Card noise, heat, etc

[CodeguruX]

I'm thinking of going with a Geforce 770 gtx, but I have no idea on these newer cards in terms of how loud the fan is, or if it needs a really huge power source, or whatever. In terms of making the best machine for gaming purposes, ie anything and everything that's out now and will come out, is the 770 in the field of good price range, meaning I can SLI it up if I want, and able to run on a 700-800W reliable power source? Also, which cards kill your eardrums. It's not worth it if I can't stand the noise...

 

[Techhog]

Noise and head depend on the cooler, not the GPU. Any GPU can run cool and relatively quiet with adequate cooling. Asus and EVGA seem to make great coolers for the 770. 800W is enough for 770 SLI. 770 is at a good price now. The only cards you're really going to want to avoid are the R9 290, R9 290X, and maybe the Titan and 780 Ti depending on how much power consumption you find acceptable (though any single GPU card will be more than fine with 650W or or less, and any SLI or Crossfire 2 GPU set-up will have no issues with 850W).

 

[blackened23]

I'm thinking of going with a Geforce 770 gtx, but I have no idea on these newer cards in terms of how loud the fan is, or if it needs a really huge power source, or whatever. In terms of making the best machine for gaming purposes, ie anything and everything that's out now and will come out, is the 770 in the field of good price range, meaning I can SLI it up if I want, and able to run on a 700-800W reliable power source? Also, which cards kill your eardrums. It's not worth it if I can't stand the noise...

All of the 770 cards are quiet, the cards you want to avoid are reference AMD cards. Aftermarket (AMD) editions will be fine, but you want a reference shroud for SLI or CFX. I would suggest avoiding the 290 because it definitely is loud based on my usage of the reference cooler over several years (it is the same under the hood as the 6970 and 7970 shrouds, and those were loud at 47/55%) - and aftermarket designs will not be here until the end of December or January according to rumors.

770 with SLI will be fine, but i'd suggest trying to snag one with a reference cooler if at all possible. Open air coolers are great for single card, but not necessarily the best for SLI. As far as power supply, i'd suggest 850W just to be safe. That will allow you to run both cards and perhaps overclock them slightly as well - you can get away with a lower power supply, but it will eat into any CPU/GPU overclocking headroom that you could get otherwise with a better PSU.

 

[Arkaign]

Yep, wait for aftermarket 290s that are well reviewed to be quiet. Otherwise the 770 is a very good choice as well, and the reference ones are very moderate in terms of noise unless you OC a lot.

 

[CodeguruX]

Yeah, I'm probably not going to overclock at all. I'd just like to get a PSU that is not crap, but still up in the range of I guess... 800W maybe? I dunno, I'm just paranoid about buying a PSU that doesn't have the amps or whatever and chokes my GPU all to hell. And x2 if I get an SLI setup and a PSU that can't handle it.

So 770gtx seems to be the best bet, as the 780 starts to get really damn expensive. Does anyone have any input on which company has the most reliable ones? Obviously the lowest price is great, but I've gotten cheap geforce cards before that just crapped out in 6 months. And the reference cooling doesn't seem to come with any of the cards I'm looking at on newegg, but most of them say SLI support, which I guess doesn't mean much...

 

[Big Roger]

Hi, If you buy this card be aware that the minimum fan speed is set to a default of 41%. This makes it quite loud.

There is a BIOS on softpedia that is compatible for these cards and others and for mine has set it to a minimum of 28%. Much better

I'm in contact now with eVGA to see if they can offer me a BIOS as I want it from the source. Just a heads up. Not sure if it's the same with other makes.

I have a Be Quiet Pro 10 650W. Works perfectly. If Sli,..which I don't bother with as not running dual monitor, then it's more than enough.