Power And Temperature Benchmarks
With our performance tests finished, we turn our attention to power consumption. The chart below shows total system power. But it begins at 57 W, which is the idle system use with its monitor output shut off. After all, our primary interest is each card's impact.
The XFX Radeon R7 240 wins this round with the lowest active idle and load power usage. Interestingly, the new Radeon R7 250 draws more power than the older Radeon HD 7750, likely due to its higher clock rates.
AMD's Radeon HD 7770 pays a price for its segment-leading performance; it's the only card requiring a six-pin auxiliary power cable.
When it comes to thermals, the results are definitely biased to the cards with non-reference coolers. XFX's Radeon R7 240 does well, while the R7 250 isn't as impressive. Then again, a 65 degree maximum load temperature is low compared to what we're used to on the high-end graphics side.