Advice on making graphics cards quieter and cooling solutions

[Ben97]

There may not be many options left, but I'll say what I've tried.

As I'm very sensitive to noise, i overclock my GPU (MSI Radeon RX 6500 XT MECH 2X 4GB to be at the same rpm from warm to close to maximum operating temperature, but always make sure that it still remains at suitable temperatures when it is working hard. This does mean that even in basic games it is loud, but i can learn to filter it out. However, I keep having to change the RPM myself as it keeps making strange idling noises and it just doesn't stay the same. It seems to be related to the temperature of the card as to weather it makes this sound at say 48% or much higher. It only seems to consistently stop if i fix the rpm at 60% or higher or under 35%. But the software doesn't let me go under 30%. The AMD software is bad anyway as it doesn't remember your custom profiles if you set more than one. I used to game on Linux and moved to Windows as I thought it would be much better in terms of graphics overclocking programs but it seems worse from my experience.

To allow me to run my GPU speed as low as possible, I've added a 140mm case fan at the top and 120mm fan at the rear and due the the cases design, the GPU is at the bottom, right above the air intake.

At this stage, if the card won't make a consistent noise, I want to try and get it to run at a lower RPM while keeping it at a safe temperature. So I want to work out what sort of modifications I could do to my case. Is there any water cooling methods that can be done? Such as a radiator over the air.

This is my PC case. There will be a decent amount of room under the GPU, especially if i move the SSDs elsewhere. Just need to work out if any cooling solution to reduce the GPU fan speed will be possible.

P1000849.JPG

drive.google.com

 

[drakulton]

You could try some of these inline low noise adaptors to slow you GPU fans down, or get an aftermarket GPU cooler like the Rajintek Morpheus II and some really quiet fans.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/?query=low%20noise%20adaptors

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/raij...nvidia-rtx-and-radeon-rx-black-hs-03g-rt.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nf-a12x25-ls-pwm-fan-120mm-fg-07m-nc.html

 

[Ben97]

Would the radiator in the 2nd link be able to mount in a single spare slot under my GPU? I do have one slot available. I think I would spend up to £100 if I could get it so that I only have to run the GPU fans at around 30%, and I would expect noctua fans to be quiet.

I just need to understand what this product is. Would you be able to mount one or two of those noctua fans to it?

Jonsbo UMX3 Silver/No window ITX case

Order Jonsbo UMX3 Silver/No window ITX case now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

This is my case if it is helpful.

does this radiator with fans effectively result in blowing cooler air towards the GPU, as I can't figure a way of actually attatching it to the GPU I have. (or maybe i just can't understand how)

If this may actually be compatible with my card, and i can make space in my case, then the bottom two links may be a good option. If it is possible to remove and replace the GPU fans, i'm sure I will be very happy because the noise from these one is awful!

 

[drakulton]

Would the radiator in the 2nd link be able to mount in a single spare slot under my GPU? I do have one slot available. I think I would spend up to £100 if I could get it so that I only have to run the GPU fans at around 30%, and I would expect noctua fans to be quiet.

I just need to understand what this product is. Would you be able to mount one or two of those noctua fans to it?

Jonsbo UMX3 Silver/No window ITX case

Order Jonsbo UMX3 Silver/No window ITX case now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

This is my case if it is helpful.

does this radiator with fans effectively result in blowing cooler air towards the GPU, as I can't figure a way of actually attatching it to the GPU I have. (or maybe i just can't understand how)

If this may actually be compatible with my card, and i can make space in my case, then the bottom two links may be a good option. If it is possible to remove and replace the GPU fans, i'm sure I will be very happy because the noise from these one is awful!

More info on the cooler https://www.raijintek.com/en/products_detail.php?ProductID=137 You can mount a couple of fans to it, which will blow air through the cooler and onto heatsinks fitted to the warmer components of the card. Heatsinks are supplied in the kit. You could even add the low noise adaptors to the fans to make them run even slower.

 

[Ben97]

More info on the cooler https://www.raijintek.com/en/products_detail.php?ProductID=137 You can mount a couple of fans to it, which will blow air through the cooler and onto heatsinks fitted to the warmer components of the card. Heatsinks are supplied in the kit. You could even add the low noise adaptors to the fans to make them run even slower.

Good to learn that this involves removing the current fans altogether.

Even at the moment, it isn't really temperature i'm worried about, it is noise, so if getting this heatsink can already reduce a lot of heat, then using a low power noctua fan i would imagine would be incredibly quiet. The graphics card (and my previous one) were both things that somewhat spoiled my attempt of building a quiet PC. I'm very happy with my bequiet case fans and CPU cooler.

My main concerns are the size of my graphics card being around 170mm rather than 250mm, but I assume this basically means I would only realistically need one fan? I think I would be able to make space for the cooler if i move my SSDs and remove the trays. On the pictures from the youtube video, it looks like it takes up the space of around 4 covers at the back of the case.

P1000842.JPG

drive.google.com

In my case (no pun intended), I only really have space for the heatsink, or that with one fan slightly off towards the centre (just about). You can see that the fan will likely rub against the power cable IEC input as the PSU is not in the normal place.

But as the air intake for the case is right under the heatsink (and i have two high speed bequiet fans as extractors, the intake will probably do a pretty good job if it is that close to it. I'm just hoping that it will be enough, or one quiet slim fan in the centre.

Any other suggestions?


Thanks.

 

[drakulton]

Good to learn that this involves removing the current fans altogether.

Even at the moment, it isn't really temperature i'm worried about, it is noise, so if getting this heatsink can already reduce a lot of heat, then using a low power noctua fan i would imagine would be incredibly quiet. The graphics card (and my previous one) were both things that somewhat spoiled my attempt of building a quiet PC. I'm very happy with my bequiet case fans and CPU cooler.

My main concerns are the size of my graphics card being around 170mm rather than 250mm, but I assume this basically means I would only realistically need one fan? I think I would be able to make space for the cooler if i move my SSDs and remove the trays. On the pictures from the youtube video, it looks like it takes up the space of around 4 covers at the back of the case.

P1000842.JPG

drive.google.com

In my case (no pun intended), I only really have space for the heatsink, or that with one fan slightly off towards the centre (just about). You can see that the fan will likely rub against the power cable IEC input as the PSU is not in the normal place.

But as the air intake for the case is right under the heatsink (and i have two high speed bequiet fans as extractors, the intake will probably do a pretty good job if it is that close to it. I'm just hoping that it will be enough, or one quiet slim fan in the centre.

Any other suggestions?


Thanks.

You could always remove the stock cooler shroud and fit a couple of nocutas to it with the low noise adaptors, but as you have a couple of fans in the base of the case it may well be worth swapping them round to intake so that the y can blow cool air directly on the morpheus if you get one.

LTT did a video on the morpheus and said that the double sided tape is rubbish and didn't stick the smaller heatsinks to the components. If you warm the tape and components up with a hairdryer or similar to make the tape tacky, then they stick like **** to a blanket.

I've got a morpheus strapped to a 1070FE, it doesn't go above 55c and the noctuas are only idling when running a VR headset.

 

[Joxeon]

I wouldn't be spending more cash on a 6500XT to make it quieter, your best off just selling it and using the extra cash to get a better card.

 

[Ben97]

You could always remove the stock cooler shroud and fit a couple of nocutas to it with the low noise adaptors, but as you have a couple of fans in the base of the case it may well be worth swapping them round to intake so that the y can blow cool air directly on the morpheus if you get one.

LTT did a video on the morpheus and said that the double sided tape is rubbish and didn't stick the smaller heatsinks to the components. If you warm the tape and components up with a hairdryer or similar to make the tape tacky, then they stick like **** to a blanket.

I've got a morpheus strapped to a 1070FE, it doesn't go above 55c and the noctuas are only idling when running a VR headset.

There are no intake fans on my case. The only ventilation holes are where I have my 140mm and 120mm extractor fans. There is a large grill under my graphics card and SSDs that will obviously take in a lot of cool air due to how much the other fans extract, so I should have room for fans if they are slim ones, though probably only one.

 

[LuckyBenski]

I would look at internal case temperatures first. Have you tried running it with the side panel off, even a fan pointed at the card too?

 

[Ben97]

I wouldn't be spending more cash on a 6500XT to make it quieter, your best off just selling it and using the extra cash to get a better card.

Yes, i guess the other option would be seeing what range of graphics cards there are with either MUCH quieter fans or ones that come without coolers and this could then be applied. Quiet noise levels is definitely priority over performance for me, but it would be beneficial, especially in time to have a better card. I have just had so many issues recently that I am a bit put off upgrading my card. I certainly want to stay clear of nvidia anyway as their driver performance on linux has recently been dreadful.

Anyhow, what sort of options would I have if i wanted to prioritise my card being extremely quiet? I got my card for under £200. With the modifications i was thinking i could make, that would take it close to £300. If I was getting a new card, I wouldn't want to spent much over £400, including all the modifications to make it really quiet.

One thing I think I have worked out that a irritates me is the noise of small fans (especially when there is more than one close together) They sound like they are fighting with eachother and always make an annoying high pitched whine compared to large fans. This is why I feel a card with a heatsink and large and quiet cooling fan would be better. But what cards come like this to start with, and would be a similar price to modifying my existing one? I wouldn't mind spending more so long as it was an upgrade as well as being very quiet.

 

[KompuKare]

Joxeon does have with a point with the anti-6500XT view

To the OP, I know you have the 6500XT but for the price of a 6500XT + £100 you could have a £250 budget and for that kind of money, would it not make / have made more sense to have a Radeon 6600 and underclock and undervolt it until it runs passively even while gaming?

TPU rates a 6600 as being 175% the speed of the 6500 XT so if the OP is happy with the 6500 XT's performance then taking a 6600 and running it as slow as possible might work.

 

[Ben97]

I would look at internal case temperatures first. Have you tried running it with the side panel off, even a fan pointed at the card too?

That is yet another option. I could try doing a modification and somehow mounting another quiet 4 pin fan under the graphics card that hopefully will maybe result in me being able to run the graphics card fans at a lower rpm, which will at least reduce the annoying noise they make. 120mm fans are nothing like as annoying. I certainly wouldn't want to remove the side of my case, however I did experiment with that and it doesn't actually make a great deal of difference. As when the side is on, the extractor fans do a good job at pulling all the air in just from the bottom right under the card. I think it may help a bit having a fan under it if i want to run the GPU fans at a lower RPM, so maybe i should try that. I have some cheap and nasty high speed pc fans, that will be worth testing to prove a point, then maybe if it works i could just buy another bequiet or noctua fan.

 

[Ben97]

Joxeon does have with a point with the anti-6500XT view

To the OP, I know you have the 6500XT but for the price of a 6500XT + £100 you could have a £250 budget and for that kind of money, would it not make / have made more sense to have a Radeon 6600 and underclock and undervolt it until it runs passively even while gaming?

TPU rates a 6600 as being 175% the speed of the 6500 XT so if the OP is happy with the 6500 XT's performance then taking a 6600 and running it as slow as possible might work.

I know very little about undervolting fans. I just use the AMD program which annoyingly only lets you go to 30% of the fan speed at minimum which is too loud for when I'm not gaming. I would worry that if the speed of the fan on the 6600 is so much faster, wouldn't the then minimum speed on this program be even louder? Or is this performance rating statistics and i'm misunderstanding? The only thing i want to do with my card with it's built in fans is create a custom fan curve. I probably wouldn't need to if it had nice quiet noctua fans on it.

I've just looked up the price of that card and the price has gone down so much more recently. However, I feel I would much prefer a card with one slightly larger single fan rather than two smaller ones. I can't seem to find the card available to buy with the picture amd show as the card itself. I remember back when I used an GTX-960 mini 2GB, that had a single large fan and the noise was far less annoying.

 

[KompuKare]

Ah, wait so the card you have does not support fan-off mode?

MSI say it does:

Radeon RX 6500 XT MECH 2X 4G OC

MSI Radeon RX 6500 XT MECH 2X 4G OC brings a performance-focused design that maintains the essentials to accomplish any task at hand.

www.msi.com

So in fan-off / Zero Frozr / 0dB-zero-fan-mode your card should not turn on the fans until a certain temperate is reached/

Anyway, I did not mean undervolting the fans but rather the GPU itself (possible just be changing the power slider in the AMD control panel). Then the idea is that by underclocking your card so it uses so little power even while gaming the fans should stay off.

Looking at the MSI specs, it is supposed to support turning of the fan when in Windows, and other low loads. Mind you, it is a tiny card using 75mm fans - cards using 100mm or bigger fans tend to make less noise in the first place. Generally cards with two or more 100mm fans is going to be quieter. More so if it's one of those monster cards (which may not fit in your case) where the manufacturer has taken the design and cooler of a 300W card and slapped it on a 200W card for example.

 

[Ben97]

Ah, wait so the card you have does not support fan-off mode?

MSI say it does:

Radeon RX 6500 XT MECH 2X 4G OC

MSI Radeon RX 6500 XT MECH 2X 4G OC brings a performance-focused design that maintains the essentials to accomplish any task at hand.

www.msi.com

So in fan-off / Zero Frozr / 0dB-zero-fan-mode your card should not turn on the fans until a certain temperate is reached/

Anyway, I did not mean undervolting the fans but rather the GPU itself (possible just be changing the power slider in the AMD control panel). Then the idea is that by underclocking your card so it uses so little power even while gaming the fans should stay off.

Looking at the MSI specs, it is supposed to support turning of the fan when in Windows, and other low loads. Mind you, it is a tiny card using 75mm fans - cards using 100mm or bigger fans tend to make less noise in the first place. Generally cards with two or more 100mm fans is going to be quieter. More so if it's one of those monster cards (which may not fit in your case) where the manufacturer has taken the design and cooler of a 300W card and slapped it on a 200W card for example.

the software has a zero rpm option, but this is fixed at going off and on at 50 degrees and you can't change that. This results in lower demanding games that fluctuate just above and just under 50 degrees having the fans click on and off all the time and it just sounds like an old mechanical hard drive clicking on and off. I would rather be able to just have the card fans running the whole time, but when under no use have them down at 10% so they are not audible. Interestingly CoreCtrl in Ubuntu lets me do this but i can't find a way in windows to allow the fans to go less that 30%, or be off entirely.

I have very limited space for my pc case, so i got this one because it is very compact.

Regarding undervolting, wouldn't it be harmful to the card having the fans off while gaming. If i get them to stay at 30%, the card gets close to 100 degrees (junction temp) and 75 - 80 as the main GPU temp. It goes down a lot having the fan speed between 45 and 60 which is what I usually select it to be fixed at while gaming. I maybe should not have tried to go for a small card then. I will maybe look into getting among the biggest that my case can accept. low noise is by far my main priority, and it also irritates me even if fans are quiet if they resonate or rattle at certain RPMs. I haven't had a graphics card that doesn't do that yet, however, premium case fans don't seem to. I wish I could find a card with super quiet fans.

 

[Joxeon]

Maybe try de-shrouding the card and cable tying 1 or 2 case fans to it as those will be much quieter and also move more air.

 

[LuckyBenski]

I have to say that I spent a long time thinking a PC could be small and quiet but I've since learned that ultimately, smaller means warmer and louder. This is true of cases for airflow and cards for cooling ability. As above though, you could try fitting your own fan as it sounds like your beef is with the physical fan on your card.

 

[Chris Beard]

Ah - the persuite of silence.

I recommend a massive case, custom water cooling and putting your computer in a different room than you are in.

Within reason however I'd look at just lowering the power limit on your current graphics card.

 

[KompuKare]

Ah - the persuite of silence.

I recommend a massive case, custom water cooling and putting your computer in a different room than you are in.

Within reason however I'd look at just lowering the power limit on your current graphics card.

I think you might be in to something there!
Currently on a 22 litre mATX case (Inter-Tech IM-1 Pocket - very similar to the CoolerMaster NP200 but 2 litres bigger and takes mATX), and I can't help but feel that a even a few more millimetres here and there would lead to a far quieter case. Admittedly, things are not helped by my Palit 3050 having a pretty poor cooler and fan, however much bigger doesn't fit in my case anyhow.

 

[Ben97]

I simply don't have the space for a bigger case. Every component runs at a perfectly quiet level other than the graphics card. As I don't mind the sound of case fans as much, i would rather use more of them if possible and reduce the arm of the GPU fans.

I don't know how to lower the power limit of my card though. I am now quite tempted to get a better card (as they are much better value now) that has larger fans that hopefully spin at a lower rpm. This will then mean that i cna have them running quieter when at 30% which is the lowest the software will let me run them. And it will also likely mean the fans will be quieter when the fan is working hard too.

What options are there in terms of AMD cards in the £200 -£300 mark? Are there any that actually state the volume level of their fans, as I would target a quieter noise level over the best performing card.

After all this discussion of modifying my card, and then seeing a poster mention it would be much better value upgrading, that does make a lot of sense. As this card can only just run one of the games i play and i should then also think ahead.