Quietest 2-slot 580-class or better GPU

[SolMiester]

The Gigabyte GTX580 windforce is near enough to silent, though its 3 slots!

 

[ghost recon88]

Gigabyte GTX580 SOC is super quiet, with it's 3 fan it cools great and I can hardly hear it.

 

[vbuggy]

You better be quick though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130751

Not sure I follow. It seems to be a high-performance last hurrah for the 580, not a quiet variant. Or did I miss something?

 

[vbuggy]

So I guess the overall consensus is that unless I want to mod (which I don't - building a PC alone is irritation enough for me, and futzing it to be quiet was pretty much the last thing I'd rather be doing), the better solution is to take into account of the fact that I will need three slots per GPU from the outset and perhaps plan the (replacement?) PC accordingly. Either that, or resort to modding.

 

[lehtv]

Keep in mind, if all you are concerned with is idle noise levels, the benchmarks for reference coolers online are not the lowest you can go. For all NV and AMD cards I buy, I lower the idle fan speed way lower. You can go all the way down to 15-20%, while stock fan BIOS speeds are often 35-40% (such as for GTX470/480 cards for example). I am not sure if they are also 40% for GTX580 card, but they are for sure much higher than 15-20%.

The point is, you can manually force the fan speeds of most cards far lower than factory default settings. This makes your comparison harder because I haven't seen any review site actually do this.

Do you actually notice the difference in noise between 15% and, say, 30%? Cos my 560 Ti cooler stops making audible noise at about 35% fan speed. It also messes up the tachometer reading at lower than 30% fan speed, and I've read that the fan can fail if it runs at such low RPM (because it's not designed to).

@ OP

You would be fine with a Gigabyte 580 triple-fan (dual-slot). It will run pretty cool and quiet even at stock, so you should have plenty of room for adjusting the fan speed in MSI afterburner to make it even quieter, and possibly mod the BIOS to accept lower idle RPM if idle noise is an issue. Personally I'd recommend against GTX 580 though, the Gigabyte 570 gives nearly as good performance at $150 less. Once NVIDIA Kepler is released you'll probably only see the reference cards at first which are going to be loud in comparison to a triple-fan Gigabyte.

 

[vbuggy]

You would be fine with a Gigabyte 580 triple-fan (dual-slot). It will run pretty cool and quiet even at stock, so you should have plenty of room for adjusting the fan speed in MSI afterburner to make it even quieter, and possibly mod the BIOS to accept lower idle RPM if idle noise is an issue. Personally I'd recommend against GTX 580 though, the Gigabyte 570 gives nearly as good performance at $150 less. Once NVIDIA Kepler is released you'll probably only see the reference cards at first which are going to be loud in comparison to a triple-fan Gigabyte.

Ah... from the pictures I saw at first, it looked like a three-slot without the tab. However I googled a review. Hmmm. Definitely plausible.

Thanks all, I might give the SOC a try. Just as a matter of interest, would there be a problem if I decided to put a SOC in beside the DirectCu II in SLI? Or does the overclock kibosh that?

 

[SHAQ]

Not sure I follow. It seems to be a high-performance last hurrah for the 580, not a quiet variant. Or did I miss something?

It is quieter and cooler than a stock 580. It should beat a 7970 as well.

 

[RussianSensation]

Do you actually notice the difference in noise between 15% and, say, 30%? Cos my 560 Ti cooler stops making audible noise at about 35% fan speed.

On the reference GTX470, I needed to go all the way to 30% fan speed to go below all my other fans. On the reference, HD6950, I need to go to 24-25% to make it quiet for 2D mode. The difference between 16% fan speed and 24% fan speed on the 6950 isn't noticeable in my system. But above 25%, I can hear the fan. My main piont was that you can lower the fan speeds below "factory defaults" and still have safe temperatures for your videocard. So out of the box settings aren't necessarily the lowest.