Cooling, Noise, and Power
Although the R9 280X is basically the HD 7970, I was very excited to see how the Matrix Platinum performs with its triple slot cooler design and 20 phase power circuitry. Generally with a card like the Matrix Platinum, noise isn’t a high priority because of its focus on keeping things cool while overclocking. So when I saw the results from my noise testing I wasn’t all that surprised. At 100% fan speed the Matrix Platinum was at the top of our graph, beating out a few cards with three fans as well. Even at idle the Matrix Platinum was up near the top as well. I suspect if you are on the market for a card with these features, noise isn’t going to be the highest priority as well.
So how did the Matrix Platinum perform in the cooling testing? Well it wasn’t the coolest that we have tested, but it did fall in with a few HD 7790’s, I would say that is extremely impressive considering the performance of the card and its increased heat from the overclock that the platinum edition gets you!
For power consumption at idle the Matrix Platinum does pull more power than any other single card. Under load the Matrix Platinum actually pulled less wattage than the overclocked R7970 Black Edition under load.