AMD FirePro V8700 1GB

The ATI FirePro V8700 supports PowerPlay to adjust the GPU core and memory clocks along with the voltages while idling. The fan on this workstation graphics card never got very loud during our testing, but it did get quite warm. After running our standard tests, we went back to re-run the Phoronix Test Suite with the same set of OpenGL tests but while monitoring the temperatures. This was done by running MONITOR=all phoronix-test-suite batch-benchmark pcqs-workstation-graphics. The GPU temperature is polled from through the exposed ATI OverDrive information while the CPU and system temperatures were read through LM_Sensors. The Phoronix Test Suite does all of this monitoring work automatically and the sensors polled about every ten seconds.

As you can see, while the CPU and system temperatures were maintained at roughly 40°C, the RV770XT core on the FirePro V8700 was running about 80°C and higher. This is quite high, but still tolerable for the 55nm GPU. AMD had traded a lower-noise cooling solution for a higher -- but acceptable -- operating temperature.

We also monitored the same set of sensors with the Phoronix Test Suite while the system idled for ten minutes. The FirePro graphics card was flat-lined at just over 72°C. The case that this AMD Shanghai workstation was housed in was a SilverStone Kublai KL03.