looking for SILENT gfx card for gaming, please help.

[An Exception]

I'm not sure where youre getting this info from, fans echoing off each other etc...

It's just a scientific fact, although I over estimated as it's only the second noise source of the same db level that adds 3db, subsequent noise sources begin to add less and less db's to the overall noise level.
Found a calculator for you.
LINK

 

[An Exception]

Watercooling or passive (if you can find one) I feel might be the OP's only realistic options. With respect I think he is obviously sensitive to noise, which there is nothing wrong with that, but it might be risky getting yet another card only to be in the same position again. What I find quiet might be considerably too loud for someone else.

The 460's, 560's and 570's are supposed to be quiet cards.

Sometimes you get a turd of a card that has high leakage or crappy application of thermal paste.
I'm very sensitive to noise, and have gone to extreme lengths to minimise it in my setups.

Watercooling is far too expensive considering the Op just needs to get the right card.


Edit:

Also could be a lack of thermal goo under the heat-spreader of the chip, as Nvidia have had issues with this, especially on new chips.

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/07/23/how-peek-chip-guts-without-killing-them/

Yes I know it's semiaccurate...

 

[95thrifles]

Yes I know it's semiaccurate...

Should read "I'm" not "it's"

That link you provided is a massive oversimplification of the way sound waves interact with each other, you cannot simply say 2 20db sounds = 40db, its just plain wrong, equally where it refers to 2 sounds from the same source adding 3 db is equally wrong. It depends on frequency, phase and relative positioning as to how they interact.

For example, if you buy 2 new speakers and want to run them in, then the best advice is to wire them up out of phase with each other, sit them facing each other and slowly increase the sound level (over a period of hours and days not simply seconds/minutes) this works particuarly well because by both being the same source and playing the same sample, but being directly out of phase with each other they actually cancel each other out, so in this instance 20db + 20db = 0

To explain any further is far to complex to get into on a forum discussion like this but the point stands

 

[An Exception]

Should read "I'm" not "it's"

That link you provided is a massive oversimplification of the way sound waves interact with each other, you cannot simply say 2 20db sounds = 40db, its just plain wrong, equally where it refers to 2 sounds from the same source adding 3 db is equally wrong. It depends on frequency, phase and relative positioning as to how they interact.

Yeh errr, where did it say that?

equally where it refers to 2 sounds from the same source adding 3 db is equally wrong. It depends on frequency, phase and relative positioning as to how they interact.

Have a source?

 

[Things change I've changed]

ummmmm, the card seems to be crashing out of games when it hits 80c which is odd, I tried running furmark and it didn't even last 2 minutes, I know 80c is fairly high but it should handle that fine, it's well within the temp guidelines, I used to run my GTX460 above that for hours so now I'm thinking that either these cards are just clocked too high or I've got a faulty card.

EDIT -

Unless it's PSU related?, I have a 620w Enermax, shouldn't of thought that would be a problem.

 

[An Exception]

Nope, I doubt it's PSU related, the cards duff imo.
I'd send it back under the distance selling reg's before the time runs out, else you will have to go through the RMA process, and they 'might' find the card is ok and just send it back to you.

 

[ghutchison14078]

KFA2 GTX 480 Anarchy edition.

Can be had for around £300 if you shop around.

I have this card and with the fan set at 30% in Afterburner it is properly silent and NEVER goes above 60degrees during gaming

 

[liquidex]

Your previous Palit 460 from reading around wasn't the quietest of models anyway. Maybe a MSI 460 or as others have said a 6870?

Would say your case is fine, the P18x series are probably still one of the quietest cases around. Even managed to run my old 4870 passive in mine Replacing it for a case with the front being completely mesh would just be worse. The huge amount of open vents means it would be so easy to hear everything that is moving inside the case.

Maybe have a look round the SPCR forums for recommendations of quiet cards as everything there is basically geared up for low noise.

 

[Things change I've changed]

Nope, I doubt it's PSU related, the cards duff imo.
I'd send it back under the distance selling reg's before the time runs out, else you will have to go through the RMA process, and they 'might' find the card is ok and just send it back to you.

Have already RMA'd the card for a refund under the DSR reg's, was just having a play around before sending it back on Monday, I was thinking if I could remedy the problem I'd cancel the RMA but no such luck.

I think I know what the problem is now, the card is just clocked to high, so could be a poor chip, they are supposed to be cherry picked though, I down clocked the card to 900MHz on the core and it can handle anything at that clock, even at 90c and over, it won't crash out no matter what I throw at it, But as soon as I up it to the factory o/c it crashes out at 80c plus.

With regards to purchasing another card I'm actually very temped to grab a reference GTX570, I think the P-180 case works well with GFX cards that expels the heat from the rear as front 120mm fan intakes air exactly in line with the GFX card pulling air into the rear intake of the card, at they very least it will be an interesting experiment as the reff GTX570 is supposed to be louder that the Gigabyte GTX560Ti SOC.

 

[An Exception]

Have already RMA'd the card for a refund under the DSR reg's, was just having a play around before sending it back on Monday, I was thinking if I could remedy the problem I'd cancel the RMA but no such luck.

I think I know what the problem is now, the card is just clocked to high, so could be a poor chip, they are supposed to be cherry picked though, I down clocked the card to 900MHz on the core and it can handle anything at that clock, even at 90c and over, it won't crash out no matter what I throw at it, But as soon as I up it to the factory o/c it crashes out at 80c plus.

With regards to purchasing another card I'm actually very temped to grab a reference GTX570, I think the P-180 case works well with GFX cards that expels the heat from the rear as front 120mm fan intakes air exactly in line with the GFX card pulling air into the rear intake of the card, at they very least it will be an interesting experiment as the reff GTX570 is supposed to be louder that the Gigabyte GTX560Ti SOC.

I'm beginning to doubt that partners actually cherry pick the chips, IMO they just use better circuitry that supplies smoother and faster current, to achieve higher clocks.
Some partners don't actually do anything but up the clock's and voltage and call it an 'overclocked edition'.

What Res are you gaming at?

Any other card like a 560 or 570 should be quiet, but as previously stated the XFX 6870 is the quietest by far, so much so you wouldn't benefit from watercooling the GPU.

I'v recently purchased 2 460's, one for the GF, an EVGA 768mb version (with centre fan), and a twin fan 1gb gigabyte version for me, to replace my watercooled 470.
I game at 2560x1600, but I only play BO's.
I tested out my GF's 768mb 460 in Black OP's @ 2560x1600 and surprisingly it ran flawlessly even with 768mb vram, and also it ran silently, and my case is full of sound insulation, and the fans are only spinning fast enough, that when I turn my PC on they actually start rotating.

Hence why I'm swapping out my OC'd 470, it's just not needed, and I could do without the heat-dump.

 

[Bane]

With regards to purchasing another card I'm actually very temped to grab a reference GTX570, I think the P-180 case works well with GFX cards that expels the heat from the rear as front 120mm fan intakes air exactly in line with the GFX card pulling air into the rear intake of the card, at they very least it will be an interesting experiment as the reff GTX570 is supposed to be louder that the Gigabyte GTX560Ti SOC.

Will be interesting to know if you find a suitable a card, as I too would like a quiet graphics card - especially as mine has cap/coil buzzing noise.

Out of interest what case fans do you have, and speed running at? I've got two Noctura P12 at 900rpm that is meant to be 12.6 dB and that’s a constant very noticeable noise to me.

 

[Things change I've changed]

What Res are you gaming at?

1920x1200

Will be interesting to know if you find a suitable a card, as I too would like a quiet graphics card - especially as mine has cap/coil buzzing noise.

Out of interest what case fans do you have, and speed running at? I've got two Noctura P12 at 900rpm that is meant to be 12.6 dB and that’s a constant very noticeable noise to me.

That's the thing, my actual system is not exactly silent, I have the two 120mm Antec fans that came with the case, front and rear set to medium and an 120mm Akasa amber on the top set to 50%, plus my CPU is using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 cooler set to full, so my system although not loud is most definitely not silent, the thing is my system just 'hums', you can't actually hear any fan motor whine if you know what I mean, your mainly just hearing the air being pushed through the vents which I don't mind too much, you can have a low db fan that can be an annoying pitch even though it's at a low volume, and then you can have louder fans at a more acceptable pitch.

It's really hard finding that right type of noise that is acceptable becuase it's not just down to db's.

Anyway while I'm waiting for my RMA on the GTX560Ti I think I'm going to purchase the MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone for now and then I'll grab a GTX570 once I get my refund but I'll keep the thread updated.

 

[TheGedi]

Will be interesting to know if you find a suitable a card, as I too would like a quiet graphics card - especially as mine has cap/coil buzzing noise.

Out of interest what case fans do you have, and speed running at? I've got two Noctura P12 at 900rpm that is meant to be 12.6 dB and that’s a constant very noticeable noise to me.

maybe because they are optimized for CPU coolers instead of Cases?

 

[An Exception]

1920x1200



That's the thing, my actual system is not exactly silent, I have the two 120mm Antec fans that came with the case, front and rear set to medium and an 120mm Akasa amber on the top set to 50%, plus my CPU is using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 cooler set to full, so my system although not loud is most definitely not silent, the thing is my system just 'hums', you can't actually hear any fan motor whine if you know what I mean, your mainly just hearing the air being pushed through the vents which I don't mind too much, you can have a low db fan that can be an annoying pitch even though it's at a low volume, and then you can have louder fans at a more acceptable pitch.

It's really hard finding that right type of noise that is acceptable becuase it's not just down to db's.

Anyway while I'm waiting for my RMA on the GTX560Ti I think I'm going to purchase the MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone for now and then I'll grab a GTX570 once I get my refund but I'll keep the thread updated.

Why not get the xfx 6870 and then not have to sell or upgrade/lose more money?
6870 should be fine @ 1920

 

[Spudgun]

As a fellow fan of silent computing I underatand your issue, but I think that you might be asking the impossible here with current technology. 1080p graphics require quite a bit of 'horespower' and that equals a lot of volts/heat.

Yes, there are significant differences between the decibel outputs of various cards (and unfortunately, the reviews contradict each other as to which cards are quiet: e.g. many say that the card that you bought is very quiet, but your experience says differently), but if you want top notch graphics the only real way that you will get this without the noise is to go down the watercooling route and even that isn't 100% silent due to pump noise and fans to keep radiators cool

 

[Things change I've changed]

Why not get the xfx 6870 and then not have to sell or upgrade/lose more money?
6870 should be fine @ 1920

Truth is I'm just not an ATI fan, nothing against the hardware, I play a lot of old games and make great use of the nvidia profiles and the way the profiles are done in the ati software are not to my liking.

As a fellow fan of silent computing I underatand your issue, but I think that you might be asking the impossible here with current technology. 1080p graphics require quite a bit of 'horespower' and that equals a lot of volts/heat.

Yes, there are significant differences between the decibel outputs of various cards (and unfortunately, the reviews contradict each other as to which cards are quiet: e.g. many say that the card that you bought is very quiet, but your experience says differently), but if you want top notch graphics the only real way that you will get this without the noise is to go down the watercooling route and even that isn't 100% silent due to pump noise and fans to keep radiators cool

Well In truth I'm not looking for something completely silent, just as long as it's no louder than my actual system, which as I've already explained is not silent so it shouldn't be to hard a feat.

 

[liquidex]

Out of interest what case fans do you have, and speed running at? I've got two Noctura P12 at 900rpm that is meant to be 12.6 dB and that’s a constant very noticeable noise to me.

Never had Noctuas before as from reviews they don't seem to justify their prices but I just purchased a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm and it is insane!

Running it ~990rpm and it is quieter to me than S-Flexes and Apaches at 800rpm! Even at max it is comparable to my S-Flex at 1200rpm.

 

[Bane]

Anyway while I'm waiting for my RMA on the GTX560Ti I think I'm going to purchase the MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone for now and then I'll grab a GTX570 once I get my refund but I'll keep the thread updated.

Not add any uncertainty, but when the 460's came out some people on here switched from the MSI Cyclone to a Gigabyte with the 2 fans. With the Gigabyte being classed as the quietest out of the two, but that could all be down to personal perception.

maybe because they are optimized for CPU coolers instead of Cases?

Probably correct. I wasn't aware they were CPU specialised fans when I got them a few years back. But clearly mentions it in blurb on link.

Never had Noctuas before as from reviews they don't seem to justify their prices but I just purchased a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm and it is insane!

Running it ~990rpm and it is quieter to me than S-Flexes and Apaches at 800rpm! Even at max it is comparable to my S-Flex at 1200rpm.

Just as well I didn't get the Apaches when on a daily offer.

 

[Things change I've changed]

Well I just grabbed this from b-grade,



A Palit GTX570 for only £239.99 which I thought was a pretty good price.

One question though, as you can see it says it comes with a 2 year warranty which I've screen capped just in case, I read somewhere on here before that if it comes with the full warranty it's a new card, is that true?

Anyway looking forward to trying this out on Thursday, will be interesting to see how this compares with the GTX 560Ti-SOC.

 

[Bane]

It's a gamble, but you might get a bargain.

I'm reluctant to use B grade as never know if it's been returned because it was too large or hot running for first time buyer (so would be a bargain). Or did it suffer from squealing noise when under load (I would prefer a quiet card over small £ saving).