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Vapor Chamber

Randomface74

Randomface74

Randomface74

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Joined
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Noise levels are very important to me - I'm finding it tricky to work out which graphics cards use a vapor chamber and which don't.

Does anyone know if there's a list anywhere?
 
Try having a look at reviews of the cards you want to buy as those will list noise levels. A 6990 with a vapour chamber is louder than one with an arctic cooling accelero on it ;)

You could always post here which card you want to buy for user reviews?
 
That's the thing - I could do that for every card, but it would take time.

I'd rather just start with a list of cards with vapour chambers (or suitable alternative) and go from there.
 
Its pretty simple, the vapour chamber has absolutely nothing to do with a card being quiet or not and thats your problem.

Firstly vapour chambers can IN THEORY provide faster transfer of heat, the problem is when the other end of the system is slow as crap, it doesn't matter how fast the heat gets there. Small gpu heatsink dealing with huge load and crap airflow, thats where the limit is, airflow and heatsink size, NOT the vapour chamber, its a gimmick to get you to buy something more expensive.

Thing is most vapour chamber based coolers simply have better heatsinks.

Any graphics card with a blower fan, you can basically rule out, they are louder, vent a small volume of air at a higher speed through a tiny exhaust which is usually also more than half blocked by the grill /mesh on the hole, which generates more noise.

So grab a card with "real" fans and the biggest heatsink you can, even then you have to look up reviews because, you can have the best heatsink in the world, and some idiot designer puts on a tiny, high speed, crap fan that whines on it, or a fantastic, bigger, low speed fan you can barely hear.

Anyway, aside from that, you've given no one a basic idea of what you want, a 580gtx, a 590/6990, something faster than what you have, or something slower and silent, is this for a gaming rig or another computer altogether.

Considering you're asking for others help, narrowing down the choice would help, you hate nvidia so won't consider their cards, you only want something faster would save people helping you a lot of effort.

Anyway, ignoring vapour chambers as they don't do squat, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

This is the card OCUK employee's seem to suggest is the quietest, while the fan seems not great compared to others, the fan is "offset" leaving a pretty huge heatsink, without using most of those myself its a hard call which would be best. Generally speaking big slow fans or huge heatsink vs stock will help dramatically, having fan control helps hugely as some custom cards don't have fan control and are setup to be uber overclocking by having the lowest temps possible, by having fans set to high speeds.

Me personally, 3rd party cooler with 2 quiet fans controlled off a fan controller, silent at idle, very very very quiet in games.
 
I had a vapour chamber in my 4890 and it was nowhere near quiet at either idle or load. The thing was they had the chamber and then stuck a small heatsink on top which was just stupid and pointless.

Anyway the silentest solution will be one with big heatsink, lots of heatpipes and a big fan or series of big fans.
 
Well, at the moment I have a 5870 Vapor-X, it's essentially silent at idle and inaudible over game sound at load.

So if I was going to buy anything, it would need to have more performance than a 5870 and equally quiet.

The 580 Phantom comes to mind, but it would be nice to know what all the options were.
 
if your looking for a 580 may I suggest Asus GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II is about the quietest and there is a faster model the Matrix Platinum but thats how can we put it hard to get.
 
I shouldn't think there's much that improves upon the Phantom.

My Gigabyte 480gtx SOC, which uses the Windforce cooler, is inaudible at idle. It's also quiet in game when the fan speed is around 50 - 60%.
 
Last edited:
arc@css said:
I shouldn't think there's much that improves upon the Phantom.

My Gigabyte 480gtx SOC, which uses the Windforce cooler, is inaudible at idle. It's also quiet in game when the fan speed is around 50 - 60%.
Click to expand...

My 480 was audible, but not that annoying @ 100%. The 580 was audible at 100% but only just. easily factored out :)

My 6970 however - at 40% was like a jet taking off!!!!!!!!!!!!

hedgey said:
HIS IceQ 6970 and the 6950 Plus has it. its inaudible at 40%.
Click to expand...

Cooler looks FUGLY though :(

Depends whether or not you care about aesthetics though :)

OP - ever thought about going liquid?
 
Cleeecooo said:
Depends whether or not you care about aesthetics though :)

OP - ever thought about going liquid?
Click to expand...

I don't care about aesthetics - I don't buy cases with windows or lights or any of that. (Antec P193 4 ever)

I have thought about going liquid, but since I can cool all my gear near-silently with air (I don't overclock at all), I don't see any need to make the switch.

Sounds like we can summarise with:
NVIDIA - Phantom
ATI - IceQ

What happened to the Vapor-X? I don't see any 6970/6950 versions?
Oh wait yes I do... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-272-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752
 
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