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Quietest High End

The Halk

The Halk

The Halk

Soldato
Joined
13 May 2003
Posts
11,865
Location
Hamilton
I think I need to replace my 5870 which has gone faulty. I don't want to fit an aftermarket cooler... So I'm looking for a card in the over 200 quid range, which is very quiet/inaudible at idle. I'd pay up to 400 for the card.

Ideally the card would idle very quietly and produce very little heat.
 
 
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Hi mate. No idea to be honest. If I was buying a new card I'd be happier going a bit higher than 200 to be honest and I don't think the card I have is the quietest at the moment.

I was hoping one of the manufacturers had come out with a really good solution for noise, like back when cards started appearing with arctic coolers prefitted.
 
Well i can tell you that the 580 is extremely quiet and cool when on both idle and load if £400 is indeed what you want to spend on a high end card
 
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The Halk said:
I think I need to replace my 5870 which has gone faulty. I don't want to fit an aftermarket cooler... So I'm looking for a card in the over 200 quid range, which is very quiet/inaudible at idle. I'd pay up to 400 for the card.

Ideally the card would idle very quietly and produce very little heat.
Click to expand...
I can tell you this having used one, the GTX 570 running at 40% idle fan speed is whisper quiet i.e. cannot hear a thing, it's as quiet as a 5850 with standard cooler at 21%.
 
I guess 400 it is then! I've been looking at reviews and the reference model is more efficient than the previous models. I just need to nail down which manufacturer makes the best cooled one - if they aren't all reference anyway.
 
The Halk said:
I guess 400 it is then! I've been looking at reviews and the reference model is more efficient than the previous models. I just need to nail down which manufacturer makes the best cooled one - if they aren't all reference anyway.
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All the reference ones will be the same anyway.

It comes down to price vs warranty, I would try get the cheapest Gigabyte GTX 580 it comes with 3 year warranty and the RMA turnaround time is no more than 3 days, if by chance anything goes wrong.

EDIT: The OcUK one should be okay, 2 year warranty and I think they deal with the actual warranty themselves, but don't quote me.
 
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Yep I know the reference ones are the same... that's why I'm wondering if they're all reference or not. If they aren't then perhaps there's a quieter one in there. Otherwise it'll be the 2 year warranty.... after 2 years the card is worth a whole lot less anyway.

The gainward has 2 fans on it, while the rest seem to have only one. It's difficult for me to tell though as I'm browsing on my phone.
 
570/580/6950/6970 are hardly what I call quiet/inaudible.

a passively cool card of a card you can run at idle fan speed 24/7 like the GTX 460 is what I call quiet/inaudible
 
kmufc77 said:
^You must have something wrong with your ears then.

The 580 is very quiet,have you used a 580/570?
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I have a 570 and it is hardly quiet compared to my GTX 460 which never went above 1100 RPM.

My GTX 570 maxes out at 3000 every time I play mw2
 
Cythx said:
I have a 570 and it is hardly quiet compared to my GTX 460 which never went above 1100 RPM.

My GTX 570 maxes out at 3000 every time I play mw2
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Then you need better cooling in your case

For example: my 580 never goes above 60-65% fan speed which is still very quiet at this speed.
 
the gainward gtx 570 phantom is supposedly very quiet, and powerful, I don't know where you can get it though.
 
What's quiet to you may differ to what's quiet to someone else. It's 100% subjective. I suggest you get the best card with the MSI Twin Frozr fitted on for £400. You are guranteed to have a cool quiet card that way.
 
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^ Invasion, Modernwarfare 2.

And I noticed the fan didn't get as high as it did last map.
 
Vegeta said:
What's quiet to you may differ to what's quiet to someone else. It's 100% subjective. I suggest you get the best card with the MSI Twin Frozr fitted on for £400. You are guranteed to have a cool quiet card that w y.
Click to expand...

The gainwaed has the sane thing as the msi. So i think thats the one to go for.
 
Cythx you have obviously not read the actual question.
The Halk said:
So I'm looking for a card in the over 200 quid range, which is very quiet/inaudible at idle. I'd pay up to 400 for the card.

Ideally the card would idle very quietly and produce very little heat.
Click to expand...
 
Nelly said:
Cythxy you have obviously not read the actual question.
Click to expand...

lol thanks, in that case I'd recommend the GTX 570/580 too. It'll spin at 1300 rpm idle which is the same speed as GTX 460 idle.

If you're willing to spend up to 400, go for the 580, however it would prolly be wasted if you game at 1920x1080 or below
 
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