Power, temps and noise
Increasing the core speed to 1,072MHz comes at the cost of extra energy usage. Our sample card chews through more watts than a regular GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7850.
Dissipating those extra watts means that either EVGA needs to turn the fan speed up or accept higher-than-normal temps. 81°C isn't overly hot, to be fair, but note just how cool the Radeon HD 7790s are.
We like EVGA's trade-off between power and temps, as the card is very quiet at all times. That said, only the HD 6870 is immediately noticeable when gaming; all other cards can be deemed as quiet.