Quiet card

[fredrick]

Hi,
I'm looking for a quiet card. The best thing I can find so far is passive 9800GTs. In particular this gigabyte:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...YTE-_-14125282

However, this GPU is about 3 years old. Do they make any of the newer cards without jet turbines for cooling these days?

 

[Dribble]

You can get a passive 5750 I think which is quite a bit faster then a 9800GT.

 

[Aaluran]

I'd second the 5750. It is, I believe, the most powerful GPU that is currently available passively cooled. Just search the egg for 5750 and look for "silent" or "passive" in the titles.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The 5770 is quiet but not silent. It's as fast as a 4870 which is still good enough for gaming.

 

[Leyawiin]

Does it have to be absolutely silent? A GTX 460 with the reference cooler is whisper quiet and very cool at idle (if your PC's other hardware makes such a card worthwhile). Much better than any of the passive cards.

 

[fuzzymath10]

Do actively cooled video cards ever shut off the fan when idling, or do they always run like CPU fans?

 

[s44]

Stock-cooled GTX460:

Load noise is more or less like our idle noise results. The 768MB GTX 460 registers the lowest result we’ve ever seen for a card of this performance level, coming in at 46.2dB and the EVGA card right behind it. The 1GB card does end up being louder (likely to compensate for cooling 2 more GDDR5 chips) but it’s still in good company.

 

[fredrick]

Yea, does look like the 5750 is the best passively cooled card available.

I started working at home more and my old XFX 8800GT was starting to drive me crazy. It's really loud even at idle. I threw in a passive 3650 I had laying around and I've been enjoying the peace and quite ever since. I was surprised that it can actually play some games albeit at lower resolution.

The 460 does looking tempting though. At least twice the performance for $50 more. Sounds like it does run relatively cool.

 

[fredrick]

Nice, 460 card roundup (heat/noise):
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/13

 

[DaveSimmons]

The 768MB version of the 460 runs slightly cooler and quieter according to AnandTech since it has two less RAM chips to cool.

The 768 is still very fast for the price, and is $30 cheaper than the 1 GB.

 

[s44]

I started working at home more and my old XFX 8800GT was starting to drive me crazy. It's really loud even at idle. I threw in a passive 3650 I had laying around and I've been enjoying the peace and quite ever since.

This is a nice chance for you to upgrade, but I should note that the Accelero S1 that I got for my 8800GT was one of the best video-related investments of my life. The original single-slot cooler was, as you say, a screamer.

 

[fredrick]

How does the Accelero attach to the card? Did you have to put heat sinks on the RAM chips? Are you running that with a slot fan? Any idea if the S2 is sufficient?

That might tide me over until Black Friday.

 

[MJinZ]

Passive video cards are kind of pointless if the rest of your system has fans.

 

[s44]

How does the Accelero attach to the card? Did you have to put heat sinks on the RAM chips? Are you running that with a slot fan? Any idea if the S2 is sufficient?

That might tide me over until Black Friday.

It fits onto the regular cooler mounting holes. The cooler comes with RAMsinks, and you can use some of the extras on the VRMs (with some fiddling, google this). I ziptied a low-speed 120mm Yate onto it, not particularly for the GPU (which stays cooler than stock even passive with this giant thing), but for the VRMs and RAM. Stunningly quiet and oh-so-cool.

Some people had problems with the stickiness of the RAMsink tape, but it wasn't a problem for me. Just make sure to clean the chips thoroughly with Arctic two-step cleaner, and preheat the sticky side a little (I actually used a frying pan on really really low) before removing the protective paper and sticking the thing on.

I don't expect any GPU price breakthroughs before next year's die shrink, though, so I'd probably just grab a GTX460 next time the one you want goes on sale.

 

[tweakboy]

Just take down your 2D fan speed with riva ,, to 50 percent . Then when you game take it to 100 percent , you can use hotkeys set in riva if you know how to use it.

Put on your HP's and you will just hear the game,, exit out and go back to 50 percent,, thanks and gb