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Which quiet graphics card?

Floob

Floob

Floob

Associate
Joined
3 Jan 2008
Posts
115
Hi,

I currently have a PC build that is very quiet/silent which is really useful if I need to leave it on.

The graphics card is a GeForce GTX 750 Ti. Its the fanless one:
Palit Geforce GTX 750 Ti Kalmx Silent 2GB GDDR5 Card, NE5X75T00941-1073H

The motherboard used is a GA-Z97X-UD3H LGA1150 ATX Motherboard
http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4960#ov

I'm finding that some games seem to struggle a bit with this card, and the NVIDIA control panel that automatically sets the video options on your games to be optimal for the card can struggle with some settings.
The games that arent ideal include the new DOOM and No Mans Sky.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a more powerful graphics card that wouldnt make much difference to the noise from the PC? (Which is currently borderline non-existent).

Thanks for any pointers.
 
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What is your budget? Also virtually all decent after market coolers can be kept quiet with a custom fan curve :) With MSI Afterburner you could set a fan speed % you want in the fan curve then use the temp target slider to stop it getting too warm. This is what I use on my 1060 and 1070 to keep them quiet while still maintaining high boost clocks under full load.
 
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Budget in the region of £350, although I'd prefer something about £250.
I guess thats fairly low end, but is it enough to get modern games running faster?

I'm not into tinkering too much, so ideally would like to take the card I have out, and the new one in.
This card seems as though it could well be quiet - as the fans only run when over 50c?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pali...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-03k-pl.html

Newbie question - are all 1060 card quiet like that, or is that specific to the Palit?
I really cant understand how there are so many different versions of the 1060.

Although maybe thats not a suitable card for me at all?
 
I will agree with Lokken.
At £300, Fury Nitro is a bargain and quiet card.
After that GTX1060 has many aftermarket models that are quiet.

Btw even GTX1080 can be found that is quiet (if you do not overclock). If you want more silence, maybe watercool your system?

Used cards there are quite a few....

Here is a nice chart stating how loud a lot of cards are

http://www.hardware-mag.de/artikel/grafikkarten/pascal_kfa2_geforce_gtx_1070_exoc/15/

is near the bottom of the screen
 
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I would go for

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-30b-ea.html

If you can find it in stock. It has a 0db mode up until 60c, and is very quiet even at like 50% fan speed.


The Palit model is also great from what I've read, just the short 2 year warranty and RMA/customer support put me off it.


I would stay away from most 'mini' cards, as they use cheap cooling solutions which can result in thermal throttling (or requiring the fan to spin a lot faster and therefore louder to cool themselves).
 
Floob said:
Thanks for the feedback. The Fury is tempting, but on this chart it seems slower than the 1060?

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
Or is the chart dated?

The 1060 also seems to be £250, or at least one of the variants! Is there a sensible method to work out which 1060 is best? Or is it a case of reading all the features of all the 1060 variants?
Click to expand...

Yeah that chart is very wrong.

However the Fury will not be anywhere near as quiet as I think you're expecting. A 1060 will be much quieter because it produces far far less heat.

I have a Palit 1070 super jetstream and it's completely silent to me, and I'm very picky about loudness of components as well.
 
Thanks, I think I'm pretty much sold on a 1060.
Do they all have the same form factor? Any reason to think it would have issues here?


Just got to work out if its the EVGA or Palit to go for.
 
AllBodies said:
Yeah that chart is very wrong.

However the Fury will not be anywhere near as quiet as I think you're expecting. A 1060 will be much quieter because it produces far far less heat.

I have a Palit 1070 super jetstream and it's completely silent to me, and I'm very picky about loudness of components as well.
Click to expand...

I think you underestimate the Fury. I have the Tri X. You can't even hear the fans up to 50% speed and running at those speeds temps in games will barely touch 50c. By far the quietest card I have ever owned. In fact the quietest I have ever heard. And the best cooler I have seen on a gpu. (Nitro is basically same thing).

I'd say for £50 it's worth it over a 1060. Is around 15/20% faster in dx11 and will annihilate the 1060 in dx12/vulkan.
 
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Lokken86 said:
I think you underestimate the Fury. I have the Tri X. You can't even hear the fans up to 50% speed and running at those speeds temps in games will barely touch 50c. By far the quietest card I have ever owned. In fact the quietest I have ever heard. And the best cooler I have seen on a gpu. (Nitro is basically same thing).

I'd say for £50 it's worth it over a 1060. Is around 15/20% faster in dx11 and will annihilate the 1060 in dx12/vulkan.
Click to expand...

Yea, it's just a matter of price and availability. Also not sure if the 4GB will become a net hindrance over time, even with the benefits from DX12/Vulcan it would maybe have over the 1060. Only time will tell.



@Floob

Below is a video review of the EVGA card in question:



If you're playing at 1080p, the 1060 is more than adequate for every game I can think of. Unfortunately you can't SLI them, so that could scupper any chances of a mid-life upgrade in a few years.


The very quietiest 1060 (when under load) is probably:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-32k-ms.html


But it's way way too expensive for a 1060 imo, and is starting to approach the price range of faster cards.
 
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@southernorth Thanks for the video, it looks pretty good and I like that the EVGA isnt that long. It also seems to have a better brand name than Palit, lots of posts seem to value that brand.

On the basis that its not going to be measurably louder than the Palit I think I'll go for it.

Would you think the SC model is worth the extra cash? I think that refers to the clock speed - would the SC be noisier?
I dont really mind the card making noise when playing games, but wouldnt want it to be audible through the case if I'm just browsing the web etc..
 
Thanks for the view on the SC value.
My priority is 1080p gaming and very low noise - so perhaps the standard EVGA 1060 would be quieter. I like the way the Palit says it wont spin fans until 50c, but I like the reviews of the EVGA.
Perhaps this firmware update would allow me to safely reduce the fan speed/volume:
http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-1060-BIOS-Update-Single-Fan-Models-Only-m2520978.aspx

If that could easily get it comparable to the low volume of the Palit, it sounds like I should get it.
 
For a start you won't find anything that gets close to being as quiet as your current card.

Instead of focussing on fan-less idle (which is good, dont get me wrong) look for the quietest cooler under load as this is when things get loud and annoying, take with a pinch of salt regular opinions and reviewers who "can hardly hear" a card with fans at 50% as they obviously have no idea what silent means.

I've had a few totally passive set ups now, and to get true GPU silence I had to move to water cooled, whilst my system was passive at idle and even under moderate load, when gaming the GPU just couldn't hack it and became annoying.

I would be looking at another Palit card I think.
 
Lokken86 said:
The SC would absolutely not be worth the extra cash imo. It is not worth £260. You are paying for an overclock you can do yourself basically.



^^ This price is a joke.
Click to expand...

You aren't just paying for the overclock mate. The cooling solution is worlds apart. The SC version uses copper pipes and heat fins, as opposed to the very very basic solution found in the non-SC version. Having used both versions, the cheaper one was thermal throttling for me (often reaching 85c) whereas the SC barely reaches 60c when under load.

It is entirely untrue that the only differences are the overclock.
 
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