• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

£300 - Quiet GPU

Stylosa

Stylosa

Stylosa

Associate
Joined
16 Mar 2011
Posts
2
Alrighty chaps, looking for some advice.

I've got £300 to spend on a new card, but, I need the card to run as quiet as possible. I produce various videos and having a loud GPU isnt really an option. So for £300 (no more) what cards should I be looking at? I'm guessing something like a 670 will do the job? As to which one produces the least noise, I have no idea!
 
psychodil said:
Its not for gaming guys.
Surely you want a card with better compute performance to accelerate your programs?
Click to expand...
I've never understood the difference between a 'production' gpu and a standard gpu which is good for gaming and other programs, they always seem to be ridiculously expensive.

Back in the day when I was rendering an animation on my macbook with integrated graphics it took about 4 hours to do a super low res blank character movement. I bought my computer and I had 4850CF and it took seconds. :D

I'd just go 670 to. and definitely windforce gigabyte, what my 6970 is and it's super quiet.
 
psychodil said:
Its not for gaming guys.
Surely you want a card with better compute performance to accelerate your programs?
Click to expand...

Oh you mis-understand me! It's most definitely for gaming, we are talking YouTube gaming video production here, so actual in game performance is far more appealing than any performance gains to be had encoding/editing.

So we are saying the 670 windforce from gigabyte is looking like the best option?
 
Stylosa said:
Oh you mis-understand me! It's most definitely for gaming, we are talking YouTube gaming video production here, so actual in game performance is far more appealing than any performance gains to be had encoding/editing.

So we are saying the 670 windforce from gigabyte is looking like the best option?
Click to expand...

Oh in that case then the 670 is probably you're best bet. It will be hard to get a wind force for £300 though.
 
Getting silence is difficult - managed very quiet after I installed a Zalman cooler on an Asus 470 ( which was running nice and cool).

Did try a twin fan 480 and standard fan 580 but both were way too noisy for me.

Settled on an Asus 7950 Top (if rumours are to be believed , it may be due a price drop in the near future ) which although not silent when gaming is never intrusive (or it's not so for me) and when not gaming is nice and quiet.

You do need good airflow through the case for it to function at its best.

Am deliberating at the moment wether to apply some MX4 paste as that may shave a few degrees - further if I read up correctly the Asus is a standard pcb so if I really want to go to town I could go for a 'better' cooler.

Asus do the same cooler on a 670 but it is fair bit over your budget:(

Got to say tho that overall you would probably be better served by water-cooling whatever gpu you decide upon. - Should be very cool and quiet:D
 
Guys, I must have missed something there...

Stylosa said:
So for £300 (no more) what cards should I be looking at?
Click to expand...

...Oh that's right, it wasn't me who missed it:o, a quiet gpu that costs no more than £300.

There are zero custom cooled 670's for £300 or less(not just@OcUK either).

If there were, then there would have been different suggestions from me-price/performance ratio wise.

A stock 670 is surprisingly very quiet too, but is totally let down by such an annoying noise that comes from it that would end up having an accident with a hammer if I had one.:(


'Since everybody experiences noise differently, and a quiet, high-pitched sound can be harder to tolerate than a loud, low hum, we have provided videos including the noise of every card under full load. The relative loudness of the audio has been preserved, so the videos can be used to compare the cards directly.'

b89957f59010711728d94939ab012b56.jpg







dave_beast said:
This, the TF cooling is even quiet at 100%
Click to expand...

You been smoking too much dave?:D

Shudder to think of the noise coming out that @1150/1500 @ 1.25v.:eek:
:)


http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,review-32465-12.html

@Op, play the DCU II first, then play another at the same time, you'll find out what's the quietest easy enough.

The DCU II costs £40 more than the HIS on offer here, but if it's the utmost 'silence' your looking for:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Arctic Accelero Xtreme 7970/7950 VGA Cooler £49.99
Total : £54.98 (includes shipping : £4.16).



Nothing, touches that cooler(on air) for low noise levels as it connects straight to the gpu header, I know, I've got two of them, when running in CrossFire, they are quieter in gaming than a single WF(that got DSR'd).

Don't get me wrong though, the WF isn't loud when gaming at all, just mine can't be heard, it actually surprised me tbph, it is a good cooler too.

518ad5662886b7252ff699f1b46192f0.jpg


Both AC and WF@idle can't be heard at all though, even with all my exhausts switched off and just the 920 on silent.

If you don't want to go custom cooling, then DCUII or WF would wing it for me after seeing those vids/personal experience.

For the price, you can't go wrong as with anything up to 50% oc headroom available over stock, is rubbing shoulders with the 670, while costing a lot less.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom