Anyone else hoping for a silenced 6970 on release?

[boed]

I would love to get a 6970 before the end of the year. They are keeping the lid on the 6970s like it was an apple product though - I can't find squat for benchmarks that look real. I'd consider a 580 GTX as well but so far none of the 580 GTX models have a quiet cooling solutions like the FROZR models or powercolor or gigabyte often give the cards to replace the noisier stock coolers.

Hopefully we'll see something very very soon!

 

[Seero]

I would love to get a 6970 before the end of the year. They are keeping the lid on the 6970s like it was an apple product though - I can't find squat for benchmarks that look real. I'd consider a 580 GTX as well but so far none of the 580 GTX models have a quiet cooling solutions like the FROZR models or powercolor or gigabyte often give the cards to replace the noisier stock coolers.

Hopefully we'll see something very very soon!

First, when there is a fan, there will be noise. There are no passive heatsink for high-end cards for years. Water cooling is the 2nd best solution in terms of noise, followed by full submerge. 580 is not noisy with stock cooler, and water blocks are available.

 

[OCGuy]

No because I don't hope for unrealistic things.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Well, you're right that they are certainly keeping a lid on the 6970. However in two days the 570 releases and I think they will have to leak some type of information as then there will be too many products that dominate their current top of the line at both price points.

 

[boed]

First, when there is a fan, there will be noise. There are no passive heatsink for high-end cards for years. Water cooling is the 2nd best solution in terms of noise, followed by full submerge. 580 is not noisy with stock cooler, and water blocks are available.

I'm not expecting a passive solution. I have a 4870 currently that is very very quiet because it has a nice heatpipe cooling solution with a quiet fan. I didn't have to mod it as it came from the manufacturer with this not stock solution which is much quieter than the stock fan solution at nearly the same price as a stock cooled card.

Water cooling is fine but typically you have to do those yourself. I'd prefer a simple solution that I don't have to modify and risk inadequate cooling the the memory chips if I screw up or pick a bad solution. The 580 GTX new stock cooler is quieter than the 480 was but it is still at least 12 DB louder than my current card. I'm hoping that a well implemented heat pipe solution such as the FROZR or many of the other ones by gigabyte and powercolor will be available soon.

e.g. something like this for the 580 or the 6970 would be nice -

 

[betasub]

OK, but thread title says "silent", which isn't going to happen. Something like the FROZR cooling solution can be very quiet... but AMD is likely to keep tight control of the initial release, so partner-modified coolers may only arrive several weeks later.

 

[boed]

THanks I've corrected the title.

 

[nitromullet]

Not gonna happen. All the first round cards will be reference design. Most likely the 6900s will have a cooler similar to the black and red reference cooler on the 6870.

I usually prefer to stick with the reference coolers anyway. AMD and NV know what they're doing.

Plus, by staying reference you also avoid cheaper PCBs and other components that some of the AIBs use with non-reference cards. IIRC, XFX made a bunch of non-reference 4890s that were complete crap compared to the reference cards. http://www.overclock.net/ati/634248-xfx-4890-bad-batch-discussion.html

Best way to avoid this type of stuff is to buy reference design, and if the cooler is too loud for you replace it yourself with an aftermarket cooler from Arctic Cooling, Zalman, Thermalright, etc.

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm not expecting it to be quiet, I think they are going to up the clocks as high as they dare and go for performance over cool and quiet.

 

[KingstonU]

I'm not expecting it to be quiet, I think they are going to up the clocks as high as they dare and go for performance over cool and quiet.

A lot of people were speculating weeks ago that the delay on the 69XX was due to AMD waiting for the 580 and 570 to be released so they can get a better idea of where the competition is and modify the clocks accordingly. Reports that the cards were ready but the Bios's were still not finalized added to this. Current pricing rumors also further supports this.

If they are aiming to beat the 580 than I would suspect the same as WelshBloke.

 

[boed]

Until the benchmarks are out, I'm still open to both the 6970 and the GTX 580. Looks like I finally have a modified 580 direct for sale to choose from -

 

[BoomerD]

The noise problem is something that concerns me about the newer cards.
I'm in the process of planning a new build, and for most of the mid-range <$200) cards, it seems like everyone's complaining about the noise.
My current card, (Visiontek X850XT PE AGP) sounds like a 747 when the fan ramps up...by far, the noisiest part of my current build. Not just a "whoosh" sound from the movement of air...that I could live with, but it's a "gear drive" sort of whine that's annoying as hell.

 

[deimos3428]

Powercolor is planning a dual-slot passive 6850...maybe someone could make a passive 5-slot 6970. Could even use an external enclosure via a PCIe bus extension, so they're not taking up too much space in the system case. (But if they were gonna do that, who needs it quiet? Just put the external case in the next room...) Ok, fine, not gonna happen.

 

[boed]

The noise problem is something that concerns me about the newer cards.
I'm in the process of planning a new build, and for most of the mid-range <$200) cards, it seems like everyone's complaining about the noise.
My current card, (Visiontek X850XT PE AGP) sounds like a 747 when the fan ramps up...by far, the noisiest part of my current build. Not just a "whoosh" sound from the movement of air...that I could live with, but it's a "gear drive" sort of whine that's annoying as hell.

I think with the mid range $200 cards you have plenty of choices for non stock coolers. It is only when you get to cards like the 580 and the soon to be released 6970 that the selection of quieter coolers seem harder to find. Both of the pictured items above are mid range cards - the later picture is the only "silenced" 580 I've seen so far.

 

[solofly]

I'd consider a 580 GTX as well but so far none of the 580 GTX models have a quiet cooling solutions like the FROZR models or powercolor or gigabyte often give the cards to replace the noisier stock coolers.

Hopefully we'll see something very very soon!

The cooler itself is fantastic. I can't speak for the effectiveness of the 580's stock cooler, but the Accelero Xtreme cooler is quieter at 100% than the 5870's stock at 30% and temps rarely ever reached above 60c.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-127-_-Product

 

[BoomerD]

I think with the mid range $200 cards you have plenty of choices for non stock coolers. It is only when you get to cards like the 580 and the soon to be released 6970 that the selection of quieter coolers seem harder to find. Both of the pictured items above are mid range cards - the later picture is the only "silenced" 580 I've seen so far.

I'm looking at the EVGA overclocked 460 EE card as well as the XFX 5850 cards. Both are fairly close in price, performance seems to be pretty close, (single card only) so my big concern will be noise.
The only other XFX card I've ever owned was one of the GS 7800 AGP cards about 4-5 years ago...Made a TERRIBLE noise...turned out to be a piece of plastic film around the fan opening that SHOULD have been removed at the factory.

 

[Grooveriding]

At idle and underclocked/undervolted the 6970 is idling at 45 with a 25% fan speed. Hard to get much out of what that means for load conditions. I know my GTX 480 idles at 45 with a 45% fan speed.

 

[ronnn]

Since I've just bought, the greed side of me hopes the 6970 is just a little more of the same. The other side is hoping for a card so good, that new games are designed just to utilize the power...........


Quiet computing is also an anal thing for me.