Quiet 68XX / 69XX / 5XX Card for 1920x1200?

[Tab]

Hi,

Just picked up a cheap 6850 for $160 from newegg last week, I'm happy with the performance of the card since I don't care about AA or super-high details but damn it's quiet loud - even at idle. I can't find any custom heatsinks for the card that aren't $100+ in which case I should just buy a different card.

Does anyone know of reviews of quiet cards in particular? Google hasn't help me much, if at all.

 

[Keysplayr]

I have a GTX570 and it's barely audible at load. Can't speak for the other cards you mentioned. Right card for 19x12.

 

[deimos3428]

Hi,

Just picked up a cheap 6850 for $160 from newegg last week, I'm happy with the performance of the card since I don't care about AA or super-high details but damn it's quiet loud - even at idle. I can't find any custom heatsinks for the card that aren't $100+ in which case I should just buy a different card.

Does anyone know of reviews of quiet cards in particular? Google hasn't help me much, if at all.

Which model of 6850 is it? Some of the early VGA BIOS firmwares had a bug that kept the fan at about 73% when idle. If that's the issue a VGA BIOS update will fix the problem pretty quickly.

 

[blackened23]

Hi,

Just picked up a cheap 6850 for $160 from newegg last week, I'm happy with the performance of the card since I don't care about AA or super-high details but damn it's quiet loud - even at idle. I can't find any custom heatsinks for the card that aren't $100+ in which case I should just buy a different card.

Does anyone know of reviews of quiet cards in particular? Google hasn't help me much, if at all.

You won't find one unless it has a liquid cooling block, there's a couple manufacturers that make 68xx / 69xx's like taht but i can't remember who. You can probably run it at 50% fan speed which isn't too bad though, I usually do 50% constant fan and don't have any crashes in games even while oc'ed.

Generally, radeon uses far less power than gtx 570 / 580 , while the latter are quieter.

 

[BFG10K]

Just picked up a cheap 6850 for $160 from newegg last week, I'm happy with the performance of the card since I don't care about AA or super-high details but damn it's quiet loud - even at idle.

There’s something very wrong there. I had a reference 6850 from AMD and it was dead silent, even under load on a very hot summer day.

I couldn’t hear it unless I opened my case and put my ear right next to it. It was subjectively even quieter than my old 5770 under load.

 

[gevorg]

Sapphire 6850 (model 100315L) idles at around 1000RPM, barely audible in a quiet room. My Samsung F4 hard drive produces more noise.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DV.../dp/B0047ZGIUK

 

[onethreehill]

PowerColor SCS3 HD6850

 

[OVerLoRDI]

It should be dead quiet, especially at idle. Something is amiss.

 

[Keysplayr]

Driver problem maybe? Fan pegged at 100%?

 

[3DVagabond]

Driver problem maybe? Fan pegged at 100%?

Do drivers control fan speed? I didn't think so, but maybe I'm mistaken. I thought fan speed was a bios setting.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

Do drivers control fan speed? I didn't think so, but maybe I'm mistaken. I thought fan speed was a bios setting.

Inside the OS environment, the driver does have control of fan speed. The only time the BIOS is in charge is during the initial power-up as there's no software to control it.

For OP, I would suggest looking at something like Gigabyte's Windforce 3X cards. The cooler on them is great, and with the default fan profile is quiet even under full load. Even in summer here in Texas, I've yet to see my card top 68c and the fan is inaudible from about 3' away with the side on my case.

 

[hdfxst]

Sapphire 6850 (model 100315L) idles at around 1000RPM, barely audible in a quiet room. My Samsung F4 hard drive produces more noise.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DV.../dp/B0047ZGIUK

My sapphire 5850 has the same cooler on it and it's very quiet,up to 50% you can't here it

 

[deimos3428]

Forgot to mention you can run a HD6850 passively with an Accelero S1 for about $35. If you're concerned about running it 100% passive, you could zip-tie a quiet low-RPM fan to it.

 

[3DVagabond]

Inside the OS environment, the driver does have control of fan speed. The only time the BIOS is in charge is during the initial power-up as there's no software to control it.

For OP, I would suggest looking at something like Gigabyte's Windforce 3X cards. The cooler on them is great, and with the default fan profile is quiet even under full load. Even in summer here in Texas, I've yet to see my card top 68c and the fan is inaudible from about 3' away with the side on my case.

I'm just thinking if it's drivers then everyone running the same drivers would have the same problem? Or, updating/changing drivers should fix it?

 

[hdfxst]

Forgot to mention you can run a HD6850 passively with an Accelero S1 for about $35. If you're concerned about running it 100% passive, you could zip-tie a quiet low-RPM fan to it.

I tried to put an accelero s1 rev.2 on my 5850 etreme which is a 6850 with a with a 5850 gpu and you need to modify or change the vrm heatsink to make it work.(it's to tall)

 

[deimos3428]

I tried to put an accelero s1 rev.2 on my 5850 etreme which is a 6850 with a with a 5850 gpu and you need to modify or change the vrm heatsink to make it work.(it's to tall)

I suppose it depends on the model. I've got two Gigabyte 6850s working fine with them.