Advice on something quieter than a GTX 260 for Diablo 3

[ironcladlou]

First, I wanted to throw out a general "thank you" to the forum members. Tons of great discussion and advice here.

I built my current machine to be very quiet, and it has served me well for years now. Even the GTX 260 it uses is still perfectly adequate for me EXCEPT when it's under extreme load, at which point it sounds like a jet engine. I'd like to replace it with something that's just as fast for my needs but much quieter under load.

Current relevant specs (courtesy of newegg order history):

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80570E8400
• GPU: EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
• PSU: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3)) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply
• CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
• Hard Drive: Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

This setup has been perfect. It is inaudible over the ambient noise in my living room, and I'd like to keep it that way. Performance wise it suits all my needs. Here are the only requirements for a new video card:

• Must be as quiet as possible under load given the other requirements
• Must drive a single display, 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution
• Must perform at least as well as the GTX 260 for games mentioned below
• Must achieve decent framerates in Diablo 3, Portal 2, and other Source Engine based games in particular. Although I sometimes play Fallout 3 and intend to try Skyrim at some point, I am not concerned with maxing out performance for those games.

Any advice on meeting these goals? My budget is ~$275 or less. I was looking at Geforce 560 TIs and Radeon 7850s based on research on this forum, but I am starting to wonder if they are more than I really need. As I said, the GTX 260 gives me great framerates in everything I want already: it's simply too loud for the newer games (D3, Tribes Ascend, etc).

Thanks for taking the time to read!

 

[Stuka87]

A 7850 most likely is a bit more power than you need, but if you get a dual fan version (Such as the Sapphire) they are really quiet. Especially if you left it at stock clocks. And in the future when you upgrade your PC, that card can move forward into that one.

Any single fan GPU (outside of like a 7750) is going to get fairly loud when under load. So when replacing it, look for a dual fan one with good reviews. The dual fan ones run at much lower RPM and don't spin up nearly as often.

 

[Grooveriding]

Quiet really is a stock 7850 because of its great performance and excellent power consumption and acoustics at stock. That card is more than you need though.

A Radeon 7750 would probably be a good choice for Diablo 3 while running silent. It will perform as you requested in all the games you listed. It would struggle in Skyrim though on anything but medium to medium/high settings.

 

[Jaydip]

Op a 7850 would be a good card.U can also check on some custom 560 Ti 448s.If they are costlier go with 7850.

 

[ironcladlou]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I don't mind paying a little more for a bit of future proofing. I tend to milk my components dry over many years, so if I got another few out of a 7850 I'd consider that a win.

I know there are numerous other threads about 7850s, but I'm curious to get your takes on which 7850 would be the most quiet stock... I've read the MSI Twin Frozr's are nice, but I have had trouble finding them on amazon, newegg, etc, and am not sure if that's because they no longer exist, or because they are just out of them everywhere.

P.S. @ Stuka87: Marathon rocks!

EDIT: I see the MSIs on Tiger Direct but they're $350! Way out of budget unless there's literally no other choice for my requirements...

 

[KompuKare]

Another card to consider might be HD6850, some of those are fairly quiet. I was looking at reviews on silentpcreview and the one they reviewed and liked was an Asus DirectCU:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Asus_AH6850_DirectCU_VGA_Card

Of course if you have the airflow there are passive 6850s as well but there's a premium on those. Although poorer value, if a GTX260 is fast enough something like the 7770 or maybe even the 7750 (slightly slower than GTX260 though) should be fast enough for you and there certainly are passive 7750 cards

 

[Grooveriding]

I have this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127663 in my wife's computer and it is silent under load.

Seems to be out of stock, the other one I would recommend is this one http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=69864&vpn=HD7850-DC2-2GD5&manufacture=ASUS

 

[ironcladlou]

Another card to consider might be HD6850, some of those are fairly quiet. I was looking at reviews on silentpcreview and the one they reviewed and liked was an Asus DirectCU:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Asus_AH6850_DirectCU_VGA_Card

Of course if you have the airflow there are passive 6850s as well but there's a premium on those. Although poorer value, if a GTX260 is fast enough something like the 7770 or maybe even the 7750 (slightly slower than GTX260 though) should be fast enough for you and there certainly are passive 7750 cards

Thanks for the tip. I looked into passive briefly, but am not really willing to pay the premium and performance hit: I don't need it to be absolutely silent, just quiet relative to everything else (as the GTX260 is when idle and under moderate load).

I am curious to understand why the 7750 is considered a quiet option even though it's a single fan (just a good quality, lower RPM fan or something?) It's super cheap...

 

[aaksheytalwar]

7770

 

[Face2Face]

Hmm.. I wonder why your GTX 260 gets so loud. I have been using one for the past week, playing BF3 and Skyrim and it's extremely quiet, even gaming for over an hour. I just got my 6870 back from RMA and I already miss how quiet the GTX 260 was.

 

[ironcladlou]

Hmm.. I wonder why your GTX 260 gets so loud. I have been using one for the past week, playing BF3 and Skyrim and it's extremely quiet, even gaming for over an hour. I just got my 6870 back from RMA and I already miss how quiet the GTX 260 was.

You know what, I wonder that too. I never noticed any noise issues the entire time I've owned it until I tried playing Tribes Ascend (a game which was plagued with issues, btw). Then, the D3 beta. I figured that none of the games I typically play (Source based) stressed it the same way.

Is it possible that something is simply wrong with my driver setup? Maybe something out of whack with the fan control? Perhaps I should do some temperature and fan monitoring and see if something abnormal is going on. I had just sort of taken it for granted that I never had noise issues until I got back into some current games.

 

[KompuKare]

Hmm.. I wonder why your GTX 260 gets so loud. I have been using one for the past week, playing BF3 and Skyrim and it's extremely quiet, even gaming for over an hour. I just got my 6870 back from RMA and I already miss how quiet the GTX 260 was.

That's the problem with reviews though isn't it? Even when not subjective they can only measure the product as the received it etc.

I would guess the OP's card either has a noisier fan (either by design as in poor AIB or because the fan had poor QA) or that the fan is no longer operating as it did when new. Really the only way to be sure the card one buys sounds the same as a card reviewed is to buy a passive card. (I know the premium and selection for passive cards is poor.) That way any noise (aside from coil whine I guess) will always only be from your case fans!

Of course, it's possible the TIM has degraded and the card is running hotter and hence noisier than it otherwise would - and the OP should be able to determine that with a monitoring and stress tool.

 

[MrK6]

Is it possible that something is simply wrong with my driver setup? Maybe something out of whack with the fan control? Perhaps I should do some temperature and fan monitoring and see if something abnormal is going on. I had just sort of taken it for granted that I never had noise issues until I got back into some current games.

You nailed it. See what your temps are and judge from there. If you're happy with the performance there might not be any reason for getting a new card. If you've had the card for a few years now, it probably has a decent collection of dust. Cleaning it out and throwing on a new application of thermal grease might fix your problem entirely.

 

[ironcladlou]

Greenhell6, KompKare, and MrK: You have convinced me that I need to do a little more due diligence before I throw this thing out. An evening spent doing some intense testing sounds well worth it. I don't want to get too far off topic from my original Q, but would you guys mind giving me some quick info on what a good test suite would include for both stress and monitoring? I haven't worried over this stuff in years. I have no problem disassembling the video card, reapplying thermal paste, etc.

Any other links to info for this purpose would be appreciated. For instance, what load percentages I and temperatures to target during gaming sessions etc. I'll do the legwork tonight, but any head start anybody could provide would be really awesome.

Thanks a lot for all this advice.

 

[RussianSensation]

As I said, the GTX 260 gives me great framerates in everything I want already: it's simply too loud for the newer games (D3, Tribes Ascend, etc).

Try to get a deal on an HD6870. Here is quiet one for $141 after coupon and rebate and shipping.

Alternatively, you can pick up a cooler for the GTX260. If you are satisfied with the performance of your card, that would be the cheapest option as opposed to buying a new GPU. Although then you might as well sell the 260 for $50 and upgrade to an HD6870

You could just try replacing the TIM on your card too to lower temps, create custom fan profiles, dust cleaning, etc. MrK6 gave you great advice.

 

[Face2Face]

Cleaning it out and throwing on a new application of thermal grease might fix your problem entirely.

+1

 

[Face2Face]

I can't quite remember what the temps were on the GTX 260 while gaming - I believe anything under 85c is acceptable for the GTX 200 Series. Now that I think about it I had a GTX 280 that would run over 100C while gaming and it never had an issue with artifacting or cutting off.

 

[KompuKare]

Those Arctic Cooling which RS mentioned might not be a bad idea: on their site (http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/assistant/vga/chip/116) they list three which are 260 compatible and the Accelero Xtreme PLUS II would be futureproof in that it list HD7850 compatibility. Mind you, $85 on newegg so not really economically unless you can keep it for a few generations.

 

[vshin]

FPS and Load Noise Levels Running Metro 2033 @1920x1200 DX11 VHQ AAA+16AF

GTX 560 Ti: 31.5 fps, 42 dB(A)
HD 7850: 38 fps, 49 dB(A)


The 7850 is faster but the 560 is the card you want. You won't find a faster card that will run this quiet.

 

[ironcladlou]

Quick update: I'm on lunch and decided to start a stress test with some monitoring using EVGA Precision and OC Scanner X. Furry test has been running for 8 mins and I'm already up to 105C on the GPU, 85% load, fan 100%. This is the loudness I was trying to avoid.

As it ramped up, I noticed as the fan jumped up to 60% it was still nice and quiet.

Haven't tried any games yet to see how much load they produce, but it seems like this thing is running super hot. Reducing the fan speed seems like a really bad idea. I'm definitely going to try cleaning the fan and reapplying thermal compound before anything else.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

There is no way 105c is normal for any card's core released in recent years

 

[ironcladlou]

Before I had to get back to work, I managed to break down the card. What a mess inside. Packed with dirt and dust. Thermal compound on the GPU/HS all dried, crusted and flaking away. I started cleaning it, and will polish it up and reapply some Arctic Silver 5 I happen to have laying around over my next few breaks, and will re-test.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

As5 is electrically conducting, be careful

 

[legcramp]

That should fix it, 105c is crazy but the dust and dried up thermal compound is definitely the problem.

 

[Face2Face]

After awhile that stock thermal compound gets dried up and flaky. I have owned three GTX 280's and all of them would run over 100C when gaming. Little too hot for my liking, but they all still ran when with no issues. Not sure if they are in service today? . I think you will see temps and noise go down when you replace the thermal compound and give the fan a good cleaning.