For load testing, I used Stanford’s Folding@Home distributed contributing project, as it uses up every ounce of CPU that I can make available to it. (Also, I needed to meet EVGA’s 350k deadline for my 10 EVGA Bucks for the month). Testing was carried out on the same project each time, a P6098(R4, C72, G105), with an hour at a time on each testing configuration.

We start by getting some baseline data with my Venomous X. Temperatures were measured using EVGA’s E-Leet monitoring/overclocking program, in degrees Celsius, logging the highest seen temperatures. The delta temperature represents the relevant temperature (idle/load) minus the ambient.

All fans were manually set in BIOS to run at 100% speed.

Ambient: 29C / Idle: 45C

Delta: 16C

Ambient: 30.9C / Load: 76C

Delta: 45.1C

Not too shabby, setting the bar high and lofty.

After swapping in  the 612 and booting up to the same folding project, I logged the temperatures. As mentioned in my unboxing article, the stock fan is a CM Xtraflo.

Ambient: 27.7C / Idle: 41C

Delta: 13.3C

Ambient: 28.1C / 80C

Delta: 51.9C

Lower idle temperatures, for sure, but the load temps could use some work. Granted, it’s quieter spinning at a lower RPM than the Blademasters, but since when does a few decibels matter much to enthusiasts if the thermals aren’t up to snuff? What then I wonder, happens when I add two Blademasters to the mix?

Ambient: 26.3C / Idle: 36C

Delta: 9.7C

Ambient: 26.8C / Load: 70C

Delta: 43.2C

Wow. Wasn’t particularly expecting that. Trust me when I say that I double checked this, and even let the load test run a little bit longer than usual to verify that I was seeing was for real. This, a complete newcomer to the field, was giving one of the heat dissipating kings a run for its money. I have no doubt that if I had a Megahalems to test against, the 612 PWM would definitely be giving it a good show as well.

Let’s move on to the last page for some graphs and a conclusion.