GTX 470 is exceedingly loud

[toyota]

Then what could it possibly be? FPS is good in Just Cause 2 (hitting exactly what you're talking about, 40 - 45 fps).

if you are positive that physx is off then I am not sure then. are you playing with any AA because I know it takes a big fps chunk in Mafia 2. is vsync off? what drivers are you using? also have you checked your Nvidia control panel to make sure you are not forcing anything on?

For both the monitors I'm using, the res goes up to 1920x1200, I just choose to tone them back to a lower resolution because of my eyesight.

sorry for jumping the gun then but 1280x1024 irks me. you have a 16:10 widescreen monitor so you need to just use a smaller widescreen res like 1680x1050 or 1440x900.

 

[Menalaus]

if you are positive that physx is off then I am not sure then. are you playing with any AA because I know it takes a big fps chunk in Mafia 2. is vsync off? what drivers are you using? also have you checked your Nvidia control panel to make sure you are not forcing anything on?

Amazing what AA and AF off does to the game. I'm getting about 50FPS constant.

sorry for jumping the gun then but 1280x1024 irks me. you have a 16:10 widescreen monitor so you need to just use a smaller widescreen res like 1680x1050 or 1440x900.

Yeah, my brother shakes his head about it as well. It's just a resolution I've been so used to and with a bit of an OCD streak that wants me having a perfectly square resolution sort of all fits together with my poor eyesight. I've never been a fan of widescreen, but they were gifts, so I don't turn them away.

 

[lopri]

It should look something like this when your done.

I suppose that'll help lowering the temperature but I am really not sure if I would do that to a brand new card..

 

[Capt Caveman]

I recently replaced my 8800GT with a GTX 470 and I've found it to be quieter and cooler.

My 8800GT sounded like a hair dryer and would go over 80c.

My GTX 470 get a little loud when gaming but so are the fans on my pc. I believe the fan runs at 30% at idle and up to 70% gaming. Temps at load reach 78c.

What kind of case do you have? Based on my experience, it may be case ventilation.

What brand of card do you have? If it's EVGA and it didn't come with it, you can get a high flow back bracket that has helped drop my temps another 2c. Note, I also use a pci fan to help improve air flow.

 

[RussianSensation]

The card hits +90c easily while playing Just Cause 2, which makes the fan kick in. The entire play session is just the fan continuing to work as hard as possible to keep the temperatures down. What gives? Did I just pay $320 for a loud fan? Any suggestions to this problem?

Can't escape the fact that GTX470/480 are hot and loud cards given their inadequate cooler + large die size. If noise is really a concern, 5850/GTX460 would have served you much better.

However, as I suspected 2 main things are at fault (as is almost always the case with every 470/480).

#1 - You have your fan set to Automatic. No wonder it's ramping up to 92%. You know why it does that? Because running automatic fan profile means that the card takes too long to adjust fan speeds to deal with the hot air. Then once the temperatures rise too quickly, it has to ramp up from 40-50% all the way to 90-100% to deal with the sudden heat.

This is why a manual fan profile is crucial for 470/480 cards. Make sure your fan speed ramps in EVGA Precision Tool or better yet MSI afterburner from 50*C to 80*C. Manually connect the fan speed line from 40% fan speed @ 50*C to 75/80% fan speed @ 80*C. This way your card will ramp up fan speed much more aggressively and not wait until the last minute when it's already overheating resulting in massive 92-100% fan speed rampup!

#2 - More importantly, your case has inadequate airlfow. A tiny 80mm top exhaust fan and the same small 80mm back exhaust fans. So you have 0 front intake fans, 0 side fans. How do you expect to have any airflow in your case? You are losing at least 10*C right there to cases such as Antec 1200, Azza Solano, etc. I am not kidding when I say that. I got rid of my old Thermaltake Soprano case for the Azza and my CPU temperatures alone fell 8*C on the Megahalems. I can't imagine running a Fermi card in such a case.

I've no idea how to max volt the card. Idle temperature gets to 52c, so I'm guessing airflow is the culprit here (40% of the fan speed going--can't hear it though).

My EVGA GTX470 only idles at 38-41*C at 33% fan speed. Here you go - case airflow is for sure one of your major problems.

#3 - You are probably running stock Intel CPU cooler too. If that's the case, even more heat is trapped in your case. Most systems with 470/480 cards probably have setups where the CPU cooler has an fan which is eitehr aimed at the top of the case with its own external exhaust fan or at the back of the case with at 120mm fan. This way the heat from the CPU is also exhausted from the case, which isn't the case for you either. The hot air from the CPU being trapped inside your case is only exacerbated by problem #2.

Once you set a manual fan profile, things should be much better. However, you won't have <80*C temperatures in your case without high noise levels.

The cheapest and most effective way to lower your videocard noise and temperatures would be to grab a GPU cooler like Zalman ZF3000 or similar.

This is probably the most effective method. I'd consider adding case fans too if you have the budget for it. Otherwise, just sell the card on Craigslist and pick up a 5850

 

[Cookie Monster]

If heat and noise is really bothering you, you can three things.

Firstly, download MSI afterburner and setup your own fan profile. The stock fan profile ramps your fan to unbearable levels as soon as you reach 90C. I have mine setup in a way that it has a more linear relationship. so if the temps go up, the fan speed will adjust itself a little higher etc. With the EVGA highflow bracket and changing out my TIM, I reach 82C in Furmark.

Secondly, try undervolting using the software from above. It will shave 5C or so along with power consumption. Stock voltage for GTX470s are 0.987V (well the initial batch was). I have mine at 0.962 and perfectly stable at stock core clocks. Note that these cards increment/decrement at 0.025V.

Lastly, try to get a 3rd party cooler like the Zalman VF3000F cooler if its really a concern. It will drastically reduce the noise and heat while also decreasing your power consumption (which is a nice thing to have). But all the heat is dumped into the case, so you will need good ventilation.

 

[amenx]

I have a 470 and it can be hot and loud. But MSI Afterburner can fix that. I find the noise is OK at 70&#37; but can be distracting at 80% or more. So I set my fan profile to only kick in to 80% when going above 88c. At 70% it never goes above 83c except when using a high stress program (furmark).

 

[4ghz]

I suppose that'll help lowering the temperature but I am really not sure if I would do that to a brand new card..

You're not really doing anything to the card. The bracket comes off after removing 3 screws and the 4 dvi screws. I certainly didn't use the rotary tool on the bracket while it was on the card. And if your worried about ruining the stock bracket just buy a high flow one from evga for $10 and gut that one instead while keeping the stock bracket for rmas etc. The evga high flow ones are actually easier to gut anyway.

 

[lopri]

Ah.. Now I see that looking closely. At first glance it looked like half the bracket was sawed off or something.

 

[Will Robinson]

Tell us again how Fermi's heat,noise and power consumption don't really matter.
The OP needs to know that.

 

[Menalaus]

I recently replaced my 8800GT with a GTX 470 and I've found it to be quieter and cooler.

My 8800GT sounded like a hair dryer and would go over 80c.

My GTX 470 get a little loud when gaming but so are the fans on my pc. I believe the fan runs at 30% at idle and up to 70% gaming. Temps at load reach 78c.

What kind of case do you have? Based on my experience, it may be case ventilation.

What brand of card do you have? If it's EVGA and it didn't come with it, you can get a high flow back bracket that has helped drop my temps another 2c. Note, I also use a pci fan to help improve air flow.

The case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3332167&amp;SID=

Yeah, we've pretty much got it narrowed down to ventilation at this point. Just bought a couple of case fans. I'll let you guys know what sort of change there is when they get here.

70% would be wonderful. To me that's quiet.

Can't escape the fact that GTX470/480 are hot and loud cards given their inadequate cooler + large die size. If noise is really a concern, 5850/GTX460 would have served you much better.

Keep in mind everyone has a different threshold for what they think is noisy. From the reviews I read, at 70% (as the above poster has said), the db levels are just fine. And I've listened in on when the fans are at 70% for the card--they're fine for my ears. What's unbearable is when they're running hot at 92% trying to over work on the 90c temp. To anyone that isn't deaf, that's unbearably loud. We're talking about running car engine loud.

#1 - You have your fan set to Automatic. No wonder it's ramping up to 92%. You know why it does that? Because running automatic fan profile means that the card takes too long to adjust fan speeds to deal with the hot air. Then once the temperatures rise too quickly, it has to ramp up from 40-50% all the way to 90-100% to deal with the sudden heat.

I have to admit, that's what I read in reviews as well. I came here look for help with this specific problem, as I'm not sure how to go about setting things manually without royally screwing up the hardware.

This is why a manual fan profile is crucial for 470/480 cards. Make sure your fan speed ramps in EVGA Precision Tool or better yet MSI afterburner from 50*C to 80*C. Manually connect the fan speed line from 40% fan speed @ 50*C to 75/80% fan speed @ 80*C. This way your card will ramp up fan speed much more aggressively and not wait until the last minute when it's already overheating resulting in massive 92-100% fan speed rampup!

I'm looking at the MSI settings at the moment, and I have to confess I'm thoroughly lost. I'm looking at the advanced settings for the fan and I'm looking at a curve. It looks like that 50c, the fan goes to 50% and then progresses further up until 80% at 80c (as you've said). Are you saying I should move up the curve to 80% at 50c? Because the lowest the temperature gets now is 51c (idle). I promise it's not the space or the room--the tower is in the open and it's about 73F in this room.

#2 - More importantly, your case has inadequate airlfow. A tiny 80mm top exhaust fan and the same small 80mm back exhaust fans. So you have 0 front intake fans, 0 side fans. How do you expect to have any airflow in your case? You are losing at least 10*C right there to cases such as Antec 1200, Azza Solano, etc. I am not kidding when I say that. I got rid of my old Thermaltake Soprano case for the Azza and my CPU temperatures alone fell 8*C on the Megahalems. I can't imagine running a Fermi card in such a case.

Yeah, I think we've pretty much pin-pointed the lack of air flow being the culprit here. Just put in the order for a couple of 120mm 2000RPM fans.

#3 - You are probably running stock Intel CPU cooler too. If that's the case, even more heat is trapped in your case. Most systems with 470/480 cards probably have setups where the CPU cooler has an exhaust fan (either to the top of the case, or to the back of the case). This way the heat from the CPU is also exhausted from the case, which isn't the case for you either. The hot air from the CPU being trapped inside your case is only exacerbated by problem #2.

There's an exhaust for the CPU for the side panel.

Secondly, try undervolting using the software from above. It will shave 5C or so along with power consumption. Stock voltage for GTX470s are 0.987V (well the initial batch was). I have mine at 0.962 and perfectly stable at stock core clocks. Note that these cards increment/decrement at 0.025V.

As I said previously, I've never used MSI before, and messing around with voltage doesn't sound very safe.

Lastly, try to get a 3rd party cooler like the Zalman VF3000F cooler if its really a concern. It will drastically reduce the noise and heat while also decreasing your power consumption (which is a nice thing to have). But all the heat is dumped into the case, so you will need good ventilation.

I've looked into this, but it appears to be not on sale yet.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm looking at the MSI settings at the moment, and I have to confess I'm thoroughly lost. Are you saying I should move up the curve to 80&#37; at 50c?

No, move up from 40% at 50c to 80% at 80c --> like this to try it out:

40% fan speed from 0*C - 50*C
Now connect the dot from 50*C @ 40% fan speed to 80*C @ 80% fan speed

See if this fixes anything.

(I actually have mine set even more conservative at 33% fan speed for the portion of 0*C - 50*C, then 45 degrees straight line from 50*C @ 33% fan speed to 80*C @ 75% fan speed).

 

[Menalaus]

No. Do something similar to this to try it out:

40% fan speed from 0*C - 50*C
Now connect the dot from 50*C @ 40% fan speed to 80*C @ 80% fan speed

See if this fixes anything.

(I actually have mine set even more conservative at 33% fan speed for the portion of 0*C - 50*C, then 45 degrees straight line from 50*C @ 33% fan speed to 80*C @ 75% fan speed).

This is generally what the default setting was. It's alright though, I did some experimenting of my own. 0 - 50c = 50% fan speed. 50 - 60c = 70%. 80c = 80%. Anything hotter than 80c would progress up the food chain for that.

It helped out a bit. I wasn't topping out at 90% fan speed in JC2 like I was before after a minute of gameplay. Although after a couple of minutes the temperature just continued to slowly rise up. I stopped playing once it hit 90c.

 

[4ghz]

This is generally what the default setting was. It's alright though, I did some experimenting of my own. 0 - 50c = 50% fan speed. 50 - 60c = 70%. 80c = 80%. Anything hotter than 80c would progress up the food chain for that.

It helped out a bit. I wasn't topping out at 90% fan speed in JC2 like I was before after a minute of gameplay. Although after a couple of minutes the temperature just continued to slowly rise up. I stopped playing once it hit 90c.

The last thing you can probably try is lowering the voltage. What does MSI afterburner read your stock core voltage as? 1.000 was the stock voltage for both my 470s. Its completely safe to play with the voltage in MSI afterburner. The worst that will happen is that the computer will reboot or lock up. MSI includes this program with their cards and they put a max safety cap at 1.087 so no one fries their card.

 

[Menalaus]

The last thing you can probably try is lowering the voltage. What does MSI afterburner read your stock core voltage as? 1.000 was the stock voltage for both my 470s. Its completely safe to play with the voltage in MSI afterburner. The worst that will happen is that the computer will reboot or lock up. MSI includes this program with their cards and they put a max safety cap at 1.087 so no one fries their card.

I turned the settings on and it looks like it's at 1012 (which I assume is 1.012).

 

[Cookie Monster]

Try taking it down one increment. So it would be at 0.987mV. Now run a stressing tool like heaven benchmark and see if you see any lockups or graphical anamolies. If its stable, you should see some decrease in temps.

edit - Overvolting is usually not safe since it can damage ICs. Undervolting however is safe.

 

[nitromullet]

Tell us again how Fermi's heat,noise and power consumption don't really matter.
The OP needs to know that.

There is no perfect video card. If there was I'm sure most of us would buy it, regardless of manufacturer.

 

[Hauk]

About his case.....on Newegg\

2 x 80mm Blue UV Sensitive LED Fans -1 at rear, 1 on top

Nice size case with little air flow = hot gtx470

+1

 

[Phynaz]

How I wish I could return it now...there's no return policy for this card however (just 30 days for replacement returns). Which means I'll have to go with better airflow. Any suggestions how to do that with my current case?

Talk to Newegg and tell them you want to exchange it, not return it for cash and see what they say. Be polite and offer to take a lower priced card such as a 5850 in exchange.

 

[Capt Caveman]

A couple of small suggestions:

EVGA High Flow Bracket - $10 will help drop a few degrees, you can also use a dremel tool to do the same

PCI Slot Fan to help improve air flow

Replace your fans with higher speed ones

 

[Seero]

I think either the GPU is defective or the HS is poorly assembled. Try to feel the temp of the card with your hand. Don't touch the heatpipe before touching the cover. If the cover is very hot, then the heatpipe will burn your finger. Well it won't burn, but it will hurt.

Also can and see if the airflow within the card is blocked by feeling the exhaust of the card.

 

[Janooo]

Sell the card and buy new one (460/5850/5870).

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Really no excuse for this. 470/480's are just too loud and too hot. I just tune it out. Don't feel like playing with fan speeds, aftermarket cooler, etc.. Other than the heat and loud fan I really like my 470. Good thing you got an evga. Never know how these things are gonna hold up to these extreme temps.

 

[Bill Brasky]

OP I would look into what you can do in terms of mounting some 120mm fans into that case if it supports it.

At a minimum if you can get a 120mm taking in air at the front and another 120mm expelling air at the back that will help.

Try to get some decent high rpm fans that can push air since you will only be using two

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...facture=Scythe
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...facture=Scythe

Of course this will likely just offset fan speed from your card to the case fans But some airflow will help, the first fan I linked is really loud, the second not so much.

I doubt you have a defective card, if you are not experiencing lockups or issues with the card. These cards get hot is all and once they get hot, they get loud.

90% fan speed must be pretty obnoxious. My cards will go to about 75% fan under load and I find that too loud.

Those are nice fans, but I highly recommend the slipstream line instead. Up to 74 cfm, pwm connections, extremely quiet, and cheaper.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10026/fan-639/Scythe_Slip_Stream_120mm_x_25mm_PWM_Fan_-_SY1225SL12LM-P.html

edit: crap, too late. Didn't read the whole thread before posting.

 

[taserbro]

I used to be very skeptical about the factory heatsink installation being as horrible as people make it sound but replacing the thermal paste on my 470 kicked off a good 15 degrees on average and a good 10 degrees at load.

Being the type of misers who'd cringe at the thought of spending more than 3 dollars for thermal paste that sounded like sucker scams with their "micronized silver" and "diamond paste" taglines, I would have never done it if it weren't for a free giveaway of samples and an epiphany-inducing first time. This stuff really works!
Now I pretty much recommend it to everyone and their closet-gamer uncles...