Are Video Cards Loud?

[aman74]

I'm building a new system and so far most components have been chosen for they're quietness. I want to get one of the modern cards like a 9500Pro or 9700non-pro. It's hard to find a good place to buy the Sapphire boards that are just like the ATI boards, the new ones out now are the black PCB's with a new fan style. Anyone know if either the ATI fan or Sapphire fans are loud? As long as they're not louder than my stock P4 2.4B cpu fan I guess it will be ok. Also, can they easily be replaced with a quieter fan if need be?

Thanks

Anthony

 

[thorin]

Anyone know if either the ATI fan or Sapphire fans are loud?

I guess that depends on your definition of loud. Video cards aren't loud the cooling solutions implemented on them "can" be.

Also, can they easily be replaced with a quieter fan if need be?

The cooling solutions can be replaced with a little bit of work, there are lots of people here who have done this and there are lots of tutorials online.

Thorin

 

[aman74]

Ummm............OK Are the cooling solutions on the cards I mentioned louder than a stock Intel cooling solution? Which is what I asked.

 

[nick1985]

if your worried about sound, just buy a geforce fx. its really quiet

 

[bsr]

LOL, no the card fans are silent. Cpu fan will probly be the loudest thing in there unless your running many case fans. Im sure you can find the Db specs on the stock one then find a decent heatsink that will be about the same Db level.

 

[stncttr908]

If you're getting a GFFX 5800 Ultra, which I'd bet you aren't, then yes, they are. If you're not, then no, it's nothing you can't deal with.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: Livedistortion
Ummm............OK Are the cooling solutions on the cards I mentioned louder than a stock Intel cooling solution? Which is what I asked.

I doubt it.

Thorin

 

[aman74]

Sure, I'll just go buy the loudest card available. Why bother replying??? What if I didn't know anything about that card and went and bought it? Would that be funny to you?

 

[oldfart]

Video card fans can be very loud. My Geforce 3 HS/F was the loudest part in my system hands down. The GF4 Ti4600 on the other hans, was very quiet. I'll have a 9700 Pro today (hopefully) and hope it will also be quiet. I'll post how it compares to the others.

 

[aman74]

Thanks!

 

[pukemon]

Originally posted by: oldfart
Video card fans can be very loud. My Geforce 3 HS/F was the loudest part in my system hands down. The GF4 Ti4600 on the other hans, was very quiet. I'll have a 9700 Pro today (hopefully) and hope it will also be quiet. I'll post how it compares to the others.

I wonder if this is true for all GF3's based on the reference design, cuz the fan on my GF3 is freaking noisy... then again so are the Western Digital hard drives... (compared to the Seagates in my other box)

 

[DeRusto]

on all of the video cards i have owned the fans have been very quiet, there were a few that used very cheap fans that became loud after about a year of use, but they all started out silent. my radeon 8500 is silent, and my friends 9700AIW is very quiet as well. both of my old gf2 cards had quiet fans but they wore out quickly.

 

[oldfart]

That Green nV reference fan had a real "Howl" to it. I was shocked at how noisy that little ah heck was! I got rid of it immediately. I replased it with a Chrome Orb, which was also too loud. I took off the "TT" lid, and ran the fan @ 7 Volts. That made it nice and quiet. I was impressed with the nV ref GF4 Ti HS/Fan. Very quiet, well designed.

 

[bluemax]

I've had two retail ATI cards, the 8500LE (twice) and 7500. Both cards had fairly noisy fans (but then, that's only my opinion.. the rest of the system is so darned quiet I could definately notice the additional fan...)

I'm hoping to not even have to worry about it by sticking with a card that's cool enough to run with just a heatsink - no fan.
The Radeon 9600 should do the trick (MAYBE...) but the GFFX 5200 non-Ultra is decently speedy for a fanless card (provided you get the 128-bit version!)

If the TV output quality is good on the 5200 NP, and the 9600 continues to be delayed, I think I've chosen my next card.
That's <$100US well spent.

 

[GnomeCop]

"screamin" fast graphic cards can be loud

 

[AtomicDude512]

Originally posted by: nick1985
if your worried about sound, just buy a geforce fx. its really quiet

LOSER!

No acutually they can be loud, the fan on my MSI GeForce4 Ti 4200 is about 40Db! Yuk! I am getting passive cooling soon.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Livedistortion
Sure, I'll just go buy the loudest card available. Why bother replying??? What if I didn't know anything about that card and went and bought it? Would that be funny to you?

yes, that would have been hilarious

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Livedistortion
Sure, I'll just go buy the loudest card available. Why bother replying??? What if I didn't know anything about that card and went and bought it? Would that be funny to you?

yes, that would have been hilarious

Well we know who the as*hole of the group is now don't we.

Bill

 

[oldfart]

No acutually they can be loud, the fan on my MSI GeForce4 Ti 4200 is about 40Db! Yuk! I am getting passive cooling soon.

Yeah, MSI had to screw with the nV ref Gf4 design and put a different high rpm han in the card. I remember when the GF4 cards came out, reviewers commented on the noise.

 

[arcenite]

My Sapphire 8500LE fan is loud when i first turn the compy on...

Bill

 

[zxczxc]

Try this fanless heatsink. http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/zm80a-hp.htm You can buy it from newegg.com
I installed it on my Radeon 9700 non-pro and can still run at above pro speed (330/330Mhz) without a fan!

 

[aman74]

What kind of non-pro card did you have with what fan? Was it too loud before the Zalman?

Thanks

 

[bluemax]

The Zalman is a very nice unit indeed! Pity it's too large to fit in my Shuttle XPC case and prohibitively expensive.

 

[KDOG]

I have a ATI 9500PRO (retail) and I can't hear it at all hardly. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you get one of those FXs', which you aren't apparently. Its the other crap in your system like your CPU fans, power supply, your case fans, your hard drive(s) that'll drive you nuts.

 

[oldfart]

I posted that I would report on the noise of my 9700 Pro compared to the GF4 Ti4600. Here it is:

The 9700P I have is a Gigabyte GV-R9700 PRO. I got this card used as a swap plus cash for my Ti4600. The fan shown on the web site has 7 blades. Mine has 11. I've see pics of other 9700P that have 9, I've seen some that have more. The 11 blade fan model I have is MUCH too loud for my tastes. It has a high pitched whine to it. It is the noisiest part of my system. It is loud enough that I will have to do something to quiet it down.

The nV reference fan used on the GF4 Ti4600 was one of the quietest I've ever had. Quieter than my GF2, GF3, Radeon VIVO and 9700P. The only card that made less noise was my Voodoo 3 which was passive.