Quiet Gaming - MSI 760?

[brandonmatic]

I currently have a 5850 that I'm looking to upgrade. Although I prefer AMD and really like the current price/performance of the 7950 when overclocked, I really hate noise.

My current setup - Define R4 case, Hyper 212 cooler, reference 5850, and 3 140mm case fans running at 7V is as loud as I really want to go. My next card has to be as quiet or quieter than the 5850. Right now most of the noise in my case seems to be coming from the 5850 and the stock fan on Hyper 212.

Given that, is the MSI 760 my best option? The reviews of the MSI cooler look awesome - especially this one: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GeForce_GTX_760_TF_Gaming/26.html

My main questions are (1) is there an equally quiet 7950 option and (2) will prices on the 760 drop when AMD comes out with its next gen cards in a few months? I'm not in any rush, but I don't really see AMD releasing anything that will affect prices in the midrange.

Thoughts or advice?

 

[Jaydip]

My brother has this(the top model) and it is whisper quiet http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121716

 

[lehtv]

Yeah, Asus cards are typically very quiet. Probably the quietest 7900 and 600 series. But MSI's new cooler used on the 760 and 770 is also extremely quiet, e.g. read techpowerup's reviews of them.

 

[RussianSensation]

Yeah, Asus cards are typically very quiet. Probably the quietest 7900 and 600 series. But MSI's new cooler used on the 760 and 770 is also extremely quiet, e.g. read techpowerup's reviews of them.

MSI GTX760 TF Gaming is quietest 760 card on the market. I would stay away from the Asus as it runs at 100*C on the back once overclocked.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2013/zehn-geforce-gtx-760-im-test/3/

While at it, ditch the stock Hyper 212 fan. Get Thermalright TY-140 or sell the Hyper 212 and pick up Thermalright True Spirit 140 that comes with this fan already.

TY-140s are awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aktPSn567YA

Ten GeForce GTX 760 in volume compared (video) - MSI TF 760 crushes everything. Only Inno3D Chill with custom fan profile can beat that.
http://www.computerbase.de/videos/2013-07/zehn-geforce-gtx-760-im-lautstaerkevergleich/

 

[blackened23]

As others have mentioned, MSI's gamer series of GPU coolers are hands down the quietest on the market - while allowing for a lot of overclocking headroom. I like AMD's cards, but the reference cooler on the 7950 will definitely be louder at load than the MSI gamer 760. I'd say unless you get an incredible deal on a 7950 (i'm not sure what they're going for these days) the MSI 760 may be a better buy.

 

[brandonmatic]

Awesome, thanks everyone. I guess my only question now is whether I wait to see what AMD comes out with or just jump on the NVIDIA bandwagon. I'm running at 1920x1080 so hopefully 2GB VRAM won't be a problem, although that's the part I like least about the 760.

My brother has this(the top model) and it is whisper quiet http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121716

Yes, I've heard that it's very quiet - that along with the PCS+ 7950. But it's currently $70 more than the MSI 760 and the MSI cooler still seems like the quieter option. If it was the same price I might consider it. Also, the whole point of the 7950 is the OC headroom, which I'd guess will make all of the 7950 coolers spin faster and run louder.

While at it, ditch the stock Hyper 212 fan. Get Thermalright TY-140 or sell the Hyper 212 and pick up Thermalright True Spirit 140 that comes with this fan already.

TY-140s are awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aktPSn567YA

Ten GeForce GTX 760 in volume compared (video) - MSI TF 760 crushes everything. Only Inno3D Chill with custom fan profile can beat that.
http://www.computerbase.de/videos/2013-07/zehn-geforce-gtx-760-im-lautstaerkevergleich/

Thanks for that video, that's amazingly quiet. If only MSI slapped that cooler on a 7950. Thanks for the tip on the TY-140. I wonder if that will fit on my 120mm heatsink. I have the Hyper 212+ version for the 1156 socket: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2419

 

[RussianSensation]

Thanks for that video, that's amazingly quiet. If only MSI slapped that cooler on a 7950. Thanks for the tip on the TY-140. I wonder if that will fit on my 120mm heatsink. I have the Hyper 212+ version for the 1156 socket: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2419

TY-140 is a 140mm fan but it has 120mm mounting holes. That's what makes it so great.

Some of the new Corsair fans seem to be nice. You can always create a thread in the cooling section and see what people recommend.

 

[SickBeast]

I've found the Cougar 120mm fans to be dead silent and they pump out over 60CFM at only 1200rpm. You can get 4 packs for $15 which makes them very cheap compared to the Noctuas and stuff and if you look at benchmarks they are equal or better.

 

[RussianSensation]

I've found the Cougar 120mm fans to be dead silent and they pump out over 60CFM at only 1200rpm. You can get 4 packs for $15 which makes them very cheap compared to the Noctuas and stuff and if you look at benchmarks they are equal or better.

Where do you find 4 of these fans for $15?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835553001

 

[tweakboy]

760 GTX and 30 percent fan,,,,,,, no noise,,,,,,, when you game the speed goes up and is loud, therefore we buy headphones... gl

 

[zlejedi]

I'm using MSI 770 gaming and it's impossible to hear it when my Raven 2 3x180 fans are operating at minimum rpm (600-700).

But i didn't have asus, gb and palit models to compare so i don't know how they compare to it.

 

[brandonmatic]

I just wanted to update this thread. After hemming and hawing, I finally decided to get the Sapphire 3L 7950 instead of the MSI 760. I really couldn't ignore the better price/performance at only $220 plus 3 games, and I gambled that the Sapphire Dual-X cooler would be quiet enough.

Long story short, I think I made a reasonably good decision. At idle the fans run at 1380 RPMs and are quiet - my HD, CPU fans, and Hyper 212 fans are all louder.

At higher RPMs the Sapphire cooler is too loud for my tastes. But with a custom fan curve I can keep the fans at 1380 RPM at load with peak temps of 70C. At an OC of 1100/1500, the fans rev up to 2000 RPM and the card peaks at 74C, which I think is fine.

Thanks everyone for the advice! :biggrin:

 

[balane]

Grats on the card. I have a Sapphire 7970 GE card and I made a thread about it being loud when things got hot. Long story short, I replaced the compound with some good stuff (Gelid GC Extreme in my case.) and temps dropped 6-8C, but now I'd say they're 8-10C lower than they were. My GPU never gets even hits 70 during games now and I'm running it at 1150 MHz. My fans run nice and quiet and I'm very pleased with the cooling to noise ratio. Something to think about. Enjoy your excellent choice.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Grats OP.


From what I gathered from the sound tests, the Inno, Gigabyte, and MSI cards seemed to stand out to me.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I just got an MSI 760 today and can report that it's really quiet by my rather particular standards--which is to say that it can't be heard above the fans in my Fractal XL R2 at 5v.

I had a Sapphire 7950 3L. It was pretty quiet at first, but after a couple months of BTC mining the fans developed a chatter/warble (even at idle) that I couldn't put up with.

 

[akugami]

I've got an Intel i7-3770k with a modest overclock. My main monitor resolution is 2560x1440 (Dell U2713HM). My current card is a Radeon 4870 from way back. I couldn't resist that MSI Radeon 7950 for $180 after rebate (currently OOS at the time of this post). At that price, I'm not seeing going to see anything that's better bang for the buck any time soon.

I'm not a stickler for running games at max settings so I'll try some moderate settings and see how it performs. Most of the reviews has this card benchmarked at high settings and/or only at 2560x1600 resolution so I'm expecting a bit better performance at slightly lesser settings. I'll look into picking up a 2nd cheap Radeon 7950 somewhere down the line.

*EDIT*

Looks like I spoke too soon. I had ordered it last night and went to sleep. My credit card company put a hold on the payment and Newegg is making me re-order the video card...which just happens to be out of stock at the moment and no guarantees that the price will hold. Bleah...

 

[Subyman]

I just got an MSI 760 today and can report that it's really quiet by my rather particular standards--which is to say that it can't be heard above the fans in my Fractal XL R2 at 5v.

I had a Sapphire 7950 3L. It was pretty quiet at first, but after a couple months of BTC mining the fans developed a chatter/warble (even at idle) that I couldn't put up with.

Did you clean the fans? Dust imbalances the fans and can cause noise increases.

 

[Mastercommander]

MSI has recently had the quietest setups. Asus had one of the quietest cards early last year, and beyond the Big 3 (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte) other vendors such as Galaxy had become competitive, with their midlevel coolers being neck and neck with MSI, but MSI have upped their game a notch this year

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Did you clean the fans? Dust imbalances the fans and can cause noise increases.

Yes, I cleaned it, reseated the heatsink with a quality TIM. The Sapphire fans are just really cheap--there are many reports of fan problems on Sapphire 7000-series cards.