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Reference nvidia 670 noise observations?

roadie

roadie

roadie

Soldato
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I'm thinking of upgrading my graphics card, as my 6850 doesn't really cut it any more. To this end I have my eye on a reference nvidia 670 as a replacement. However I am concerned about the amount and quality of noise it might produce, especially when idle.

The most audible thing in my PC at idle is the rear exhaust 120mm fan at 800rpm and I am wondering whether the reference 670 might overwhelm this in an annoying manner? The Tech Report's views aren't too appealing:
Yeah, well the GTX 670's cooler sounds cheap. That's why the 670 is relatively noisy at idle, even though it has very little power—and thus heat—to dissipate. The GTX 670's blower emits a rough, friction-filled whine. It's not especially loud, and heck, the thing manages not to register too high on decibel meter under load. Tucked inside of a case that insulates sound well, you might barely notice it. Still, this thing isn't Nvidia's best work.
Click to expand...
I was wondering whether any of you guys have any alternative views?

Ta
 
Why are you looking at a reference card in particular?

My 670 Twin Frozr III is pretty quiet at idle.. All down to the TFIII cooler. :)
 
Two reasons:
  • Great value for money
  • It's short enough to fit in my case
Sadly I believe the TF3 card and other non reference cards are too long.
 
Do you know what the max supported GPU length of your case is?

We can have a hunt around for you..

What is your budget?

Theres a lot of cards between £150-£250 that fall into the same catergory.
 
I have SLI PNY 670s with no overclock, the auto-fan never gets above 50% and the temps hit 80'c when I run benchmarking software.
The fans are pretty silent most of the time (they're in a HTPC connected the TV in the living room and the computer is on 24/7). No louder than my HD7950 I owned anyway.
 
I got a reference-style (Not reference) KFA2 GTX 670. The fan is bigger than on the reference (I have done comparisons), but still blower. It ain't too loud with a target temp of 80, but if you target 70 (throttle limit), it will be.
 
my MSI 670 is damn quiet. Do not get a reference one, they are for peasants and homeless people and there was little price difference when most bought theirs a while ago.
 
I had an MSI reference 670. It wasn't loud at idle, but it made this annoying sound that you could definitely hear, in a case you wouldn't call quiet without the card.
 
Doesn't say that it fits any of the 6xx generation cards so at your own risk. FYI, I have a Gigabyte Windforce 3x 670 and a "reference" EVGA 670. Both are run 24/7 at full load as they are folding and neither is what you would call quiet. The EVGA is in a case with the side off and a 120mm fan blowing sideways at it as this keeps the fan reasonably quiet. With the case closed it went to >66% and sounded like a jet plane. The Gigabyte has a definitely non-reference cooler and works brilliantly.
 
I have 2 evga ref 670's, when first getting them they made no noise on idle (rest of the system was WC'd) but once they got warmed up in gaming you could say they were noisy.

Not really an issue now as I put WC blocks on them 2 weeks later.
 
I have a quiet system with a psu that is running passive on low load, cpu fan+system fans running below 800rpm and no hard drive noise with solid state drives so i like to have a quiet graphics card too as i like a near enough silent system.

The Gigabyte Windforce 3x 670 i have is very quiet on idle and though it is louder at load than what a fan running at 800rpm sounds like it is the quietest card i have had at load apart from the cards where i have changed the standard cooler for a Accelero or Thermalright cooler and used a 800rpm fan with them.

According to Techpowerup it is 23db idle and 32db on load in a passive system :-

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GeForce_GTX_670_Windforce/27.html

The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP 2 GB seems to be even more quiet at load than the windforce 670 going by Techpowerup being 24db at idle and 25db at load :-

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/27.html

which if right would be near enough as quiet at load as the Gigabyte windforce is at idle and going by what i can hear at idle on the windforce it is as quiet as a 800rpm fan.

In this video it will give you an idea of how quiet the Asus Direct CU II is. Hope this helps:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bmkFFOKZ0Q
 
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