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Fan Speeds, Temperatures, Clock Rates, and GPU Load
A quick comparison between Sapphire’s Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 running on our Aorus Z270X-Gaming 7 and in the GearBox should illustrate any issues attributable to the external enclosure.
Both configurations ramp up similarly, though the GearBox-based setup remains in its semi-passive mode a little longer.
Along the way, temperatures remain close. If anything, the Radeon card in Sapphire’s enclosure actually runs a little cooler thanks to those two 120mm fans drawing warm air away.
There don’t seem to be any clock rate issues, either.
AMD’s Polaris GPU spends most of its time under 100% load, regardless of whether it communicates over a motherboard’s 16-lane link or Thunderbolt 3’s narrower bus.
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