Power Consumption & Temperatures
The Radeon HD 7970's offers some excellent power consumption figures, consuming slightly less than the 6970 while delivering over 40% more performance on average. The idle system consumption of 141 watts is also the lowest we have seen from a mid-range to high-end graphics card.
Given its modest consumption figures, we weren't surprised to see that the HD 7970 remains relatively cool when gaming with temperatures in the same realm as the HD 6870 and GTX 570. It was also quieter than its upper-end peers when testing under heavy load – a major plus in our book.