Which quiet graphics card?

[southernorth]

The Palit card might very well be slightly quieter (when under load) than the EVGA card due to having an extra fan. But, I always look at graphics cards as a complete package, customer support, RMA procedures etc. In that regard, the EVGA wins hands down.

But basically, you won't be disappointed with either from what I've read. Both cards are good and quiet for the money, not as quiet as the MSI card I linked but at nearly £300 that is way way too much for a 1060 anyway.


Perhaps most importantly, the Palit card is in stock at the moment as well.

Or you could get:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gain...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-20b-gw.html

This gainward card is identical to the Palit card, apart from a slightly different aesthetic to the plastic atop the card.

 

[Aretak]

However the Fury will not be anywhere near as quiet as I think you're expecting. A 1060 will be much quieter because it produces far far less heat.

Whilst it may be producing more heat, it also has a much better cooler. I had a Fury Nitro for a couple of weeks and it was incredibly quiet, and I say that as somebody extremely sensitive to noise. The fans barely ever broke 1000RPM, which is what the fans on the 290X I'm using now run at idle (with closer to 2000RPM under load). It's an extremely well-built cooler. I'd go as far as to say the absolute best that I've experienced, given the TDP it's dissipating. Even the much-lauded Vapor-X cooler for the 290X was far, far louder.

 

[Floob]

Thanks very much for all the info and opinions. Its definitely helping me getting closer to playing No Mans Sky at a better quality!

Here is where I am so far:

- Would prefer NVIDIA to AMD (Suckered in by brand image I'm afraid)
- 1060 seems to be the place to be, as it will achieve great 1080p performance yet draw less power which should hopefully help with reducing noise.
- EVGA and Palit appear to do the most popular version of this card
- Palit quiet as 2 fans (which seem to spin slower, so less noise to get same cooling) and has the no fan rule until 50c, EVGA SC (which seems to have better/quieter cooling than non-SC) and has the new firmware to possibly reduce fan noise when PC isnt doing much.


Noise Comments:
Palit 1060 Super Jetstream @ 38 dBA under load (33 idle)
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/palit_geforce_gtx_1060_super_jetstream_review,11.html
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/94828-palit-geforce-gtx-1060-super-jetstream/?page=11
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_1060_Super_JetStream/22.html

EVGA 1060 SC @ 38 dBA under load (38 idle)
http://www.legitreviews.com/nvidia-evga-geforce-gtx-1060-video-card-review_184301/11


I guess my outstanding questions would be:
- Given I'm on a fanless card now (Palit 750 Ti), will any of the fan based ones blow me out of my chair when I turn it on? Will it throw away the benefit of my silent PC? Bearing in mind I only really care about noise when not gaming.
- Would the Palit still fit in my case/slot (see above for image) as it looks quite a bit longer than the EVGA (248mm vs 173mm)?

So its essentially either one of these, or I stick with my silent card

EVGA GTX 1060 SC
http://www.evga.com/products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=5fa28d37-0fb1-42be-8b9b-04223cb59d85

Palit GTX 1060 Super Jetstream
http://www.palit.com/palit/vgapro.php?id=2664&lang=en&pn=NE51060S15J9-1060J&tab=ov

 

[nashathedog]

Yeah that chart is very wrong.

However the Fury will not be anywhere near as quiet as I think you're expecting. A 1060 will be much quieter because it produces far far less heat.

I have a Palit 1070 super jetstream and it's completely silent to me, and I'm very picky about loudness of components as well.

Are you kidding? If you haven't owned one how would you know?
You could make the point that noise level tolerances are subjective but at the end of the day no noise is no noise and the Sapphire Fury Tri-x is an excellent card that doesn't even boot the fans up until you hit a gaming load and under load it remains quieter than the Corsair silent edition case fans I use, Simply put I never hear my card unless I manually put the fans higher than they've ever gone under auto use. Add that the the complete lack of any coil whine and the Fury has proven itself to be a brilliant card to live with.

 

[Panos]

Yea, it's just a matter of price and availability. Also not sure if the 4GB will become a net hindrance over time, even with the benefits from DX12/Vulcan it would maybe have over the 1060. Only time will tell.

4GB HBM is not the same at 4GB GDDR5.
With the texture compression etc, the 4GB HBM is more than 6GB effective as capacity, and way faster.

 

[nashathedog]

@southernorth
Thanks very much for the link - is that generally seen as the 1060 to go for?
I'll hunt one down.

Passmark? Totally useless. Using that to determine where a card sits compared to others is impossible, It can't even differentiate between a Fury and Fury X apparently.

You'll be better off using this:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_1060_Super_JetStream/23.html

 

[nashathedog]

4GB HBM is not the same at 4GB GDDR5.
With the texture compression etc, the 4GB HBM is more than 6GB effective as capacity, and way faster.

No it isn't, Faster bandwidth yes but claiming it has the capacity of more than 6gb's of DDR5 is rubbish.
If you can show an example of this being the case I'll happily accept it but I already know you can't, Considering that you actually own one making this claims baffles me all the more. I've seen games where it's improved compression allows it to remain under it's 4 gb limit when other cards are hitting 4 to 4.5 or a bit more at best but that's it. But if you can show example of this please do.

 

[southernorth]

For the Palit card, I was thinking more of:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pali...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-03k-pl.html

It's the only one I've looked into. The Palit GeForce GTX 1060 Super Jetstream you linked is probably better, but costs a bit more.



Basically, I was in pretty much the same situation you were in for the past few weeks. It came down to Palit or EVGA and I decided on EVGA mainly due to brand name quality. Performance wise, they are pretty much the same. I just really didn't like the idea of having to wait a few weeks if my (Palit) card went wrong, as you usually have to send them to Hong Kong to be fixed. EVGA have a UK RMA centre, so returns would be a lot faster.


Just saw in your OP you mention DOOM and No Mans Sky. With Doom, AMD cards have the edge at the moment, as they can use the Vulcan API. With No Man's Sky, the game seems terribly optimized and people are even struggling to hit 60fps with GTX 1080s.

 

[southernorth]

Both cards are silent when not gaming, fans don't spin.

 

[Floob]

Both cards are silent when not gaming, fans don't spin.

That sounds ideal, and is what I wanted to hear. I think I'll end up getting the EVGA SC.

 

[southernorth]

That sounds ideal, and is what I wanted to hear. I think I'll end up getting the EVGA SC.

If you have any specific games you want to see performance of, I can see if I have them as well and make a video for you. I have the SC with an i5 3570k @ 4.3ghz if that helps.

 

[Lokken86]

Here is where I am so far:

- Would prefer NVIDIA to AMD (Suckered in by brand image I'm afraid)
- 1060 seems to be the place to be

You're wasting peoples time. Just get the 1060.

 

[southernorth]

You're wasting peoples time. Just get the 1060.

Also not sure where you got the Fury Nitro for £300 figure from. They're £320 new, only the used B-grade Fury's with a 90 day warranty are £300.

 

[Aretak]

Also not sure where you got the Fury Nitro for £300 figure from. They're £320 new, only the used B-grade Fury's with a 90 day warranty are £300.

They were £300 for several weeks recently, but yes, went back up to £320 in the past few days.

 

[Floob]

You're wasting peoples time. Just get the 1060.

Sorry for wasting your time. Will do, thanks.

 

[nashathedog]

I think you underestimate the Fury. I have the Tri X. You can't even hear the fans up to 50% speed and running at those speeds temps in games will barely touch 50c.

I was just looking at this review article that was posted earlier in the thread and the results are a joke, According to them the Sapphire Fury Tri-x is one of the loudest cards at idle even though it has the no spin feature meaning it is completely silent, Then it shows the load volume to be only 0.5 db louder than the idle volume making it one of the quietest at load, It's like they pull the numbers out of their butts. http://www.hardware-mag.de/artikel/grafikkarten/pascal_kfa2_geforce_gtx_1070_exoc/15/

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Get some soundproofing for your rig and some headphones.

Sorted.

 

[Aretak]

Noise level readings are always all over the place, given the less than ideal conditions your average graphics card reviewer is going to be carrying them out in. I find fan RPM numbers far more helpful. Most have a very similar noise profile at various RPMs, and I know that a card which only gets up to 1000RPM or just over under load (like the Nitro or the 1070 Gaming X/FTW that I owned) are going to be inaudible, in my Define R4 at least. Whereas 1500RPM+ is always getting into the audible range, with 2000+ being insufferable.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Also not sure where you got the Fury Nitro for £300 figure from. They're £320 new, only the used B-grade Fury's with a 90 day warranty are £300.

There is one here for £300:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...ess-graphics-card-r9-fury-4tf9-gx-234-xf.html

Seems quiet:

http://www.legitreviews.com/xfx-radeon-r9-fury-triple-dissipation-video-card-review_179202/9

Edit!!

The Powercolor RX480 Red Devil is meant to be quiet too:

https://www.computerbase.de/2016-07/powercolor-radeon-rx-480-red-devil-test/
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_radeon_rx_480_red_devil_review,8.html

 

[Omaeka]

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-18f-gi.html

Practically a silent card. Great manufacturer. I have the 1070 and it's perfect.