GPU recommendations

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Herro. I'm thinking about doing a little bit of gaming on my main rig. 1920x1080 - games like CallofDuty World at War, and possibly UT3. In my game rig I am running a GTX 670. That's plenty for those games imo. This machine I'm thinking about installing on is located in my room so quietness is essential for when I walk away from my pc and relax on the bed for some Netflix. That means idle quietness. The GTX 670 at 30% isn't quiet enough.. I'd prefer it dead silent; is how silent I'd like it to be. What solutions am I looking at in this performance tier with Nvidia?

 

[biostud]

Are you sure it's the GPU cooler making the most noise?

The accelero hybrid cooler would be my best guess.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I use an MSI Gaming GTX 760 in my main rig and it's pretty damn silent. Any MSI cards with their newest TF cooler (IV I think?) perform similarly... check out their dB ratings in the reviews at TechPowerUp.

I'm something of a silent computing nut (ask my wife), and these cards are among the best. The only other card I've had that was so quiet was the Asus DCII 670.

 

[mfenn]

WaW and UT3 are pretty old and easy to run games. If that's all you want to play, you can get a completely passive card like this 7750.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

WaW and UT3 are pretty old and easy to run games. If that's all you want to play, you can get a completely passive card like this 7750.

Is that in the same tier as the GTX 670? I mentioned so because I wouldn't want to downgrade

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Are you sure it's the GPU cooler making the most noise?

The accelero hybrid cooler would be my best guess.

All I know is it's audible at idle. Are you suggeting I swap out the cooler? The GTX I have is a stock design that exhausts out the back of the PC so I think that's the first problem.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I use an MSI Gaming GTX 760 in my main rig and it's pretty damn silent. Any MSI cards with their newest TF cooler (IV I think?) perform similarly... check out their dB ratings in the reviews at TechPowerUp.

I'm something of a silent computing nut (ask my wife), and these cards are among the best. The only other card I've had that was so quiet was the Asus DCII 670.

I'm looking into those, thanks

 

[biostud]

All I know is it's audible at idle. Are you suggeting I swap out the cooler? The GTX I have is a stock design that exhausts out the back of the PC so I think that's the first problem.

Basically the exhaust type are more noisy than those who dumps the heat inside. So basically you could buy a Asus GTX 670 with DirectCU II cooler or similar or you could just install a silent fan on your current card.

 

[biostud]

All I know is it's audible at idle. Are you suggeting I swap out the cooler? The GTX I have is a stock design that exhausts out the back of the PC so I think that's the first problem.

Basically the exhaust type are more noisy than those who dumps the heat inside. So basically you could buy a Asus GTX 670/760 with DirectCU II cooler or similar or you could just install a silent fan on your current card. The one I linked is a closed loop water cooler, but you can also get a Accelero extreme III. But it depends on whether or not you feel up to changing the cooler yourself.

 

[piasabird]

Using virtu cant you use the video card to play games and then use the integrated to watch Videos On your TV or something like that?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Using virtu cant you use the video card to play games and then use the integrated to watch Videos On your TV or something like that?

He wants a silent rig.

Read the original post again.

 

[Freddy1765]

Cheapest solution is probably to buy and install an aftermarket cooler on it.
Although I should say that my Gigabyte WF3 670 is completely inaudible at 20% fan, so if you can find one of those used or something, perhaps it would be worth it for you.

 

[mfenn]

Is that in the same tier as the GTX 670? I mentioned so because I wouldn't want to downgrade

No a 7750 is not in the same tier as a GTX 670. I don't see how that's relevant though, the rig you're talking about currently has a GeForce 210. A 7750 is very much an upgrade over the GeForce 210. You want "dead silent", anything with a fan automatically fails that criteria.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

No a 7750 is not in the same tier as a GTX 670. However, I don't see how that matters unless there are other games you're not telling us about. What does it matter if you get 500 FPS with a GTX 670 versus only 200 with a 7750?

I think to start off I'll just swap the GPU cards out and see how things are. I remember my game PC I have a couple of loud 120mm fans that could of been the issue and then if there is a problem with noise still I'll venture more into the idea bout the 7750. I do also like the idea of the DC II heat-pipe solutions. Only issue is the CPU. This machine is an L5639 2.13Ghz 6core vs the i7 970 6core at 3.2Ghz I think that may be a small issue

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

r9 270x are very quiet,
good gtx770 are really queit, too
there is one especially quiet gtx 770, the cooler is three slots
http://www.inno3d.com/product/ichillgtx770.html
there are 760s and 780s with that cooler, too

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

r9 270x are very quiet,
good gtx770 are really queit, too
there is one especially quiet gtx 770, the cooler is three slots
http://www.inno3d.com/product/ichillgtx770.html
there are 760s and 780s with that cooler, too

Thanks for the suggestions.

I was able to find a YouTube video of someone testing the idle fan speed to max fan speed. Inno3D iChill X3

 

[Termie]

One of the quietest coolers on the market is the Asus DC2, so you could get something like this 760, which is very similar in performance to a 670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121775

I wouldn't spend much more than that on the games you're playing. And while I know you don't want to downgrade, you could just get a 660, which will also be fine for those games. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121660

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

One of the quietest coolers on the market is the Asus DC2, so you could get something like this 760, which is very similar in performance to a 670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121775

Thanks man, and nice save! I have a DC II Asus 670 on my 'Watch List' on eBay and it's ~ 100$ more than this Asus DC II 760 which, you're right, is very similar in performance: according to the Anand benches :thumbsup:

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

249$ seems like a good deal for that card. What I wonder is how will the processor will handle things :hmm: Overclocking that chip to 3.2 would be risky on a daily machine. Files ending up corrupt, in-stability, etc.

The main problem is I have no where to put another PC in this room and if I did bring the gaming rig to this house it would have to connect via Wi-Fi.. this would solve all my issues here but I would need to buy another PC desk and a Wi-Fi card

60$ = Desk
??$ = Card
on a non-grounded outlet, in a cold room with basically no lighting :hmm:

 

[T_Yamamoto]

249$ seems like a good deal for that card. What I wonder is how will the processor will handle things :hmm: Overclocking that chip to 3.2 would be risky on a daily machine. Files ending up corrupt, in-stability, etc.

The main problem is I have no where to put another PC in this room and if I did bring the gaming rig to this house it would have to connect via Wi-Fi.. this would solve all my issues here but I would need to buy another PC desk and a Wi-Fi card

60$ = Desk
??$ = Card
on a non-grounded outlet, in a cold room with basically no lighting :hmm:

Sounds like you could do some interior decorating.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I might possibly be able to fit my other PC under this corner desk. I am running a 120Hz monitor so if I did a KVM switch what would be my best option?

EDIT: what about this possibility!?

 

[mfenn]

That switch support dual-link DVI as evidenced by the fact that it can handle 2560x1600 at 60 Hz. So a 120Hz 1080p monitor would also work fine with the switch.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

That switch support dual-link DVI as evidenced by the fact that it can handle 2560x1600 at 60 Hz. So a 120Hz 1080p monitor would also work fine with the switch.

Just checkin to make sure, thanks

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Well I took my vanilla GTX 670 out of my gaming rig and installed it in this daily/main rig, along with an extra PCI-e power cable.. So far things are quiet enough. All I need to do is bring over my other keyboard with it's wrist rest (Corsair K60) and the once majestic one will re-unite with the Skeksis as an all-in-one Being. On a side note the L5639 Xeon seems to be holding it's own in 36 -48 players matches, @ 2.13Ghz

More short-hand paraphrasing:

Soooo glad I decided to do the little bit of foot-work to try this out. Saved me from spending money on any option before me. I really like those DC II style coolers mentioned. And the Gigabyte WF3 670 mentioned will be on the radar when looking at the next generation of vid cards. And thanks for the recommendation of the Inno3D, another great quiet gpu

Thanks everyone again for your time and effort along this quest

Cheers :hmm:

 

[mfenn]

Experimentation for the win!