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VIDEO PLAYBACK TEST
Our second test procedure is designed to determine the card's proficiency at
playing back high definition videos encoded with the popular H.264 and the up-and-coming
VC-1 codecs. We used the same test platform as our thermal and power test with
the Intel Pentium D 930 Presler processor. It's a fairly low-end dual core CPU
by modern standards, so the difference in the amount of assistance it lent to
the GPU between the different test videos would be more easily distinguishable.
The clips were played with Windows Media Player 11 and a CPU usage graph was
created by the Windows Task Manger for analysis to determine the mean and average
CPU use. The higher the CPU usage, the lower the video card's decoding ability.
If CPU usage reached extremely high levels and the video skipped or froze, we
concluded the video card failed to adequately decompress the clip. System power
consumption was also recorded.
For complete details of the video clips used, please see page
5 of the Asus EN8600GT OC GEAR graphics card review.
VIDEO PLAYBACK TEST RESULTS
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CPU Usage & Power Consumption
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Video Clip
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
Consumption (AC)
|
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Core 0
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Core 1
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Average
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720p H.264
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27%
|
6%
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16.5%
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~117W
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|
1080p H.264
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44%
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28%
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36.0%
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~131W
|
|
WMV3 VC-1
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39%
|
22%
|
30.5%
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~131W
|
|
WVC1 VC-1
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56%
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46%
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51.0%
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~144W
|
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Graphics Card Video Playback Comparison:
Asus EN8600GT Silent vs. EN8600GT OC Gear
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|
Video Clip
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EN8600GT Silent
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EN8600GT OC Gear
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|
Average CPU Usage
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System AC Power
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Average CPU Usage
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System AC Power
|
|
720p H.264
|
16.5%
|
~117W
|
16.0%
|
~120W
|
|
1080p H.264
|
36.0%
|
~131W
|
36.5%
|
~132W
|
|
WMV3 VC-1
|
30.5%
|
~131W
|
30.5%
|
~133W
|
|
WVC1 VC-1
|
51.0%
|
~144W
|
53.0%
|
~144W
|
Playback results were excellent and consistent with the EN8600GT OC Gear,
as expected. This test was more of a formality than anything else. Interestingly,
the Silent model demanded slightly less power, but the difference was not
nearly as big as during the maximum load testing.
NOISE RECORDINGS IN MP3 FORMAT
These recording starts with 4~10 seconds of "silence" to let you
hear the ambient sound of the room, followed by 10 seconds of the test system
noise (the Asus EN8600GT Silent does not produce any noise). The recording of
the Asus EN8600GT OC Gear video card has its fan at three settings: Minimum,
default, and maximum fan speeds. There's a few seconds of "silence"
inserted between each 10 second stretch of noise to help you remember the reference
ambient.
HOW TO LISTEN & COMPARE
These
recordings were made with a high resolution, studio quality, digital
recording system, then converted to LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s. We've
listened long and hard to ensure there is no audible degradation from
the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent a quick snapshot
of what we heard during the review. Two recordings of each noise level
were made, one from a distance of one meter, and another
from one foot away.
The
one meter recording is intended to give you an idea of how the subject
of this review sound in actual use — one meter is a reasonable
typical distance between a computer or computer component and your ear.
The recording contains stretches of ambient noise that you can use to
judge the relative loudness of the subject. For best results, set
your volume control so that the ambient noise is just barely audible.
Be aware that very quiet subjects may not be audible — if we couldn't
hear it from one meter, chances are we couldn't record it either!
The one foot recording is
designed to bring out the fine details of the noise. Use this recording
with caution! Although more detailed, it may not represent how the subject
sounds in actual use. It is best to listen to this recording after you
have listened to the one meter recording.
|
CONCLUSIONS
We cannot confirm nor deny the claim made by Asus that the EN8600GT
Silent is "7°C cooler than generic boards." The use of the word
"generic" really makes this statement ambiguous. Does it mean other
passively cooled 8600GTs or are they are referring to 8600GTs that use the nVidia
reference cooler? If it's the former, it's quite possible. If it's the latter,
we seriously doubt it. It is unlikely that an actively-cooled 8600GT would ever
hit over 100°C in our test system. If the EN8600GT OC Gear is any indication,
a fan at any speed would improve cooling by leaps and bounds.
For a graphics card that occupies two slots, we were expecting
better thermal results — Asus' heatsink design could use some improvement.
We simply don't have information to know what is a safe long term operating
temperature limit, but the >100°C reached at the lowest system fan setting
seems too high.
You will want to design more directed airflow for the graphics
card (or more overall case airflow) than we have in our test setup when the
Nexus case fan is running at 7V; this is about as little airflow as any hot
system should ever have. It's likely that the Asus folks did not intend this
graphics card to be used in a case with so little airflow.
The cooler worked well enough even under such tough thermal conditions
to keep the card operating without any anomalies, so despite the high GPU temperatures,
we give this card a cautious recommendation along with a caveat to ensure good
case cooling. As for the other criteria we consider important — silence,
power consumption, and video playback ability — the Asus EN8600GT Silent
is a slam dunk.
Many thanks to ASUSTeK
for the sample of the Asus EN8600GT Silent/HTDP/512M
* * *
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graphics card cooler
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* * *
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