is good enough to keep an overlocked A10-7870K below its thermal wall. So overall it is a very decent cooler.
Sound Level Test Results
While everyone “hears” noise differently there is one easy way to remove all subjectivness and easily compare different fans: use a sound level meter. This way you can easily compare the various fans noise envelopes without us coloring the results and see what fans fit within your personal comfort level. Of course, we will endeavor to try and explain the various results – which are taken at a 15 inch distance from the GPU’s fan(s) – to help you gain an even better understanding of how loud a cooler’s stock fan is, but even if you discount our personal opinions, the fact remains numbers don’t lie.
For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 8.1 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak temperature. For Load tests we ran AIDA64 for 20 minutes.
As you can see the ‘Near Silent’ CPU cooler that ships with the A10-7870K is not as silent a solution as the Wraith. It is however still pretty darn good so choosing the more expensive ’90 over the ’70 because of the cooler they come with is not as cut and dry as we thought it would be. It really will be up to you to decide if the differences are great enough to justify the increased price.
