looking for SILENT gfx card for gaming, please help.

[An Exception]

Op, take the side panel off, if the card is still loud then the card is faulty, simple.

 

[Things change I've changed]

Op, take the side panel off, if the card is still loud then the card is faulty, simple.

I've done that already as mentioned 4 posts up and it's still loud in-game.

 

[95thrifles]

Taking the side panel off does not generally help, as RealDeal said, this is because with the panel on your case creates a wind tunnel effect from low front to high back, by removing side panel this effect is lost

You could try replacing the fans in the case with better ones (does the 180 not allow a 2nd front intake too?) Could also try reducing OC if it is higher than you need, this would result in lower ambient temp therefore lower gfx temp and hence less fan work/noise

And as myself and Ejizz have both linked to, the 1 gig XFX 6870 BE, is THE quietest card if those things dont help

 

[An Exception]

I've done that already as mentioned 4 posts up and it's still loud in-game.

Your card is faulty then mate, either the thermal paste hasn't been applied properly or the chips is leakier than Delilah's bucket.

Air flow is simply not the problem, and "doh" to the posters who still saying it is.

 

[An Exception]

Taking the side panel off does not generally help, as RealDeal said, this is because with the panel on your case creates a wind tunnel effect from low front to high back, by removing side panel this effect is lost

While this is technically true in a case with very good airflow, even so it still has a negligible effect on temps like 5c max.
On a case with crap airflow taking the side panel off will help allot.

Also the dual fan cooler like the Op has doesn't really care much about wind tunnelling and would likely perform better with the side panel off in any case.

 

[An Exception]

Or read/watch a review first and if its above 30db then you dont want it.

Ops kind of limited then I guess...

@ Op
When viewing the graph, a difference of 10 Db = 100% difference in perceived noise level, so if one card is 30db and another is 40 the card that is 40 db is twice as loud.

likewise if a card is 80db and another is 90db the 90db card is twice as loud as the 80db card.

 

[TheRealDeal]

Your card is faulty then mate, either the thermal paste hasn't been applied properly or the chips is leakier than Delilah's bucket.

Air flow is simply not the problem, and "doh" to the posters who still saying it is.

Off course airflow matters as hes looking for a quiet card and he will not achieve this if his case is full of hot air as any gpu he buy's will run hotter and the fan will run at a higher rpm to compensate.

 

[An Exception]

Off course airflow matters as hes looking for a quiet card and he will not achieve this if his case is full of hot air as any gpu he buy's will run hotter and the fan will run at a higher rpm to compensate.

His case has adequate air flow for that card, FACT.

At the absolute maximum his internal case temps will be 10-15c over ambient, this is simply not enough to cause that card to sound like a jet engine.

Also as previously stated the problem doesn't go away when he takes the side panel off, which proves it's not an airflow issue.

Flawed suggestions like 'poor airflow is the problem' will likely have the Op going on wild goose chases, and generally wasting his time, and worse wasting his money...

 

[TheRealDeal]

Hes searching for a quiet card ejizz end off if that card is faulty then its faulty but the fact remains a cooler case will lead to a quiter card. Hes even thinking about quitting gaming if he can't find a quiet card. He has 1x120mm intake and 1x120mm exhaust its hardly great cooling. You say its adequate air flow but its not adequate for the noise levels hes looking for. I had a similar setup on my kandalf and that struggled to keep my 5770 at decent temps as the heat was not exhausted out the back. I then stuck in a much bigger 6870 which does exhaust heat and all my temps dropped. The reason was my case never had enough airflow to deal with the extra heat being dumped in the case from a 5770 which is not a hot card. All my heat and noise problems were solved in one purchase and that was a much better case. This is from experience not quess work.

My mate moved from an akasa eclipse to a corsair obsidian 700 and hes finding all his components quieter also. With the akasa in recent years he always had the side off to keep things cool. Sitting at his desk was like being inside a twister noise wise. Since his new build things are much quieter and his machine has a 5970 inside which is not known to be a quiet card.

 

[An Exception]

Yeah 38db is not silent at all unless you live in a factory.

All of my fans (watercooled) are circa 20db and it's perfect imo, I mean you can obviously still hear them but it's not distracting or ear ache inducing it's just a pleasant humming sound (I use S-Flex 1200's)

Real world db's are allot higher than your rated fan noise.
If you have one fan then it may well be 20db, but the problem is that adding more than one fan adds an echo effect that increases the db rating by about 3db. so 3 fans 20db fans actually produce 26db worth of noise.

This is then multiplied by other components, CPU fan, HDD's, PSU, Coil whine, case vibration etc etc.
38 Db is about as silent as it get's for PC's.

 

[An Exception]

Hes searching for a quiet card ejizz end off if that card is faulty then its faulty but the fact remains a cooler case will lead to a quiter card. Hes even thinking about quitting gaming if he can't find a quiet card. He has 1x120mm intake and 1x120mm exhaust its hardly great cooling. You say its adequate air flow but its not adequate for the noise levels hes looking for. I had a similar setup on my kandalf and that struggled to keep my 5770 at decent temps as the heat was not exhausted out the back. I then stuck in a much bigger 6870 which does exhaust heat and all my temps dropped. The reason was my case never had enough airflow to deal with the extra heat being dumped in the case from a 5770 which is not a hot card. All my heat and noise problems were solved in one purchase and that was a much better case. This is from experience not quess work.

My mate moved from an akasa eclipse to a corsair obsidian 700 and hes finding all his components quieter also. With the akasa in recent years he always had the side off to keep things cool. Sitting at his desk was like being inside a twister noise wise. Since his new build things are much quieter and his machine has a 5970 inside which is not known to be a quiet card.

I'm sorry to say your just wrong. To start with you have ignored the fundamental fact the problem still persists with the side panel off.

Bottom line he has purchased a VERY COOL and quiet card, that SHOULD remain quiet despite high ambient air temps.

If it's airflow, why isn't his system shutting down from his CPU overheating, or locking up from his NB overheating?

Yes good airflow may help temps by 10-15c but that's not what's causing the card to ramp it's fan's up to 90%.

 

[TheRealDeal]

I'm sorry to say your just wrong. To start with you have ignored the fundamental fact the problem still persists with the side panel off.

Bottom line he has purchased a VERY COOL and quiet card, that SHOULD remain quiet despite high ambient air temps.

If it's airflow, why isn't his system shutting down from his CPU overheating, or locking up from his NB overheating?

Yes good airflow may help temps by 10-15c but that's not what's causing the card to ramp it's fan's up to 90%.

I am not talking about the card lol so i am not wrong. I am talking about his overall wish to have a silent card. The thread is not about if the card is faulty or not its about him wanting a silent gfx card. He sounds like a guy that wants best results when it comes to a cards noise level and he simply won't achieve this with the case cooling he has atm.

 

[An Exception]

I am not talking about the card lol so i am not wrong. I am talking about his overall wish to have a silent card. The thread is not about if the card is faulty or not its about him wanting a silent gfx card. He sounds like a guy that wants best results when it comes to a cards noise level and he simply won't achieve this with the case cooling he has atm.

Fact is, if the card wasn't faulty, it would still be silent (or close to silent), even in a case that had 10-15c higher ambient air temps.

Increasing airflow in the case, with higher rpm case fans, or more case fans (due to echo), will itself create more noise. Increasing fan speed or adding more fans would only result in a net lower noise level, If the cooler on the card was crap and noisy compared to the case fans, which in this case, they are not.

 

[Cleeecooo]

Fact is, if the card wasn't faulty, it would still be silent (or close to silent), even in a case that had 10-15c higher ambient air temps.

Increasing airflow in the case, with higher rpm case fans, or more case fans (due to echo), will itself create more noise. Increasing fan speed or adding more fans would only result in a net lower noise level, If the cooler on the card was crap and noisy compared to the case fans, which in this case, they are not.

A card can highly be running silently when the case is like an oven.
TBH, i don't think the case is the problem.
The card would probably be louder than one in a better case like antec 1200 but the noises described are too much

 

[An Exception]

This is starting to cost me an arm and leg now plus it's starting to stress me out, all I want is a silent gaming GPU, do they exist?

Return the card under the distance selling thing, and either get another one, or if silence is your goal get a dual fanned xfx black edition, as there is nothing quieter that uses active cooling.
The fact that the cards idle and load noise is the same shows the card has plenty of cooling headroom so case temps won't have a noticeable impact on temps/noise.

 

[TheRealDeal]

Fact is, if the card wasn't faulty, it would still be silent (or close to silent), even in a case that had 10-15c higher ambient air temps.

Increasing airflow in the case, with higher rpm case fans, or more case fans (due to echo), will itself create more noise. Increasing fan speed or adding more fans would only result in a net lower noise level, If the cooler on the card was crap and noisy compared to the case fans, which in this case, they are not.

Theres no real arguement hear my old 5770 was not a stock design and was known to be pretty quiet as most 5770's were. In my old case it was not quiet at all because my case could not handle all the hot air being dumped in my case from all my components along with the 5770. Everything in my case ran much hotter in the old case compared with my new case.

Its a fact that good case cooling will lead to less noise from gpu and cpu because there fans will run at less rpm's due to cooler air. I run the same amount of fans in my new case as the old one but they are twice the size and much quieter. More fans do not equal more noise unless its more of the same fans. he could buy better quality fans and add in more than he has but have a quiter case.

Just to clear it up i am not disputing the card may be faulty but it still might not be as if the heat in his case builds up with nothing extracting it fast enough then the gpu may well get that hot and need the fan to spin up more and more.

 

[An Exception]

A card can highly be running silently when the case is like an oven.
TBH, i don't think the case is the problem.
The card would probably be louder than one in a better case like antec 1200 but the noises described are too much

That's why I didn't say oven, 10-15c higher than ambient = 35c which isn't an oven.
And yes a card can run silent at those temps.

I have a Define R3 that has allot of sound proofing, with one 120mm intake, and one 120mm exhaust, both run at only 5v, and I recently purchased a temporary graphics card, a GTX 460 768mb LINK and it runs at 60c load at lowest fan settings and still remains silent, so yes it can be done.

 

[95thrifles]

I'm not sure where youre getting this info from, fans echoing off each other etc, but its not the case, you can build a perfectly quiet system, this system will have quite a few fans to keep it cool, large slow spinning fans
Temp and noise ARE directly related, if the ambient temp is high, then the cards base temp is already high, so when it loads up its even hotter, the hotter something is the more air needs to pass over it to cool it, this means the fans need to push more air by spinning more/faster, this creates more noise. So to say airflow does not matter is simply wrong, airflow has a large part to play on temps and therefore noise
That being said I used to have an Antec P180 and theyre decent cases (reasonable cooling and well sound insulated) so I dont expect airflow to be the issue here, assuming the system isnt clogged full of dust
It prob is the card and it could be any number of things, from a bearing gone, to poorly applied TIM to the cooler not seated right, whether the OP wants to try and fix this card or simply replace it is a matter for him

 

[An Exception]

I'm not sure where youre getting this info from, fans echoing off each other etc, but its not the case, you can build a perfectly quiet system, this system will have quite a few fans to keep it cool, large slow spinning fans
Temp and noise ARE directly related, if the ambient temp is high, then the cards base temp is already high, so when it loads up its even hotter, the hotter something is the more air needs to pass over it to cool it, this means the fans need to push more air by spinning more/faster, this creates more noise. So to say airflow does not matter is simply wrong, airflow has a large part to play on temps and therefore noise

Maybe if you read my post better, you would have picked up on the 10-15c over ambient, which I quoted.
This is roughly how much hotter the ambient air temps are within a case with extremely poor airflow.
The fact is that 10-15c above ambient temps are not enough to cause the card in question to become loud.

 

[arc@css]

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, while there is nothing wrong with that, it might however 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.