BFG 9800GTX OCX Graphics Card Review

Heat & Acoustical Performance

For this test we loaded the core of the 9800GTX with 3dMark06’s Batch-Size rendering test at the highest triangle count with a resolution of 1600x1200 and 2xAA. This puts a constant high load on the core for the indicated time. All temperatures were recorded with nTune’s temperature logging program.


Interestingly, the BFG 9800GTX OCX stays cooler than the stock card despite its increased core and memory clocks. This runs contrary to conventional thinking which says that higher overclocks yield higher temperatures. What can’t be shown here is that BFG has equipped this card with a different fan speed profile in its BIOS which tells the fan to spin up once temperatures reach 69*C. Once temperatures hit this peak, the fan begins to increase its rotational speed which then brings the temperature down to around 60*C and then spool down to a lower RPM. The process is then repeated again when temperatures hit that magical 69*C again. Thus, the core IS putting out more heat but it is kept in check by increased fan speeds.
This “pulsing” nature of the fan where it spins faster and slower at relatively equal intervals when you are gaming leads to an overall larger acoustical footprint but not once does the noise it produces become annoying. If you are a low-noise fanatic you should look elsewhere but for everyone else this fan should be more than quiet enough for you.

Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption.


Naturally, as a card is overclocked it consumes more power and this is what we see here with the BFG OCX. We are seeing an 18W peak increase in load consumption over s stock card which really isn’t too bad considering the 10% overclock.

We would recommend a good 600W power supply if you are running this card with a quad core processor.