• 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.

"Quiet" card around £150?

Lithium

Lithium

Lithium

Associate
Joined
29 Oct 2002
Posts
806
So I play a few games on my studio PC.

I've done as much as possible to keep that thing quiet, got an Antec sound proofed case, ridiculously sized titan CPU cooler, super silent PSU, 120m fans running low.

I've currently got an 8800 GTS in there that I want to replace for £150.

I'll only ever play in 1920x1080.

Can anyone recommend something that isn't too loud?
 
Which cpu do you have and at what speed also which case and power supply ?
 
Last edited:
Marine-RX179 said:
6670 is roughly on par with 8800GT/9800GT...so it would be a bit of a side-stepping going from a 8800GTS for lower-power consumption and quieter sake. Also, it would have enough grunt for handling games at 1920 res.
Click to expand...

It's not top end of graphics cards I admit but I have a 5670 Ultimate which manages gaming pretty well at that resolution though I don't tend to require max settings for everything, was suggesting it more as a silent option.

There's also the Gigabyte GV R577SL-1GD (a silent version of the Radeon HD 5770) which should offer more performance and can be had for around £125.

I'm not trying to suggest the best bang for buck card, just providing a couple of suggestions for silent options :)
 
560 without a doubt.

Specifically the MSI twin frzr one.

There is no card out of the box as quiet as them, even the lower end ones are no were near as quite at idle or load.
 
I've got a q6600. Not sure on exact model of PSU but it's a super quiet Seasonic 500w.

Am I gonna have issues with my PSU?

Nexus18 said:
560 without a doubt.

Specifically the MSI twin frzr one.

There is no card out of the box as quiet as them, even the lower end ones are no were near as quite at idle or load.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing any of the Twin Frozr cards are gonna be pretty identical in terms of loudness? I mean if they've got the same heatsink+fans.

Would getting the ATI Twin Frozr over Nvidia Twin Frozr be better for heat + power consumption?
 
Your power supply will be fine for 560.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that, the ati version is no were as quite and the temperatures are far better on the 560 than nearly every card as well. Iirc though the 6950 will be a bit better for power consumption but not loads better.

Just take a look at one of the many reviews out there of the 560 and you will see just how much quieter it is compared to every card especially when at load and also how much cooler it runs as well.

Can't post any links as I am on my mobile at minute.

I was also talking about the more expensive msi 560 at 199 as you are getting pretty much a 570 out of the box.

The gigabyte model is also very good, very similar to the msi one.
 
Is it worth getting the £199 'OC' version then over the £174 standard GTX560 Twin Frozr?

The difference is like 10mhz according to the specs? Or is the OC one somehow better(unlocked?) for overclocking?
 
Lithium said:
Is it worth getting the £199 'OC' version then over the £174 standard GTX560 Twin Frozr?

The difference is like 10mhz according to the specs? Or is the OC one somehow better(unlocked?) for overclocking?
Click to expand...

If you're gonna get an OC version you might want to compare it to the Ti version too.
 
Personally I wouldn't touch the 560s as they aren't very good compared to the TI versions.

The one I recommended, this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-114-ms&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

is a ti version, which is overclocked and performs just as good as a stock 570 and better in some games by a good bit.

you could always buy the non overclocked one and do it yourself:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-130-ms&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

and the only other one that i would consider would be the gigabyte model:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-074-gi&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

they are both very good (the oc models), not too much difference between them really at all for temperature, noise and performance.

here are comparisons of the 560tis:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...tx-560-ti-roundup-asus-evga-gigabyte-msi.html


If you could get the gigabyte SOC model for less than £210 I would take that instead of the MSI model as it a decent amount better and beats a stock 570 by a good amount comfortably as well (obviously a 570 OC would beat the SOC 560 though) and it still runs just as quiet and cool as the MSI one and according to a few reviews even cooler and quieter than it (not really a big difference though).
 
Last edited:
Thanks Nexus18 mate you've been super helpful.

Gonna go for your reccomended card - bit more than my budget but looks like an excellent card that should last me a while!
 
Funny thing is with the temperature comparison here:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...560-ti-roundup-asus-evga-gigabyte-msi-19.html

The MSI actually gets a few degrees lower if you redo the thermal paste (MSI use too much thermal paste on the cards, more than double the amount needed for the lowest temps possible with their coolers).

Other ones would as well, but the twinfrozr is pretty much whoopass over the competition.
 
I thought that you might bottleneck a 560ti if you aren't running a nice overclock on that Q6600 also I would double check the card will fit in your case first.Personally I would recommend a second hand 5850 from the mm pretty much all of them are quiet bar the leaf blower cooler reference types.

Throwing nigh on £200 at a gpu seems better spent if you could sell the current board cpu ram etc and just get a sandybridge which is why I'd recommend buying a second hand card.http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=330 I selected a 5870 vs gtx 560ti because every 5850 will overclock easily to near 5870 levels as you can see the difference is not huge.

If this were my money i'd be smart and just get a second hand twin fanned 5850 with warranty left.
 
Last edited:
Barely any games use the full potential of a quad core though, only one that I have played that benefits a lot from quad is bfbc 2. q6600 is still a great cpu for gaming and should last for at least another year.

Plus the card should fit (hopefully) in pretty much most of the cases, the 560TI are pretty small, iirc it is smaller than my HIS iceq4 turbo 4850 512MB (I have a sonata 3 case).

For the majority of games you will benefit far more from getting a good GPU than a complete new setup i.e. sandy bridge.

The 560TI is much better for DX11/tessellation than the 5xxx series.

And here is anand tech comparing the 5870 to a stock 560 with only the relevant bench marks (he is running 1920x1080):

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Prod...9.238.224.225.226.227.228.229.231.232.234.235


However, the MSI OC model of the 560 is overclocked to 570 levels. So you have to compare really a 570 to the 5850@5870 for game performance:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=306&i=188.191.194.200.203.206.210.213.216.219.238

EDIT:

Also the minimum frame rates for the nvidia 560 OC are better than the 5xxx cards, therefore the game will feel smoother throughout.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately I can't clock my CPU because my motherboard is the worst one possible, an asus p5ne.

I am quite happy with the CPU in general though. I can still play all games in my resolution its just at low settings, so if I can bump those up a bit I'll be happy!

My case is huge so don't think fitting will be a problem. Just ordered now I can't wait!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom