GeForce GTX 480 noise levels bunked

[Cookie Monster]

GeForce GTX 480 noise levels debunked

The end result is A PC creating roughly as much noise as say a GeForce GTX 295. And again, we are not disputing that this isn't noisy, contrary .. it is noisy alright. But to say it's at a the level of 60~70 DBa makes no sense.

Obviously the noise characteristic is lower on the GTX470 (similiar to GTX275/285) and according to nVIDIA, the fan only starts to kick it once it reaches over 80C. They've chose to keep it quiet most of the time instead of having low temps, a tradeoff which is common in todays video cards.

I just cant believe how people are over reacting about its noise characteristics and labeling it as the dust buster. If you've had a chance to hear a FX5800ultra in action, this card doesn't even hold a candle in terms of noise output.

Unless people who actually buy this says its a loud card and that is unbearable, I still think alot of people are just over reacting.

 

[Apocalypse23]

The GTX480 by all means is noisy, the GTX470 isn't. And Guru3d has been very biased in their Fermi review already, I would take their claim with a grain of salt.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I understand that it is noisy, but spreading misinformation as "loud as hell" "insanely loud" are just wrong. I guess reviewers are also guilty because of the inconsistency and tendency to not really look at this subject indepth.

 

[Voo]

I understand that it is noisy, but spreading misinformation as "loud as hell" "insanely loud" are just wrong. I guess reviewers are also guilty because of the inconsistency and tendency to not really look at this subject indepth.

Well HOCP had those soundfiles and you could easily interpolate fermi's noise by comparing it to the known variable (5870). And you've got to admit that the 480 was by far louder than the 5870. The 470 in contrast seemed rather normal, not silent, but neither are the Radeons.

Not sure how anyone could spin that around, or do you want us to believe that Kyle forged those recordings?

Guru3d had some rather strange articles about fermi I fear (remeber those rants about charlie? Well he wasn't too far off and I'm still not sure what the purpose of that should've been), though I still like their reviews usually..

 

[ZimZum]

I just cant believe how people are over reacting about its noise characteristics and labeling it as the dust buster. If you've had a chance to hear a FX5800ultra in action, this card doesn't even hold a candle in terms of noise output.

Anandtech benched the FX5800 and according to them the 480 is the loudest single GPU card they have ever tested.

I think its curious your taking the statements of one site as gospel while ignoring all the scores of others who have come to same conclusions as Anandtech.

 

[Tempered81]

is the link broken?

 

[cbn]

Anandtech benched the FX5800 and according to them the 480 is the loudest single GPU card they have ever tested.

What was the TDP (or better yet actual power usage) of the 5800 Ultra?

Is it even possible a card from the AGP era would need that much cooling?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Anandtech benched the FX5800 and according to them the 480 is the loudest single GPU card they have ever tested.

I think its curious your taking the statements of one site as gospel while ignoring all the scores of others who have come to same conclusions as Anandtech.

Dust buster

To further extend the comparison, the GeForce FX 5800 weighed in at 77 dBA on our sound meter with the fan spun all the way up vs. 64 dBA on the Radeon 9700 Pro.

Tell me, which other sites state that it is "loud as hell"? All reviews ive come across mention it as somewhat loud for the GTX480.

Maybe Ryan's input on this matter would clear things up.

edit - link fixed.

 

[Attic]

guru3d is highly suspect regarding their information on Fermi.

By that I mean to say that they are being paid by nVidia so their information should be taken as highly suspect.


This article by guru now calls out specifically the noise issue,... how far do they need to go? How bout they do their noise testing and leave it at that?, they specifically call out the noise issue when numerous websites agree that the noise levels of the GTX480 is an issue, anandtech included. So we've got Guru3d going against a well established grain in the reviews. Im not buying it.

From anandtechs review,
"Hot, power hungry things are often loud things, and there are no disappointments here. At 70dB the GTX 480 SLI is the loudest card configuration we have ever tested, while at 64.1dB the GTX 480 is the loudest single-GPU card, beating out even our unreasonably loud 4890."

What's hard to get about this? Again, looks like for guru3D to specifically step in on this issue so quickly and go against the grain, it looks like they are being compensated by nVidia for donig damage control.

 

[blanketyblank]

Hopefully we'll see silentpc put up a review though I'm guessing that might be unlikely.

 

[dguy6789]

Guru3D is a known Nvidia biased site. If a website like Anandtech "debunked" the GTX 480's noise level then you'd have something to discuss. The fact that Anandtech benchmarked the FX 5800 before and said that the GTX 480 is the loudest GPU they have ever tested doesn't help Guru3D's credibility very much.

 

[cbn]

In some archives people are claiming 5800 Ultra had a power consumption of 80 watts.

If that is true, then why was the card so loud? Poorly designed fan and cooler?

EDIT: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/03/01/26/worlds-first-geforce-fx-5800-ultra-review <---This review measured 75 watts power consumption under full load.

 

[dug777]

Sorry Cookie, I'll take AT's word over Guru's any day of the month, let alone just about every other review out there with the exception of that one

 

[hdfxst]

I noticed that the card was at 88c when he was checking the sound.Listen to the video of the 480 at Hardocp,when the temp is 90c the fan isn't very loud but at 95c the fan gets much louder

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I noticed that the card was at 88c when he was checking the sound.Listen to the video of the 480 at Hardocp,when the temp is 90c the fan isn't very loud but at 95c the fan gets much louder

Apparently the fan takes a while to kick in. But yeah, right at the top the noise gets pretty loud.

 

[Attic]

I noticed that the card was at 88c when he was checking the sound.Listen to the video of the 480 at Hardocp,when the temp is 90c the fan isn't very loud but at 95c the fan gets much louder

Solid point you make here. You are correct, the video at Hardocp was not very meaningful until the card got to 95c when the card become much much more noisy than it was before. I recall when I first watched the video my initial thoughts were, "well, that's not so bad, whats the big deal with noise", however when the card got to 95c I was taken aback by the noise generated by the card relative to its noise level at lower temperatures.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Don't even need graphs and numbers. I recall heatpipes judding from the stock 480. To me that speaks volumes about how much heat and thus, noise that thing generates.

 

[BFG10K]

Tell me, which other sites state that it is "loud as hell"?

Hmm? Quite a few, actually:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3783&p=19

At 70dB the GTX 480 SLI is the loudest card configuration we have ever tested, while at 64.1dB the GTX 480 is the loudest single-GPU card, beating out even our unreasonably loud 4890.

Their objective dBA reading for the GTX480 (64.1) was higher than that of the 5970 (63.6), which is a dual-GPU card.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...-Fermi-performance-benchmarks/Reviews/?page=2

Even in Grid the GTX 480 exceeds its TDP by 16 watt and when running Furmark it even requires more than 300 watt. The loudness in 3D mode is, with 7 up to almost 12 Sone, extremely high.

Their objective measurement in Furmark was 11.9 Sone, which is twice as high as the 5870.

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translat...hnitt_lautstaerke&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

Under load we did not trust against it our eyes, or better said our ears. The GeForce GTX 480 creates it on full 63 decibels, which is very loud. A just as not straight quiet GeForce GTX 285 remains clearly calmer with 54 decibels, the same is valid for the Radeon hp 5870. Even the dual GPU map Radeon hp 5970 remains quieter than the GeForce GTX 480. Beyond that the exhaust reacts strongly on fluctuations of the GPU temperature and adapts the number of revolutions without delay directly. Thus develop a continuous fast and slow tricks of the exhaust, which is disturbing.

Accordingly the exhaust of the 3D-Beschleunigers is constantly present in plays. For many potenzielle buyers surely too much of the good one. Something to be reduced can the noise level by a better housing ventilation. Because this seems to play a crucial role for the GPU temperature of the GeForce GTX 480.

Their objective measurement of the GTX480 is 63 dB, which is higher than the 5970’s 59.5 dB, a dual card.

And this one takes the cake:

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/nvidia_geforce_gtx_480_fermi_arrives,11.html

All that power makes for one seriously hot graphics card. Do not be fooled by the 97 degree load temperature. While this is the maximum temperature that we recorded, the fan was spinning so fast things started sliding across my desk towards the test system. The GeForce GTX 480 was truly deafening when running our full load test.

Letting the card sit at the Windows 7 desktop for 20 minutes after stress testing saw the temperature only drop to 65 degrees. When it came time to remove the GeForce GTX 480 from our test system I had to wear a pair of gloves to avoid any possible burns or dropping the extremely hot graphics card. The PCI Express power cables were amazingly soft from all the heat that had been thrown at them.

In short the GeForce GTX 480 is around 11% hotter than the Radeon HD 5870 under load and a whopping 71% or 27 degrees hotter at idle.

So, we have four reputable sources telling us the card's noise and heat is excessive, and we also have [ H ]’s videos which they claim are accurate as to what they actually hear when sitting in the lab.

Sorry Cookie, but you’re clutching at straws if you go off what Guru3D is saying. The GTX480 is an absolute furnace. We know this from multiple objective and subjective measurements. It’s hotter and louder than a 5970, which is two GPUs slapped onto a single board using the same manufacturing process.

The noise/heat issue alarms me so much that unless there’s a significant change to the BIOS and/or cooler, I’m probably going to get a GTX470 instead and wait for a respin/refresh.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Since when did guru3d suddenly become a "biased to nVIDIA" site??

Maybe ive been away for too long.

The noise/heat issue alarms me so much that unless there&#8217;s a significant change to the BIOS and/or cooler, I&#8217;m probably going to get a GTX470 instead and wait for a respin/refresh.

I might too. Its that or an HD5850/70 depending on price.

Guess your right. I havent read reviews from those links (Ive read AT, guru3d, HWC, hardware.fr,TPU) but its pointless now to further discuss this topic. Its pretty much up to the person to decide since its a very subjective thing.

Close the thread BFG!

 

[MagickMan]

What's hard to get about this? Again, looks like for guru3D to specifically step in on this issue so quickly and go against the grain, it looks like they are being compensated by nVidia for donig damage control.

Agreed, I'd trust anandtech before those guys.

 

[Janooo]

Since when did guru3d suddenly become a "biased to nVIDIA" site??

Maybe ive been away for too long.



I might too. Its that or an HD5850/70 depending on price.

Guess your right. I havent read reviews from those links (Ive read AT, guru3d, HWC, hardware.fr,TPU) but its pointless now to further discuss this topic. Its pretty much up to the person to decide since its a very subjective thing.

Close the thread BFG!

I am surprised you didn't know that. That's a damage control by them.

 

[sandorski]

Hell produces a noise at 75db. Everyone knows this.

 

[ZimZum]

Guess your right. I havent read reviews from those links (Ive read AT, guru3d, HWC, hardware.fr,TPU) but its pointless now to further discuss this topic. Its pretty much up to the person to decide since its a very subjective thing.

Close the thread BFG!

So, Bunked then ?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Its up to you to decide

 

[cbn]

Their objective measurement of the GTX480 is 63 dB, which is higher than the 5970&#8217;s 59.5 dB, a dual card.

According to the following link Nvidia likes to go with higher load temps for their cards.

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/nvidia_geforce_gtx_480_fermi_arrives,11.html

Notice Cypress and Hemlock run a lot cooler than the Nvidia products.

This makes me wonder how much quieter HD5970 would have been compared to 480 GTX if they were both set to 95C-97C maximum load.