Would love to comparison of these video cards -6970 & 580 vs. stock

[boed]

Hello,

I still haven't decided between the 580 and 6970. I may put one in each of my computers for different reasons. I currently have a 4870 in each with a nice cooling solution to keep them quiet but I have no experience whatsoever with water cooled solutions. I hear great things but because of price and perhaps being timid I've never tried one. I replace the CPU coolers all the time with no issue but have had a bad experience with the GPU coolers I've tried after the fact as I have had on occasion memory overheat, the paste falls off or doesn't do a decent job of transferring the heat. However the powercolor 4870 units I bought work great and I didn't have to mess with replacing the stock cooler.

MSI is the first non stock cooler I read about -

Gigabyte seems to be working on a fan solution -

Asus seems to be working on a fan solution

Inno3d has a water cooling solution

http://www.inno3d.com/press/press_2010_ ... _24_2.html
I have no experience with Inno3d so I have no idea of the quality of their products - anyone here? Do I just attach what appears to be a fan to the side of my case? Any big concerns or experiences you'd like to share? How much noise do pumps make or are they silent?

Powercolor seems to have a water cooling solution as well

http://www.powercolor.com/global/produc ... cification
Do I need a pump unit for this?


Thanks for helping out a newbie when it comes to water cooling. I'm not looking to overclock - just get a really fast gaming computer that is very quiet.

Does Anandtech or other sites ever do comparisons like this?

 

[digitaldurandal]

For any of the water cooling you'll need a setup with pump reservoir etc already in your system.

What is wrong with the reference coolers? I would be careful with the non-reference designs and read reviews first - some of them do not perform as well as the reference design and many times they can be louder.

 

[boed]

What is wrong with the reference coolers? I would be careful with the non-reference designs and read reviews first - some of them do not perform as well as the reference design and many times they can be louder.

The reference ones are way way too loud. I replace video cards for one of my clients on a regular basis since they market games. Noise isn't important too them but for me it is. The stock coolers are just too loud - might not notice it as much in a crowded office full of cubicles but in the quiet of your home it makes a big difference. My 4870 is significantly quieter than the stock ones. I also have experience with the nividia 480 and ati 5870 stock units. I haven't tried out any 6970 stock or 580 stock units yet but if history is any example the stock ones are significantly louder than the manufacturer alternative coolers. As for cooling - I typically read what SPCR and anandtech post for cooling benchmarks and from what I've seen there are very few manufacturer mod units that don't exceed the cooling functionality in noise and heat transfer of the stock units.

The only times I've seen modified units not cool is well as the reference ones is when the cheap manufacturers you wouldn't normally buy from don't bother to cool the memory properly.

 

[RavenSEAL]

The reference ones are way way too loud. I replace video cards for one of my clients on a regular basis since they market games. Noise isn't important too them but for me it is. The stock coolers are just too loud - might not notice it as much in a crowded office full of cubicles but in the quiet of your home it makes a big difference. My 4870 is significantly quieter than the stock ones. I also have experience with the nividia 480 and ati 5870 stock units. I haven't tried out any 6970 stock or 580 stock units yet but if history is any example the stock ones are significantly louder than the manufacturer alternative coolers. As for cooling - I typically read what SPCR and anandtech post for cooling benchmarks and from what I've seen there are very few manufacturer mod units that don't exceed the cooling functionality in noise and heat transfer of the stock units.

The only times I've seen modified units not cool is well as the reference ones is when the cheap manufacturers you wouldn't normally buy from don't bother to cool the memory properly.

The only reason your fan should be "loud" in your home is because you're playing games, and if you're playing games, i assume the volume is up. Which therefore, you shouldn't hear the fans. I have my case 1 feet away from me, 3 120mm and 2 140mm fans. It's a bit loud, but when i play my games i don't hear a whisper, even with the video card fan in the 60%s.

When i'm doing other things, fan controller does the trick.

 

[calvin0416]

3 big fans and large external exhaust. This one looks like a winner (for heat dissipation)

 

[boed]

The only reason your fan should be "loud" in your home is because you're playing games, and if you're playing games, i assume the volume is up. Which therefore, you shouldn't hear the fans. I have my case 1 feet away from me, 3 120mm and 2 140mm fans. It's a bit loud, but when i play my games i don't hear a whisper, even with the video card fan in the 60%s.

When i'm doing other things, fan controller does the trick.

Some people just notice noise more than others. I really dislike clubs and concerts because the noise is too much for me. Go to an acura forum - lots of people say the road noise in acura's is too loud and the lexus is significatnly better and some people say that it is just fine and quieter than some cars (I'd agree they are quieter than most open top jeeps).

 

[Qbah]

The only reason your fan should be "loud" in your home is because you're playing games, and if you're playing games, i assume the volume is up. Which therefore, you shouldn't hear the fans. I have my case 1 feet away from me, 3 120mm and 2 140mm fans. It's a bit loud, but when i play my games i don't hear a whisper, even with the video card fan in the 60%s.

When i'm doing other things, fan controller does the trick.

So in short... you're deaf? I can hear my Vapor-X when I'm gaming and I can hear it very well. And it's one of the most silent air coolers. I also got sounds/music volume at a decent level. Just accept some people can hear better than you and for them noise is more of an issue.

 

[WelshBloke]

The only reason your fan should be "loud" in your home is because you're playing games, and if you're playing games, i assume the volume is up. Which therefore, you shouldn't hear the fans. I have my case 1 feet away from me, 3 120mm and 2 140mm fans. It's a bit loud, but when i play my games i don't hear a whisper, even with the video card fan in the 60%s.

When i'm doing other things, fan controller does the trick.

You are going to notice a 6970 at 60%, hell you'll notice it in the next room!

 

[boed]

Anyone here using a water cooled solution for their video card?

 

[MentalIlness]

So in short... you're deaf? I can hear my Vapor-X when I'm gaming and I can hear it very well. And it's one of the most silent air coolers. I also got sounds/music volume at a decent level. Just accept some people can hear better than you and for them noise is more of an issue.

Any of the PC's in my sig, when I use them for gaming and fans ramp up, I can't hear them whatsoever.

And my hearing is perfect. Just accept that some people can hear perfect and still not hear their hardware. It happens.

I also would be willing to bet my hearing is better than yours. And noise is not an issue. Don't like noise, go with water.

The 9800GTX in my sig, has a 9800 xTreme triple fan on it. Just like the 580 in the post above. Cant hear it. And I have 4 120mm fans on the cpu "CM Hyper 212" and I cannot hear those either.

Going to be installing a CM V6 on the 1090.

 

[notty22]

My impression from reviewers comments the reference cooler/vapor chamber on the gtx 580/570 is quiet for today's fastest video cards.
They get praise in reviews.

NVIDIA put a lot of effort in to the amount of noise the GTX 580 generates. Where the GTX 480 set new records for a single GPU card, the GTX 580 is quieter than the GTX 285, the GTX 470, and even the Radeon HD 5870. In fact it’s only a dB off of the 5850, a card under most circumstances we’d call the epitome of balance between performance and noise. Graphs alone cannot demonstrate just how much of a difference there is between the GTX 480 and GTX 580 – the GTX 580 is not whisper quiet, but at no point in our testing did it ever get “loud”. It’s a truly remarkable difference; albeit one that comes at the price of pointing out just how lousy the GTX 480 was. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/17

On one hand, Nvidia addressed the noise issue.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-580-gf110-geforce-gtx-480,2781-16.html

 

[Ben90]

While I am one of the ones that don't really care at all about the noise my computer makes, I have been in the OP's spot with other things and its rather annoying when people with different tolerances act like yours don't matter.

The very first thing you need to figure out is what are you trying to accomplish? Could you be suited perfectly by a quieter aftermarket cooler or are you trying to go balls to the walls and make this practically silent.

If you think you could be suited by a very nice air cooler then your going to have to get very comfortable with google to find the best one. AnandTech isn't very well known to do cooler roundups, but there will be a site(s) out there that has the information you need. Ideally it would be in one big giant roundup, but the reality is that you are going to have to cross reference a whole bunch to find the best one.

If you want to be really really silent and go water, then you are going to have to figure out your budget. That Inno3d solution looks pretty trashy, and probably won't perform better than an air cooler if at all, but the Powercolor one looks alright. The thing you are looking here is for a full coverage block. Unfortunately these are moderately expensive and still require quite an investment in other stuff like fittings, tubes, pumps, and radiators.

If you still decide you want to go watercooling, your question might be best asked in the Cases & Cooling forum and you will find a lot of help there. Alternatively, I wouldn't mind helping you out here.

*edit* I noticed you mention you have a nice cooler on your 4870. Which cooler is that, and are you willing to just have a roughly equivalent solution to that regarding noise or do you want to go even quieter?

 

[Aristotelian]

Anyone here using a water cooled solution for their video card?

I think aimogoria (spelling) has at least one 580, not sure if it's under water yet.

I'll be picking up a 580 in the next while. I plan on using it for a bit and seeing how the noise is, before heading down the expensive trail of trying to get the pc as quiet as I can (nexus fans for the case and cpu cooling, unsure how loud the 580 will be relative to the other components).

If you come across any ways of cooling these cards quietly, please update this thread.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you are gaming at 1920x1200 or below, consider Palit GTX570. With 800mhz GPU clock speeds, it will be slightly faster than the HD6970, while saving you $130 compared to the GTX580.
If you are gaming at 2560x1600, then HD6970 > 570.

 

[boed]

I may end up going with this one. I could save a lot of money by getting a 6970 but I use xilisoft to convert TV shows I download on a regular basis and it can run several times faster on the conversion using my GPU to assist in the process.

 

[Arkadrel]

the 580 is ~10-13% faster than the 6970 (stock vs stock).



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-355-_-Product

You can buy a 6950 and flash its bios to a 6970 , 259$ after MIR.
This + flash bios = 10% less than 580 (stock).



Cheapest 580 I could find was 499$ on newegg.
Cheapest 6950->6970 (flashed) I could find was 259$ on newegg.

If you think 10% performance is worth 240$ extra, get the 580.
If not go with the 6950 and flash it to a 6970.

 

[apoppin]

The reference ones are way way too loud. I replace video cards for one of my clients on a regular basis since they market games. Noise isn't important too them but for me it is. The stock coolers are just too loud - might not notice it as much in a crowded office full of cubicles but in the quiet of your home it makes a big difference. My 4870 is significantly quieter than the stock ones. I also have experience with the nividia 480 and ati 5870 stock units. I haven't tried out any 6970 stock or 580 stock units yet but if history is any example the stock ones are significantly louder than the manufacturer alternative coolers. As for cooling - I typically read what SPCR and anandtech post for cooling benchmarks and from what I've seen there are very few manufacturer mod units that don't exceed the cooling functionality in noise and heat transfer of the stock units.

The only times I've seen modified units not cool is well as the reference ones is when the cheap manufacturers you wouldn't normally buy from don't bother to cool the memory properly.

You are making a big assumption here - and you are dead wrong.

GTX 580 reference version is very quiet - on the level of HD 5870 and quieter than the HD 6970.

Even GTX 580 SLI is quieter than a single GTX 480. And HD 6970 CrossFire tends to be noisy; much worse than HD 5870 CF

That said, Galaxy is going to be bringing out their SOC - SuperOverclocked - GTX 580 with the Arctic Cooling Xtreme edition VGA cooling solution. That one is amazing - i have their GTX 480 with it and it is very quiet and fast and overclocks to GTX 580 overclocked speeds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-355-_-Product

You can buy a 6950 and flash its bios to a 6970 , 259$ after MIR.
This + flash bios = 10% less than 580 (stock).

They are running out of the initial batch of flashable cards. Worse, you have to run the fan a bit higher (usually) for a HD 6850>HD 6970 card and if you don't like noise you may have to go for an aftermarket cooler - which defeats the purpose of spending less money.

 

[boed]

Thanks there is a big price difference, however I use xilisoft to convert TV shows from MKV to AVI and it can use the processor in nVidia video cards for a huge difference in conversion time. Unfortunately, they don't offer that option with the ATI video cards. I'm just having a hard time shaking that extra money out of my wallet.

http://www.xilisoft.com/cuda.html

 

[boed]

You are making a big assumption here - and you are dead wrong.

GTX 580 reference version is very quiet - on the level of HD 5870 and quieter than the HD 6970.

LOL - I'm pretty sure you are the one who is making an assumption. Read the reviews on many of the after market mods such as scythe, gelid etc. They cut the noise level nearly in half. While the 580 reference cooler is quieter than previous stock coolers, it is still not as quiet as the improved ones available. Again I'm not comparing stock cooled 580s to stock cooled 6970s as I don't really consider them for people wanting quiet PCs.

 

[boed]

I got the MSI 580 (shown above) but will probably return it if unless I can figure out what the issues are. I am using the latest available driver available on nVidia's web page of Feb 4, 2011 - I'm running Windows x64 enterprise (legit) with all the latest patches. Often in games such as crysis the mouse select will no longer work and you have to tab your way through menus although you can still use the mouse to navigate in the game through the jungle. Crysis and Crysis Warhead, the game will suddenly go to windowed mode and you can't change it back unless you go to video settings in the game and unselect full screen apply and reselect full screen and reply. It will often pop a windowed screen below the task bar so it is a pain in the butt to even get back to the game.

So far FEAR runs very well with all the settings very high. I already have the last patches available for both Crysis games. I'll see what else I can dig up but I'll probably return the card and just get a 6970 since my 4870 plays crysis and other games quite well without any issues. The only game my 4870 has is with the old RTCW game with can be semi-fixed by placing a dll in the game directory.

I can at least say for it, that the FROZR MSI card is very quiet- almost as quiet as my old non stock 4870

 

[Castiel]

I got the MSI 580 (shown above) but will probably return it if unless I can figure out what the issues are. I am using the latest available driver available on nVidia's web page of Feb 4, 2011 - I'm running Windows x64 enterprise (legit) with all the latest patches. Often in games such as crysis the mouse select will no longer work and you have to tab your way through menus although you can still use the mouse to navigate in the game through the jungle. Crysis and Crysis Warhead, the game will suddenly go to windowed mode and you can't change it back unless you go to video settings in the game and unselect full screen apply and reselect full screen and reply. It will often pop a windowed screen below the task bar so it is a pain in the butt to even get back to the game.

So far FEAR runs very well with all the settings very high. I already have the last patches available for both Crysis games. I'll see what else I can dig up but I'll probably return the card and just get a 6970 since my 4870 plays crysis and other games quite well without any issues. The only game my 4870 has is with the old RTCW game with can be semi-fixed by placing a dll in the game directory.

I can at least say for it, that the FROZR MSI card is very quiet- almost as quiet as my old non stock 4870

How are the overclocks?

 

[happy medium]

LOL - I'm pretty sure you are the one who is making an assumption.

Funny, Apoppin is a major website reviewer, and owns 2 of every card your talking about and then some.

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?cat=3

 

[notty22]

I got the MSI 580 (shown above) but will probably return it if unless I can figure out what the issues are. I am using the latest available driver available on nVidia's web page of Feb 4, 2011 - I'm running Windows x64 enterprise (legit) with all the latest patches. Often in games such as crysis the mouse select will no longer work and you have to tab your way through menus although you can still use the mouse to navigate in the game through the jungle. Crysis and Crysis Warhead, the game will suddenly go to windowed mode and you can't change it back unless you go to video settings in the game and unselect full screen apply and reselect full screen and reply. It will often pop a windowed screen below the task bar so it is a pain in the butt to even get back to the game.

So far FEAR runs very well with all the settings very high. I already have the last patches available for both Crysis games. I'll see what else I can dig up but I'll probably return the card and just get a 6970 since my 4870 plays crysis and other games quite well without any issues. The only game my 4870 has is with the old RTCW game with can be semi-fixed by placing a dll in the game directory.

I can at least say for it, that the FROZR MSI card is very quiet- almost as quiet as my old non stock 4870

You use alt-enter to pop in and out of full screen.

That is a common problem with some games and combination's of mouses. I notice it mostly with EA games,MOH . BFBC2

 

[toyota]

I got the MSI 580 (shown above) but will probably return it if unless I can figure out what the issues are. I am using the latest available driver available on nVidia's web page of Feb 4, 2011 - I'm running Windows x64 enterprise (legit) with all the latest patches. Often in games such as crysis the mouse select will no longer work and you have to tab your way through menus although you can still use the mouse to navigate in the game through the jungle. Crysis and Crysis Warhead, the game will suddenly go to windowed mode and you can't change it back unless you go to video settings in the game and unselect full screen apply and reselect full screen and reply. It will often pop a windowed screen below the task bar so it is a pain in the butt to even get back to the game.

So far FEAR runs very well with all the settings very high. I already have the last patches available for both Crysis games. I'll see what else I can dig up but I'll probably return the card and just get a 6970 since my 4870 plays crysis and other games quite well without any issues. The only game my 4870 has is with the old RTCW game with can be semi-fixed by placing a dll in the game directory.

I can at least say for it, that the FROZR MSI card is very quiet- almost as quiet as my old non stock 4870

FEAR? lol, you could run that game maxed on a $75 gpu from 2 years ago.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

All reviews are mostly bull cherry picked items put to the test. Ok now lets see it you do it with a retail one.

I would go for Two GIGABYTE Radeon 6870 1GB w/ Three PVM fans

in CF