GTX 480 Ultra Charged tested

[Grooveriding]

480s are loud cards. They're the loudest card I have ever owned. Two of them are really loud when you are gaming.

I have to use headphones when I game, if I use speakers, I have to turn them up to the point I find the sound too loud if I'm trying to drown out the sound of the 480 fans.

I would imagine, tri-sli 480s, if not watercooled, to be extremely loud and really hot. I'd love to hear what your temperatures are, particularly for the middle and top card.

 

[Stoneburner]

Before things get a little too acrimonious in here...some reference material care of the CDC and NIOSH:

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-126/chap5.html

Anything below 80 dBA is considered to be safe. No one should be going deaf from exposure to noise-levels below 80 dBA.

Data Tables: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-126/chap3.html

Finding a review wherein the reviewers are unaware of these government-established facts and guidelines is not to be considered surprising.

Please consider this information should this discussion continue in the thread.

I am posting this as a moderator as a friendly way of saying keep the tone of discussion light gentlemen, and factual, I am watching the thread.

Moderator Idontcare

I think he was being hyperbolic when he said "deafening." I've yet to come across a rig that was so loud as to cause ear damage. ANd I once hooked up a 80mm Vantec Tornado to a heatsink.

On the otherhand, the level of noise that's tolerable differs for everybody. All I can say is when i hooked up my brother's 5870 (XFX) and it was running at 50 percent fan at all times, that was freaking irritating. I've yet to hear a 480 but it's largely regarded as much louder than a 5870.

 

[nitromullet]

480s are loud cards. They're the loudest card I have ever owned. Two of them are really loud when you are gaming.

My 470s are loud (too loud IMO), but they still aren't the loudest cards I've owned. That distinction goes to the Radeon X1800XT. This card had the most annoying, high pitched whiny fan I've ever heard.

I never did own a 5800 Ultra so I'm not sure which was louder, but the X1800XT was ridiculously loud and annoying. When I replaced the X1800XT with an X1900XTX I picked up an after market Zalman cooler to quiet the card down. It worked well, and was far less noisy.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Back in the socket A days I had a Vantec Tornado 92x38mm fan on my CPU heatsink. I had to run it without a fan controller for a little while. That thing was LOUD. My desktop sounded like a vaccum cleaner.

 

[Stoneburner]

Back in the socket A days I had a Vantec Tornado 92x38mm fan on my CPU heatsink. I had to run it without a fan controller for a little while. That thing was LOUD. My desktop sounded like a vaccum cleaner.

I still have mine around I used mine for one day before switching to a panaflo.

 

[RussianSensation]

My 470s are loud (too loud IMO), but they still aren't the loudest cards I've owned.

Believe it or not but my MSI 4890 was louder than the GTX470 at idle and at load. The shocking part is that Radeon 4890 @ 35% fan speed at load is louder than EVGA GTX470 @ 70% fan speed. Idle temperatures on the GTX470 are only 38-41*C vs. 55-57*C on the Radeon I had. hhee

 

[Grooveriding]

Believe it or not but my MSI 4890 was louder than the GTX470 at idle and at load. The shocking part is that Radeon 4890 @ 35% fan speed at load is louder than EVGA GTX470 @ 70% fan speed. Idle temperatures on the GTX470 are only 38-41*C vs. 55-57*C on the Radeon I had. hhee

I have the same experience regarding idle temperatures on the 480s. Because I use dual monitors my first card idles quite high, around 68C usually, but the second idles at about 45 or so. Compared to an 8800GTS 512 I have in another machine that idles around 65 or so. Of course, the older cards did not use the sort of power management more modern cards are using today, so that contributes to the low idle temps.

Load temperatures are a different story though, same story as the noise, hottest card I've run.

 

[BFG10K]

I have to use headphones when I game, if I use speakers, I have to turn them up to the point I find the sound too loud if I'm trying to drown out the sound of the 480 fans.

I would imagine, tri-sli 480s, if not watercooled, to be extremely loud and really hot. I'd love to hear what your temperatures are, particularly for the middle and top card.

I'd also like to know what his fan speeds are. Yesterday my single GTX480 hit 72% which is well over 3000 rpm.

Anand has 70.2 dBA for a pair of GTX480s, and three of them would no doubt be louder.

 

[JAG87]

I'd also like to know what his fan speeds are. Yesterday my single GTX480 hit 72% which is well over 3000 rpm.

Anand has 70.2 dBA for a pair of GTX480s, and three of them would no doubt be louder.
[/IMG]

Anandtech benches without vsync, which puts full load on the cards. It's not how you should be playing your games.

In regards to what nitromullet said about my rig being overkill for the games I play, well that's not quite the case. It's just that the games that can actually bring my setup below 60 FPS (which means they are now rendering as much as they can, so they are fully loaded) are very very few even at 2560x1440. I mentioned crysis and metro, and mafia 2 has such moments depending if you use the built in SSAA and tweak the APEX files.

These aren't games that are going to see more than 10 hours of gameplay each. The good multiplayer games that give me more game play than that are no where near as taxing as these games, they always render above 60 FPS, and are therefore not even stressing the cards fully, so they stay fairly quiet. Hence why I don't see all this concern about the noise.

 

[davidrees]

Earlier this year, I bought a used 4870x2 and the stock fan (which may have been going out) sounded like a dustbuster. I added the Arctic Cooling HSF and it became inaudible - like the rest of my system.

The 4870x2 died a month ago and to replace it (and for my birthday), I got an MSI 480.

I mostly play BC2 and even when I play without headphones, the card is between inaudible and barely audible. I was resigned to the fact that I was going to have to mod the cooling to keep it quiet, but so far, it has been completely unnecessary.

I think the main reason is just good air flow. The card tops out at around 82-83C - I doubt I am maxing it out, but I can play BC2 with max detail at 60fps without issue, so I am happy.

I would not mind going SLI at some point, but I doubt the noise level would be acceptable with 2 of these things running.

 

[Petey!]

my 8800GT was way more annoying then my 470. You also have to take into consideration that most test sites tested Fermi cards on test benches, and not in rigs. Putting them in well ventilated cases makes the cards run better by leaps and bounds. My "gaming" profile has my fan run at 65%, which puts my temps anywhere from low 70s to low 80s depending on the game, and is moderately audible over my case fans, but nothing that becomes really annoying, and more importantly, no whine noise at all, just lots of air moving.

I really think a lot of the heat/noise issues were really overblown, as I've had cards that have been just as loud before. Power draw is obviously high though (on average).

I don't know, I think the 470/480s aren't for everybody, but if your willing to drop 300+ on a GPU, chances are you should have a decent PSU, and a decent case in the first place, and then the added performance is well worth it.

 

[nitromullet]

In regards to what nitromullet said about my rig being overkill for the games I play, well that's not quite the case. It's just that the games that can actually bring my setup below 60 FPS (which means they are now rendering as much as they can, so they are fully loaded) are very very few even at 2560x1440. I mentioned crysis and metro, and mafia 2 has such moments depending if you use the built in SSAA and tweak the APEX files.

The fact of that matter is that Fermi cards run hot, and hence loud under load with the stock cooler. If your cards aren't loud in some games, but loud in others, this means that some games aren't taxing your cards very much. You can't load the cards without generating heat, it just doesn't work that way.

I'm not judging your for buying overkill (it's a nice position to be in), but there isn't really a whole lot of sense in denying this.

 

[Grooveriding]

my 8800GT was way more annoying then my 470. You also have to take into consideration that most test sites tested Fermi cards on test benches, and not in rigs. Putting them in well ventilated cases makes the cards run better by leaps and bounds. My "gaming" profile has my fan run at 65%, which puts my temps anywhere from low 70s to low 80s depending on the game, and is moderately audible over my case fans, but nothing that becomes really annoying, and more importantly, no whine noise at all, just lots of air moving.

I really think a lot of the heat/noise issues were really overblown, as I've had cards that have been just as loud before. Power draw is obviously high though (on average).

I don't know, I think the 470/480s aren't for everybody, but if your willing to drop 300+ on a GPU, chances are you should have a decent PSU, and a decent case in the first place, and then the added performance is well worth it.

Good airflow is definitely key if you are running a 480 on air, especially two. I recently switched my system from a HAF 932 to an 800D. In the HAF, I usually got temps around 79-85 depending on the game, with the fan at 75%. In the 800D I am getting up to 95C, Crysis I hit 100C, this is with the fan ramping up to 90%.

The 800D case has terrible airflow, and I've added 3 exhaust fans up top. Eventually I am going water with it once I replace the 480s, so for now I just deal with it.

This temperature disparity is a perfect example of your post, if you have a very good airflow setup, you can run these cards at a reasonable temperature under air cooling.

I think they deserve their bad rap though, as these cards demand you to create really ideal conditions to run them at acceptable temperatures and noise levels. And no matter how well you do this, they are still the hottest GPUs around. Noise levels are subjective, but for me, even 75% fan was too loud.

 

[BFG10K]

I mostly play BC2 and even when I play without headphones, the card is between inaudible and barely audible.

Can you please post your loaded fan speed? Make sure the game has been running at least 10 minutes. Thanks.

I think the main reason is just good air flow.

No, if it’s really at a low fan speed it just means you aren’t taxing the card, like nitromullet has been pointing out.

It’s even possible your underutilized card isn’t raising itself out of video playback clocks due to the adaptive power management.

 

[3DVagabond]

I can't believe anyone, after all the reviews, would still try and sit here saying the 470/480 is a quiet card.

If you buy one and think, "Boy this is loud. I wonder if something is wrong with it?" No! Nothing is wrong with it. They're just loud cards. We've had reviewers complain about hearing them from other rooms in the house (on different floors, IIRC).

As far as airflow goes. Remember all of the talk before they were released about certified cases for Fermi? If you buy a GF100 based card you are going to need a case with very good airflow (not just decent or OK). Cases designed for Fermi have got freakin wind tunnels in them. Extra fans mounted directly in front of the cards blowing fresh air directly on them. You also need a better than avg. PSU. Even then they are still loud cards. If you want quiet and cool water cool it or get something else.

 

[RussianSensation]

I can't believe anyone, after all the reviews, would still try and sit here saying the 470/480 is a quiet card.

No one ever said GTX470/480 were quiet cards. I've never used the 480 so I can't comment on how loud it is compared to the 470 or the 4890 I had. My GTX470 generally runs at 66% fan speed at load, at which point it's nowhere near as loud as say a 4890 is. I am able to run at these lower fan speeds simply because my case runs very cool and my ambients are 20-21*C.

Look at this test - He has 3 cards running @ 60% fan speed and I wouldn't call that loud for a high-end gaming cards. But at 80%, it's annoying as hell.

Here is another test at 72% and 100% fan speed.

The problem is in most cases the airflow is so poor and the ambient temperatures may be 28-29*C, that people have these cards spinning at 80-100% fan speed. That's annoyingly loud!!! On a side note, I have no idea how reviewers got 90+*C load temps in reviews and high fan speeds. The only time I got GTX470 to pass 90*C was when I had my fan speed at 50%.

Bottom line is, GTX470/480 are louder cards than 5850/5870 are at load. However, the extent of how loud they are will also depend on the temperatures in which they operate (the same goes for 5850/5870). If you suddenly think 5850 or 5870 themselves are quiet cards, you are mistaken. None of these cards are quiet to be honest, certainly not like a 9600GSO, 8800GTS 320mb, or GTS450.

Generally speaking, the best high end cards from either camp have aftermarket coolers installed (Gigabyte GTX460, MSI Cyclone, Zotac with Zalman fan, MSI Twin Frozr).

 

[nitromullet]

On a side note, I have no idea how reviewers got 90+*C load temps in reviews and high fan speeds. The only time I got GTX470 to pass 90*C was when I had my fan speed at 50%.

They seem to vary greatly in temps. My two cards differed by about 15C at load no matter what I did. Prior to getting my second one I was scratching my head at people who were seeing load temps in the mid-70s and low-80s because mine was always running in the high-80s or 90s.

Good airflow in the case does help quite a bit with these cards. To equalize mine out when I had them in SLI I'd run the hotter one on the bottom, which was closer to the intake fan, and the cooler one on top. This way, the top card would run in the 80s and the bottom card in the 80-90s. If I flipped them the other way, the top card would always be in the 90s and the bottom card in the 70s.

 

[RussianSensation]

nitro, did you try replacing the TIM too? I am just stunned from hearing over and over again and seeing in videos a 10*C temperature drop from just changing the TIM. I mean that's a $5-7 fix!!! Do you have the high-flow bracket installed on the EVGA cards?

 

[nitromullet]

nitro, did you try replacing the TIM too? I am just stunned from hearing over and over again and seeing in videos a 10*C temperature drop from just changing the TIM. I mean that's a $5-7 fix!!! Do you have the high-flow bracket installed on the EVGA cards?

Multiple times. The hotter of the two cards was water cooled for a while, and I've swapped coolers and re-TIM'ed it with AS5 a few times. Always had the same results with the the stock cooler. This was a very early card, so it has the regular bracket. The newer card has the high-flow bracket. Of course under water she ran in the 50C range @ 800/1800, 1.087v. Water is definitely a nice option for Fermi cards, but that entails a lot of other things I'm just not really willing to mess around with at the moment.

The hotter card has been plagued with the dreaded hang on Welcome screen on and off since I've owned it. Since my new card runs cooler and doesn't give me any problems, I RMA'ed the other one. The replacement it on its way back from EVGA right now, although I imagine I'm going to sell it as new (provided EVGA sends me a new replacement) instead of opening it and messing around with SLI.

 

[bryanW1995]

I have three MSI GTX 480s in SLI. All cards are clocked at 800MHz/1600MHz core and 1050MHz (2100 DDR) memory.

how do you do with tri sli? are you on water? I've heard that anything over standard sli with 480's can cause some pretty serious temp issues on air.

 

[davidrees]

Can you please post your loaded fan speed? Make sure the game has been running at least 10 minutes. Thanks.


No, if it’s really at a low fan speed it just means you aren’t taxing the card, like nitromullet has been pointing out.

It’s even possible your underutilized card isn’t raising itself out of video playback clocks due to the adaptive power management.

Yeah, I will see if I can do that. I use Everest and a Crystalfontz LCD display to monitor temps, but it's such a pain to configure properly that I have not bothered to get it going since the recent OS reinstall.

I run BC2 at 1920x1080@60hz with 16CSAA, HBAO off, high everything, etc. I doubt it ever goes below 60fps and the card does not seem stressed at all.

When I got the card, I over clocked the CPU and my system started getting constant BSODs (no temp issues). Even after I reset everything, it still crashed. I am not certain, but I think the thing that fixed it was increasing the voltage in the card by 1 or 2 steps (very very small amount). After that, the problem seemed to go away. While I was in there, I modified the fan speed curve to aggressively increase when the temp get into the mid to high 80s.

I can't believe anyone, after all the reviews, would still try and sit here saying the 470/480 is a quiet card.

If you buy one and think, "Boy this is loud. I wonder if something is wrong with it?" No! Nothing is wrong with it. They're just loud cards. We've had reviewers complain about hearing them from other rooms in the house (on different floors, IIRC).

As far as airflow goes. Remember all of the talk before they were released about certified cases for Fermi? If you buy a GF100 based card you are going to need a case with very good airflow (not just decent or OK). Cases designed for Fermi have got freakin wind tunnels in them. Extra fans mounted directly in front of the cards blowing fresh air directly on them. You also need a better than avg. PSU. Even then they are still loud cards. If you want quiet and cool water cool it or get something else.

Look, my entire system is built to be inaudible in a normal room. Suspended hard drives, low RPM fans, etc. The 480 is audible, but just barely and the sound is that of airflow, not the whine of a high RPM fan. Certainly the card is not being heavily taxed, but it is also in a pretty optimized installation.

I have turned up the fan speed and it can become quite loud, but the way I use it currently, that just does not happen.

 

[3DVagabond]

@ RussianSensation & Davidrees.

I was reading multiple threads and posted in this thread while thinking of the thread where the OP had bought the gtx470 and asked if there was something wrong with it because it was loud. So, while I don't think it makes my comments any less true, they are overblown/dramatic for the context of this thread.

This is more directed at the guys who have an inadequate PC to meet the requirements for a Fermi and then wonder what's wrong.

Sorry for the confusion.