This gen, NV has the best reference cooler design ever?

[Silverforce11]

I just snagged a gtx670 from my bitcoin mining adventures (which ASICs killed sadly), and I have to say, the reference cooler is impressive. I cannot remember ever when a reference design kept the card cool AND almost noiseless at load, its either hot or cool but very noisy.

I've always assumed the noise from blower coolers originate from the fast volume of air being pushed through the tiny exhaust area, like a gush of air sound. But looking closer at the gtx670 and comparing it to the 7970 blower open bench, the noise comes from the rush of air into the intake, small gaps/blades on AMD's reference blower makes this incredibly noisy at high CFM, whilst NV's blower this gen has larger blades spaced wider apart so even at high CFM its not an issue.

I can't imagine such a design is more costly to produce, just bigger blades, wider gaps, it will be the standard for next gen and onwards. Hopefully AMD stop being bad at making reference designs and relying on their partners to make custom coolers.

 

[SlowSpyder]

On a one to ten scale I'd give my refernce cooler for my 7970 a four in noise. I'd give it a six in cooling ability. AMD isn't setting the bar too high for Nvidia.

 

[Silverforce11]

On a one to ten scale I'd give my refernce cooler for my 7970 a four in noise. I'd give it a six in cooling ability. AMD isn't setting the bar too high for Nvidia.

Yeah but that's the way its been with reference coolers since the start, only this gen, NV decided to tweak the design for less noise. Not sure why its taken this long, but honestly, with this NV blower being so quiet, there's absolutely no need for open air designs that dump all the heat in your case, requiring extra fans ($$ and noise) to extract the heat.

 

[toyota]

lol what? the 670 reference cooler is a cheap piece of crap and has no business being on a $400 card. and its noisy even at idle where it makes an annoying kind of sound. and it barely gets the job done too as the card gets quite warm under load which will drop you 2 and sometimes 3 bins because of throttling. really this thread is just odd to say the least based on all the reviews out there.

 

[Eureka]

The 6xx reference coolers are definitely quieter than I expected. I haven't heard the new 7xx coolers yet.

lol what? the 670 reference cooler is a cheap piece of crap and has no business being on a $400 card. and its noisy even at idle where it makes an annoying kind of sound.

I don't know what card you used, but when I had a 670, you couldn't hear it at idle. Even at load it was barely louder than the rest of my fans.

 

[toyota]

The 6xx reference coolers are definitely quieter than I expected. I haven't heard the new 7xx coolers yet.



I don't know what card you used, but when I had a 670, you couldn't hear it at idle. Even at load it was barely louder than the rest of my fans.

sorry but the 670 reference cooler is notorious for making an annoying sound even at idle. so is this a thread where everyone is going to play dumb? lol best reference cooler? good lord.

 

[lavaheadache]

I entered this thread expecting to agree with the op as I thought he was referring to the Titan and 780 reference cooler. However, that was not the case, the 6 series reference coolers are absolute garbage in terms of quality. They might as well be made out of tin foil. My reference 680 was a decent card but that heatsink was junk.

 

[Rvenger]

The 680 reference cooler was decent. The base 670 reference cooler made all kinds of mechanical grinding at idle and load.

 

[Silverforce11]

What? There's absolutely no noise at idle, at load its much much less than the AMD reference blower. I have both side by side on two rigs.

The heatsink if flimsy compared to the AMD one, which is a giant copper block weighing nearly twice as much. But somehow, it manages to keep cool and quiet.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_670/27.html

40 dbA vs 46 dbA is pretty damn obvious. For a blower fan that's approaching open air designs.

 

[toyota]

do we really have to link to review after review about this pos cooler? its not the amount of noise as much as it is the type of noise. heck just a quick google search will show this.

 

[bystander36]

I can say the 680's cooler was very quiet, much quieter than previous cards from either company. I can only assume, by the arguments here, that the noise on the 670's depend on luck. Perhaps some have had some defects and you recall a review with one that had a defect.

This one shows the 670 as quieter than the 7970, though slightly noisier than the 7950. The 680 beats them all:

 

[toyota]

I can say the 680's cooler was very quiet, much quieter than previous cards from either company. I can only assume, by the arguments here, that the noise on the 670's depend on luck. Perhaps some have had some defects and you recall a review with one that had a defect.

no the cooler was a piece of crap. it just happened to bother some people less than others. and some are just flat out oblivious to things like that.

and AGAIN its NOT the amount of noise but instead the TYPE of noise.

 

[bystander36]

Look at the update with a chart. It can't be that big of a piece of crap.

 

[toyota]

Look at the update with a chart. It can't be that big of a piece of crap.

and look at my updated post.

 

[bystander36]

and look at my updated post.

Here are videos with the sound recorded. I don't see what you are talking about. They sound like any other blower I've ever heard: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217-14.html

Now the Palit Jetstream, on the other hand, sounded really bad. Same with the Gainward Phantom.

 

[toyota]

Here are videos with the sound recorded. I don't see what you are talking about. They sound like any other blower I've ever heard: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217-14.html

Now the Palit Jetstream, on the other hand, sounded really bad. Same with the Gainward Phantom.

lol then use google as I am not going to do all the work for you for something so obvious. the cooler is a pos and thats a fact.

 

[tviceman]

Perhaps silverforce has a 670 with a 680 PCB, and therefore a 680 quality cooler.

 

[bystander36]

lol then learn how to use google. I am not going to do all the work for you. the cooler is a pos and thats a fact.

I posted videos with sound feeds from several different 670's including the reference. What else is needed?

I can only assume you read a forum post or a review site which got a bad 670 and only remember that?

There are several people here who think it sounds far better than past blowers. I posted video with sound recordings of it, and a review that show it isn't bad.

Perhaps you need to show something to back up your point. I can only assume there are some quality control issues on some of the cards based on your complete disagreement with everything that says it is pretty good.

 

[toyota]

Perhaps silverforce has a 670 with a 680 PCB, and therefore a 680 quality cooler.

maybe

Silverforce11 do have this

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_670/3.html



or this

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_680/4.html

 

[toyota]

I posted videos with sound feeds from several different 670's including the reference. What else is needed?

I can only assume you read a forum post or a review site which got a bad 670 and only remember that?

There are several people here who think it sounds far better than past blowers. I posted video with sound recordings of it, and a review that show it isn't bad.

Perhaps you need to show something to back up your point. I can only assume there are some quality control issues on some of the cards based on your complete disagreement with everything that says it is pretty good.

yeah I looked at one bad review.

I follow video cards closely and if you did too then you would know the 670 reference cooler is notorious for being cheap and noisy.

again use google. https://www.google.com/search?q=670...ome.0.57j62l3.3760j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[bystander36]

maybe

Silverforce11 do have this

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_670/3.html



or this

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_680/4.html

Those had interesting notes:

Fan noise of the GeForce GTX 670 in idle seems a bit high, less noise would have been easy as the card runs at comfortable 37°C in idle.

Under load the card's noise levels are OK, much lower than HD 7900 Series, but not "quiet". Other GTX 670s that we reviewed today show much better results here.

It sounds like there may be some variance in the reference design quality, yet still comes up as "much lower than the 7900 series".

The 680 notes were interesting as well.

Fan noise under load is still too high in my opinion. Yes, it's lower than HD 7970, and just a bit higher than GTX 580, but we've seen custom cooling solutions for high-end cards that are much quieter. Let's hope NVIDIA's board partners will do the same and bring out reduced noise GTX 680s.

I guess they just don't like any reference design based on that.

Neither of those you posted show it as worse or even "as bad" as the 7970. So I'm not sure what you are saying.

 

[bystander36]

yeah I looked at one bad review.

I follow video cards closely and if you did too then you would know the 670 reference cooler is notorious for being cheap and noisy.

again use google. https://www.google.com/search?q=670...ome.0.57j62l3.3760j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

****, are you basing this off of forum posts? Every card has people whining about noise on the forums on occasion. I assumed you were talking about professional reviews.

Clearly this seems to be about quality control and not about a specific design.

 

[blackened23]

I'd have to agree that the 670 referencee design is a cheap joke. Fortunately GK104 itself is a very efficient chip and doesn't need anything elaborate, but the cooler is a joke.

On the other hand, I do agree that the Titan shroud is the best reference design ever made.

 

[toyota]

Shit, are you basing this off of forum posts? Every card has people whining about noise on the forums on occasion. I assumed you were talking about professional reviews.

Clearly this seems to be about quality control and not about a specific design.

lol wow. look at user reviews and professional reviews and stop being clueless. again review after review mentions the annoying noise at idle.

 

[Rvenger]

I have owned 4 cards with the same reference design as the 670.

EVGA GTX670 vanilla, MSI GTX670 OC, 2x GTX650 TI boost, all had that loud racket blower fan. My GTX 670 FTWs on the other hand were nice and quiet.