Which card is the quietest?

[merin]

Originally posted by: 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.

Everything in my case is also 20-22db except for my gfx card.

I might try getting an 5850 and an Accelero S1 with a 120mm fan later. It seems like the best solution if you want to think forward and got pretty strict requirements for noise.

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: 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.

The HX520 is next to the ground in the P182 And there's hardly anything more quiet. There's the Seasonic S12 (the first model) and an Enermax MODU82+ that are arguably a bit quieter. However both of them were unavailable when I was setting up my computer, unfortunately. I went with the next best thing and I'm happy. There's a distinct hum from the PSU, but it's a low frequency sound which most of my visitors can't hear anyway Well, I can, but I got used to it. There's also a Nexus 430W PSU which is by far the most quiet one available on the market (based on SPCR which I trust completely) - this one's 430W though and it was pushing it for a HD4870 when I was still running it.

As far as temps go, I didn't mind them (I put my legs on the case usually and it kept my feet warm ) - it was within ATi specs so why would I worry my head about it. But the speed-ups due to the high temp and very low basic RPM of the cooler really killed my silence-efforts. The Twin Turbo hardly helped with the noise (as in I could clearly hear it over the Nexus hum). Was thinking about the Accelero with a Nexus but then I got my PC gaming crisis and went with an Xbox Bought a passive HD4350 and I'm happy Maybe I'll get me a HD5870, need to see how quiet it is though (gogo SPCR! ). Btw. the Xbox gives me a headache after an hour... it's like a jet engine, seriously. Pump a stock HD4870 fan to like 80% and you know what an Xbox sounds... Thinking about modding the PoS stock case to a LianLi XB01... But the RROD warranty... decisions, decisions

Originally posted by: SSChevy2001:
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.

I did downclock my HD4870 to 160/225 I was getting flickering when the card was going into UVD or 3D mode. I had to perma-downclock the card to get rid of the flickering - temps went down to 38C idle with a Accelero TT at lowest setting. Couldn't game on it anyway with those settings. I tried many things to keep it low on idle and ramp up at load with no flickering - it just wouldn't work. I got my card on launch day. ATi didn't implement downclocking of RAM for a reason - it just wasn't working right, at least on the first batch of cards. After the aftermarket cooler I could still hear the HD4870 - bought the passive HD4350 to get rid of this problem entirely.

@OP: I'd wait for a comprehensive review by SPCR regarding the noise coming from a HD58xx card and then decide whether to buy it or not.

 

[merin]

Qbah: who is SPCR? a guy from anandtech that does reviews?

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: merin
Qbah: who is SPCR? a guy from anandtech that does reviews?

SPCR is a Web site focusing on the noise parameters of PC components.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: Qbah

Originally posted by: SSChevy2001:
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.

I did downclock my HD4870 to 160/225 I was getting flickering when the card was going into UVD or 3D mode. I had to perma-downclock the card to get rid of the flickering - temps went down to 38C idle with a Accelero TT at lowest setting. Couldn't game on it anyway with those settings. I tried many things to keep it low on idle and ramp up at load with no flickering - it just wouldn't work. I got my card on launch day. ATi didn't implement downclocking of RAM for a reason - it just wasn't working right, at least on the first batch of cards. After the aftermarket cooler I could still hear the HD4870 - bought the passive HD4350 to get rid of this problem entirely.

There's 2 problems with the 4870 and 4890.

1) The memory controller didn't change the memory clocks fast enough, which caused flickering.
2) Powerplay changed settings way to often.

You can't fix problem 1, but you can fix problem 2 by using ATT's game profiles or ATT auto overclocking, which work great.

The stock reference fan with the new idle clocks is very quiet, I can actually hear my other fans over my 4870, but that's expected being it's only running 1000rpm.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: Qbah
The HX520 is next to the ground in the P182 And there's hardly anything more quiet. There's the Seasonic S12 (the first model) and an Enermax MODU82+ that are arguably a bit quieter. However both of them were unavailable when I was setting up my computer, unfortunately. I went with the next best thing and I'm happy. There's a distinct hum from the PSU, but it's a low frequency sound which most of my visitors can't hear anyway Well, I can, but I got used to it. There's also a Nexus 430W PSU which is by far the most quiet one available on the market (based on SPCR which I trust completely) - this one's 430W though and it was pushing it for a HD4870 when I was still running it.

Yeah, I have a TX750 and while its actually pretty quiet, its fan is the 'loudest' in my rig and I don't really care to mod it. That being said, I'm tempted get one of the newer HX units such as the HX750 or 650 (I think the 750 is 80+ silver, and the 650 80+ Bronze, however the 650 is also quieter under the kind of loads I would have it running. Of course there's also the Seasonic X650 which is even more enticing with its hybrid passive cooling and 80+ gold rating.

As far as temps go, I didn't mind them (I put my legs on the case usually and it kept my feet warm ) - it was within ATi specs so why would I worry my head about it. But the speed-ups due to the high temp and very low basic RPM of the cooler really killed my silence-efforts. The Twin Turbo hardly helped with the noise (as in I could clearly hear it over the Nexus hum). Was thinking about the Accelero with a Nexus but then I got my PC gaming crisis and went with an Xbox Bought a passive HD4350 and I'm happy Maybe I'll get me a HD5870, need to see how quiet it is though (gogo SPCR! ). Btw. the Xbox gives me a headache after an hour... it's like a jet engine, seriously. Pump a stock HD4870 fan to like 80% and you know what an Xbox sounds... Thinking about modding the PoS stock case to a LianLi XB01... But the RROD warranty... decisions, decisions

yeah, my comment about temps was mostly just an observation, these cards are designed to be run with normal temps in the 70-90C range, I'm just spoiled because I've practically gotten into a habit of throwing on an Accelero S1 onto all of my cards (and S2 for lower end cards on some of my other builds)

I'm supposed to receive my 5850 sometime today and plan on throwing an S1 on eventually if not right away, not only for noise control but also to help overclock it to 1GHz as I have the ASUS model that allows for voltage control right out of the box. Apparently the S1 needs to be modded a bit to fit these cards due to the double stacked DVI ports getting in the way, although bending or trimming (nail clippers are said to work well) the fins in question is supposed to work which would make the mod incredibly easy.

As far as your Xbox goes, while modding it would void your RROD warranty, getting the system proper cooling to better control noise and temps should prevent RROD from happening in the first place

 

[bigi]

I have a quiet system. Just replaced 8800GT with 5850. Initially, I was going to get zalman vf1000 right away and replace stock cooler from 5850. Now, I am glad I've not done this. I keep 5850 fan @ 20%-25% which makes it silent.

It also depends on the case, simply because each case has different sound characteristics.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

My 5850 is the easily audible in my system at 25%, although it's definitely not loud. I like to stay below 80C with my overclocking and that can't be done with the fan less than 45% under the most stressful conditions (such as OCCT), of which the fan at 45% is pretty annoyingly loud.

I'll probably run out and grab an Accelero S1 from Microcenter tonight.

 

[merin]

My decision is to wait a bit longer before getting a 5850 and mounting an Accelero S1 on it. If I didn't bother mounting a custom cooler I would've gone for the MSI Twin Frozr for the most quiet experience, because nVidia cards don't get as hot as the ATI-cards in general and I love the nVidia drivers.

From what I've read heard and seen (youtube-test) the reference-cooler on the 5850 is very noisy compared to both the Twin Frozr and the Vapor-X. So the only way the 5850 would be a viable option for me was to combine it with an Accelero S1.

The reason behind this is that I'll manage with my 8800GTS a bit longer and I'll get help from a friend whos mounted custom GPU-coolers before.

The reason behind me chosing the 5850 is because I'll be playing Modern Warfare 2, L4D2, Assassins Creed 2 and Mass Effect 2 in the future.

I hope this can be of any help to others wondering about the same issues.

 

[Schmide]

The one you stick a waterblock on.