Since this time the cards we got are pretty varied, we wanted to know how does each card's cooling solution perform under typical gameplay scenarios. So, we started RivaTuner's hardware monitoring utility and fired up Quake 4's final level, the Nexus, to see just how hot the card can get. Below is a snapshot from RivaTuner.
As you can see, the all copper based heatsink does a pretty good job of keeping the GeForce 7600GT core cool - 57° Celsius at full load and around 40° Celsius at idle. Like all GeForce 7600GT, the ASUS EN7600GT core is in direct contact with the base of the heatsink, which really helps the heatsink achieve more efficient thermal transfer than if a heatspreader is present. As is the norm, a thermal compound is also used to better 'stick' the core to the base of the heatsink. Unfortunately, we were unable to look under the heatsink to see whether a thermal pad or paste is used.
Unfortunately, there's no way to monitor the actual RPM of the fan. The default setting is 65%, which is a nice compromise between noise and heat. The fan at this setting is barely audible in a typical setup. Of course, you can crank it up a notch, but stay away from 100 %. Although it's not ear piercing loud with no high pitched noise, it is definitely noticeable at that settings.
Overall we think the ASUS EN7600GT is a well rounded card. It's has some extras the others don't have (a second DVI to analog dongle), a standard bundle and runs quite cool thanks to its all copper based heatsink. We would've preferred ASUS attach some RAM sinks to the memory, particularly since the memory on these graphics card can get very warm.
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