Which card is the quietest?

[merin]

Originally posted by: yacoub

Originally posted by: merin

Originally posted by: evolucion8
Well, if you aren't a hardcore gamer, instead of investing in a new card which is overpowered for your needs, why don't you buy a VGA cooler? Is cheaper and will work like a champ for your card.

My current card is almost broken, so I need a new one anyway

Define "almost broken". Aside from the fan, which is the only moving part and which would be replaced by swapping in an aftermarket cooling solution, there's nothing that can be "almost broken" unless you have busted capacitors or something.

It's acting wierd in games that demand a lot of graphics and a lot of movement at the same time. For example it crashes after about 30min of L4D on almost maximum settings.

Besides, I'd like a card that can run SC2 very decent when it releases in 2010

 

[BFG10K]

According to these noise figures the 4890 is quieter: http://punk.xbitlabs.com/artic...-gtx275oc_5.html#sect0

But subjectively you may find the opposite.

 

[merin]

bump

 

[RussianSensation]

MSI 4890 Cyclone

 

[merin]

Thanks! That was VERY helpful RussianSensation!

 

[nicnas]

Never buy a graphics card that dumps hot air INSIDE your case (like the MSI N275GTX Twin Frozr OC) if you want a quiet system. My PC is quiet at idle but becomes rather noisy when gaming! That's because the CPU and power supply fans ramp up speed as a result from the hot air coming out of the graphics card. The Sapphire HD4890 Vapor-X only sends half of the hot air outside, the rest remains in your system's case heating your disks, motherborad, CPU, etc.

5850 on the other hand (and the stock cooled GTX260 216 if you prefer nVidia) draw much less power than the GTX275 and 4890, send hot air outside and perform much better (5850) or not much worse (GTX260-216) while staying in the same league in terms of price. That cards (5850 and GTX260-216sp) are realtively quiet too.

5850

The card is very quiet in both idle and load. While it is not noiseless in either, it is the quietest high-performance card available today and I would install it in my personal work system any time.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_5850/29.html

 

[merin]

that was a great review nicnas! thanks!

by the looks of things, it seems like 5850 is surely the card to get right now, even when it comes to noise

How long do you guys think it will take before we see aftermarket-coolers on the 5850? 2 months maybe?

 

[happy medium]

Load noise for all higher end cards.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3656&p=13

 

[merin]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Load noise for all higher end cards.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3656&p=13

All higher end cards with a reference cooler, that is.

Though the link was helpful, it's doesn't say how vapor-x and twin frozr affect the noise levels.

 

[RussianSensation]

XFX 4890 tested at various fan speeds (video)
vs.
XFX 5850 tested at various fan speeds (video)
That's pretty quiet in idle

I still think you should just go for 5850 and get aftermarket cooler after if you need to.

 

[merin]

thanks for the tip RussianSensation

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: merin
I've read a lot of the reviews of the 5850, including the one you linked error8. It's just that noise is a really big deal for me when deciding which card to get.

"not a hardcore gamer" in my case means, not interrested in the most <<graphics heavy games like crysis etc. The only games I know for sure that I'm going to play in the future is SC2 and Diablo3, which both will be DirectX9-games according to Blizzard.
I guess it will come down to weather I want to sacrifice a bit of noise to get a card that performs better. But before making that decision I want to know which of the GTX275 and 4890 cards that is the quietest.

If this is true and you say you game at 1650x1050, the the 5850 is a total waste of money. The gtx260 for 200$ reviewed on the first page here on Anandtech is faster then a gtx275 and is very quiet.
If fact it's more quiet then the 5850.

I'm sure there are many quiet if not totally passive cards that will play to your needs for much less money.

 

[cbn]

Originally posted by: error8
God, to have the money to get a 5850, a card that is faster then GTX 285 and much faster then both 4890 and 275, and to avoid it just because it has the reference cooler, it's beyond my comprehension abilities.

I'll bet in one month the same cooler on the non reference 275 GTX will be available for HD5850 as an aftermarket part.

 

[happy medium]

This guy should just look into a 5770. It will certainly run much cooler,with less power and allmost certainly more quiet than the 5850 or 4890.

For his needs I showed 2 posts above ,running at 1650x1050 with the types of games he's looking to play, those cards are overkill and the 5850 is 100$ more.

 

[merin]

If I end up getting a 5850, is there any producer that is better, and is there even any difference now that they all have the reference cooler?
The technical specs are just the same and they all put DIRT2 bundled with the card. From what I can tell they are excactly the same.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

A lot of people like XFX for their double lifetime warranty (if you register it and sell it, the warranty will pass on to the buyer).

The only other standout would be the ASUS which offers software voltage adjustments (although any reference 5850 should be able to be flashed to the ASUS bios, giving identical functionality), meant for overclocking, but I suppose it might be possible to undervolt and underclock it to reduce temps / fan speeds even further.

 

[merin]

Come to think of it, I'll be playing L4D 2, Modern Warfare 2, Assassins Creed 2 and Mass Effect 2 adding to SC2 and Diablo3.
Another factor that tips the decision in the direction of 5850.

However getting a new graphics card isn't that much of a hurry for me, and I'll stick to my old 8800GTS for a little while longer and saving the money I have atm.
Hopefully there will be aftermarket-coolers for the 5850 by the time I get one by the end of this year.
Any idea how long it usually takes before aftermarket-coolers apears on graphics cards after release?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

stock of the current reference 5800 designs are still selling out quick, I wouldn't expect to see alternate designs for at least a few more weeks

 

[Qbah]

From all the reviews around the Web, the two HD58xx cards are exceptionally cool and silent. Hell, my HD4870 was very quiet (except when it was ramping up the fan for a few seconds every few minutes - annoying as HELL!). Since GDDR5 on the new ATi cards is severely downclocked in idle and most of my heat on the HD4870 was coming from the RAM modules, I'm pretty sure the new Radeons don't have these annoying "once-in-a-while" speedups. The card is what? low-40C at idle - compared to 80C for the HD4870 At least none of the reviewers mention it.

However, since your GTS is still enough for you, no reason for upgrading Though sometimes people don't know what they're missing until they see the difference...

Just for a reference for what I consider quiet - I'm running a P182 with Nexus fans on low and a TRUE with Nexus on low on my CPU And a passive HD4350. Those are the quietest fans you can get. Still a bit annoyed by the low hum

EDIT: The HD4870 was actually doing a very irregular speedups and slowdowns after an hour or two of idle. It's like playing with the gas pedal in your car, just a bit though (like going 900->1200RPM and back). That sound annoyed me to no end. Exchanged to a Twin-Turbo and it was better, but the fans were still noticeably louder than the Nexus ones - and they were running on the lowest settings already...

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Hey Qbah, what about your powersupply? you can regulate the fans inside the case so much only to have your quiet be ruined by a relatively loud PSU unit

I also find it almost bizarre to read about what is considered to be normal temps for GPUs as my 4850 will idle at 30C and max in the low to mid 40Cs while gaming and topping out at 49C only through OCCT when stress testing. I suppose the Accelero S1 with a 120mm fan will be similarly successful on my 5850 once it gets here.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: Qbah
Since GDDR5 on the new ATi cards is severely downclocked in idle and most of my heat on the HD4870 was coming from the RAM modules, I'm pretty sure the new Radeons don't have these annoying "once-in-a-while" speedups. The card is what? low-40C at idle - compared to 80C for the HD4870 At least none of the reviewers mention it.

The GDDR5 on the 4870 and 4890 downclocks just fine. Heck even the voltage can be dropped in the 0.95v to match the 5800 series.

Currently my 4870 idles at 157/200 mhz @ 0.95v with low 40C temp.

@OP

Stay with your 8800GTS for now. Either wait for the refresh or some nice deals 5850 around black friday / cyber monday.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I thought the 4800s became unstable at too low of a clockrate

 

[HurleyBird]

Originally posted by: merin
"not a hardcore gamer" in my case means, not interrested in the most graphics heavy games like crysis etc. The only games I know for sure that I'm going to play in the future is SC2 and Diablo3, which both will be DirectX9-games according to Blizzard.

That's not entirely correct. Both games will have a DX-9 mode, but Blizzard has announced that Diablo 3 will support DX 10.1 (something only the ATI cards have ATM), and it's probably safe to assume SC2 will also have a DX 10.1 mode.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
I thought the 4800s became unstable at too low of a clockrate

Don't have that problem at all.

Even video encoding works great at those clocks.
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/8518/encodingps.jpg

Here's with ATT artifact tester.
http://img237.imageshack.us/im...136/artifacttester.jpg

 

[Piano Man]

I have the ASUS EAH 5850, and let me tell you, I'm not happy with the noise, at all. In fact, I'm probably going to watercooling because of this damn card. I have a huge case with great airflow, and this sucker sings out over all of it. Sure, when the fans at 20% its fine, but once the gaming starts, or when I OC, the fan is louder than anything else around 35%. I try to keep every thing at 20-22db on my system, and this thing is just way to noisy.