Power, Temperature and Noise
The Maxwell architecture is one of Nvidia's most efficient designs and it bodes well for power consumption. Our entire Intel Core i7-4770K test platform draws just 103 watts from the wall when gaming with the Gigabyte card.
That isn't a typo. We've re-run the benchmark on multiple occasions, but heck, we just can't get the GPU any hotter. The WindForce cooler, with 8mm heatpipe in tow, keeps the GTX 750 Ti chilled to a remarkable 45ºC under load.
In addition to being the coolest card on show, Gigabyte's WindForce is also one of the quietest. Our readings take total system noise into consideration and under load, it's the CPU fan that makes a bigger contribution to overall noise.
If there's a criticism it's that Gigabyte's fan profile is too aggressive when there's little or no GPU activity, resulting in idle noise level being a fraction higher than expected. Our logs indicate a 60 per cent fan speed under load (roughly 1,800rpm) but that drops only slightly to 56 per cent (1,700rpm) when idling.