Poll: POLL: Do you prefer Blower or Open Air style Cards?

[beany_bot]

Simple question, On the whole do you prefer (most often purchase) a blower type or open air cooler style card?. I know they have Pros and Cons. But on the whole. Typically, what do you go for. Curious as to the divide.

 

[Gerard]

Open air (dual\triple fan), blowers are loud and obnoxious, yes they dump all the heat outside the case but in tests its only around a 4c or so difference between the 2. Much more scope to have a quieter card with 2 or 3 large fans on it than a single smaller fan. Blowers generally just make the card under-perform compared to what they can do with better cooling.

 

[DELETED_195422]

I disagree with those that say blowers are loud (have you got them taped to your head or something?) as 3 out of 4 cards i've previously owned have been blowers. Incidentally, the Open Air EVGA card i had was worse in terms of noise than any blower card i've owned.

Also, i only build Mini iTX rigs now as i'm done with ATX, so blower cards are hugely beneficial to me.

 

[Razor Time]

I go for reference blower so I can replace it with a waterblock.

 

[LeMson]

I'm returning my phone to the shop, I cannot see the poll

 

[Tolemac]

Open air for me unless i'm putting a water block on it thats the only time I would buy reference Blower

 

[Radox-0]

Depends on the build. Main build I prefer blower's as I use 3/4 GPU's, so FE cards work slightly better plus the FE design is best looking card around. In single card config I prefer open air. Having said that its a non-issue lol as I have all my rigs under water

I disagree with those that say blowers are loud (have you got them taped to your head or something?) as 3 out of 4 cards i've previously owned have been blowers. Incidentally, the Open Air EVGA card i had was worse in terms of noise than any blower card i've owned.

Also, i only build Mini iTX rigs now as i'm done with ATX, so blower cards are hugely beneficial to me.

Got to agree. Stock blower card profiles are 1-2 DB within cards that are billed as extremely quiet such as the ASUS Strix or MSI twin Frozer under load yet seem to be labelled with loud label. I would agree however if we are talking about trying to sqeeze more performance and using custom fan profiles at which point they can get loud. But at stock they are damm quiet.

 

[beany_bot]

I'm returning my phone to the shop, I cannot see the poll

Im waiting for a mod to add it. I've asked.

 

[chroniclard]

No preference, had them all, all fine.

 

[EL_JOCK]

After having a few blowers in my time, i can hand on heart say i would never ever buy one again....some are better than others but i have yet to come across one that can match a good AIB card for noise levels or lack of, that's not to say all AIB cards are quiet, some are very loud.

I built a system for a friend the other day, who before the new build had a 780ti blower and he thought that system was quiet. When i booted his new one up he could not believe how little noise was coming from his PC to the point he thought something was wrong. The crazy thing, i thought it was loud as the system fans had not been set to a silent mode once i did that he really started to freak out that it would over heat.

In short if you have always had blowers you will grow accustomed to that noise, throw a good AIB at it and it will be night and day, before performance my top pick for a GPU is how much noise does it kick out, with zero fan tech and all sorts on the AIB cards, Blowers simply cannot match that.

 

[LeMson]

Unless you have a tiny case (yuk), or are running sli/xfire and where the blower helps to expel air out the case then, or you want the cheapest card to rip off the blower and watercool it then a 2 or 3 fan cooler is the way to go, especially when they can sit silent under light load

 

[Grandmaster Fap!]

AIB, i had a 6870 with blower, it scared small children in the street, i stuck an arctic cooling fan on it and all was well with the world, 40c cooler and you couldnt hear it. I always feel like the blowers are equivalent to stock fans that come with Intels, it will work and get you up and running but they know you will stick a bigger/water cooler on it.

 

[opethdisciple]

I like the idea of a blower blowing hot air out side of case. But unfortunately this is at a cost of a hotter/louder card compared to cards that dump the air in the case.

So always AIB over reference.

 

[Gregster]

Blower coolers are good for water coolers (easy to get blocks) but to run with the stock cooler is noisy and hot. Custom coolers are better for air.

 

[old gamer]

blower for multi gpu and aib for single card

 

[ubersonic]

Depends on the system really, if the case has good airflow then open air, if not then blower.

 

[Relentless81]

Had reference once, never again. AIB with fan stop at idle is the minimum I would go for after putting up with the noise of a reference cooler

 

[samcat]

I go for reference blower so I can replace it with a waterblock.

This every time. Reference blower gets wrapped in cling film and put back in the original box so when I come to sell it can be supplied in stock form or watercooled.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Is factory AIO cooled cards not an option? There seem to be a few of these recently.

I had the AMD 7950 with HIS IceQ cooler and that was a blower cooler but it was good and quiet. I also thought the EVGA 670 FTW3 cooler was pretty decent. Was not overly impressed with the Gigabyte Windforce X3 670, which was not silent, although it was a different sort of noise to a blower cooler.

I tend to usually buy reference cards with blower coolers as I usually buy 2 or 3 cards for SLI/Crossfire and also plan to watercool them (although rarely actually get around to it).

 

[NoobCannon]

Whichevers cheapest with a refrence board so i can block it.