Need recommendation: Radeon HD 4670 or 4830

[alexruiz]

Hi there. I need suggestions for the next video card. I am already setup, it has to be a Radeon HD 4670 or maybe a 4830.

The key factor here: Acoustics, meaning not too noisy.

I got right now a Gigabyte Radeon HD 4670 512 MB, very nice card that has only one major flaw: It is very noisy. The system was running on IGP, the CPU fan is a thermaltake TR2A2 that is quiet, the power supply was modded with a Panaflo L1A1 (80 mm fan) so the system was not noisy.

I got a HIS Radeon 4650 for my son, and tested it in my machine first. The noise was reasonable, I didn't expect it to be as silent as before, nor should I. The HIS, however, was very good at slowing down at idle, and even at full load the fan was OK.

I got the 4670 was for me. I noticed however immediately that it was quite noisier. Under full load it is noisier than the HIS at full load, easily noticeable. To make it worse, even at idle keeps going full force so it gets annoying. Catalyst version for both cards (8.12)

The Gigabyte 4670 is going to CL, so I need a replacement.

I need a 4670 that is decently quiet. I am willing to step up to a 4830 if the recommended 4830 is quieter.

Give me suggestions.

Thanks


Alex

 

[AzN]

4830 should be quieter because it has bigger fans running at lower RPM while 4670 runs a smaller fan at higher RPM.

You can always replace the fan on the 4670.

 

[vj8usa]

If you have a lot of temperature headroom, you could stick a Zalman Fanmate or something similar onto that cooler to slow down the fan and make it quieter, at the expense of cooling performance. My 4850 was extremely noisy when I first got it, but then I put a Fanmate on it. It's damn near silent now, and the temperature increase under load was under 5C.

 

[a123456]

I don't have that exact card but some other people were complaining that the fan was going full 100% at default settings. Did you try something like CCC to try and turn the fan down to ~20-40%, which should be enough to keep it cool enough but a lot quieter than default?