.wav file of X1800XTs fan noise

[aggressor]

http://home.wi.rr.com/aggybong/x1800xtfannoise.wav

For reference, the start of the .wav file has the fan running at 25% (it's lowest setting), then I slowly bring it up to 100% in about 10% intervals. At the end I drop it from 100% back down to 25%. The 7800GTX\7900GT are about as quiet as the X1800XT running at 25-35%.

In my system, the X1800XT sits at 25% while in Windows, but quickly goes up to 40-60% while playing games. The core still gets hot as heck, with temps reaching 85c.

Since people have trouble reading passed the first post, let me clarify here:

1) I never said the fan hit 100% while playing games.

In my system, the X1800XT sits at 25% while in Windows, but quickly goes up to 40-60% while playing games. The core still gets hot as heck, with temps reaching 85c.

How you people managed to miss that is beyond me.

2) Yes, the camera was much closer than where I normally sit. Why? It was placed closer for one simple fact that anyone can conclude: A built in microphone on a digital camera is no where near as sensitive as the human ear. If you think otherwise, please go tell recording studios and movie producers that they are throwing away money on expensive audio equipment; a $1 microphone from radioshack will pick up sounds just as well! THAT is why I placed it closer, to better show how it actually sounds rather than what a crappy microphone can pick up from where I normally sit.

3) Some of you have said due to variances in speaker volume the recording is pretty much useless. That is also wrong. If your system is louder idle than mine, then yes, the GPU fan will be drowned out more. I can only say that at idle, my system is *extremely* quiet. I have 2 low speed Panaflo 120mm fans modded to 7v and a single low speed 92mm Panaflo fan for the CPU. My power supply supposedly puts out even less noise than those (rated 23db), and along with the GPU fan, that's it. There are no other fans.

How does that information help? It lets you see the noise added when the fan ramps up compared to idle. It doesn't matter how loud you have your speakers, you will still hear the extra noise generated when only the GPU fan speed is changed. Obviously if you enjoy using 20 Delta fans at full blast, your idle noise is going to be higher than mine, and the GPU fan noise will be drowned out, making it seem 'quiet'.

Now I remember why I didn't post on this forum regularly. I think it's time to go back to lurking here only, and laughing at all of the people who can't put an argument together to save their lives or have serious reading comprehension issues.

 

[hans030390]

ew

 

[fierydemise]

How far away did you take the recording from?

 

[aggressor]

6~ inches from the rear of the case

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

It'd be great if you could make a recording of the 7x00GTX at the same distance for a good comparison.

Although I must admit that the X1800 sounds a little scary.

 

[fierydemise]

Just something for everyone to remember, this recording is taken from far closer and with a far cleaner line then it usually has to you, and your speakers are aimed right at you.

 

[aggressor]

That doesn't mean it will be quiter in real life, because it sure isn't. I placed the camera closer because of the rather weak microphone inside of it. It simply doesn't pick up noise as well as the human ear does, and if I placed it where I normally sit, it would not be representative of how it actually sounds.

As for the 'speakers are aimed right at you', that doesn't affect anything either. I included what my system sounds like at 25% (near silent) and showed how much noise was added as the fan ramps up in speed.

 

[TraumaRN]

Turbojet plane getting ready to take off FTW!....:laugh:

 

[compgeek89]

lol, I know, I had one. Loud as crap.

 

[aggressor]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
It'd be great if you could make a recording of the 7x00GTX at the same distance for a good comparison.

Although I must admit that the X1800 sounds a little scary.

Can you control the fan speed in software like you can with ATIs cards? It's the only way to compare apples to apples. I still have the 7800GT sitting here, but the 7800GTX is long gone.

 

[TraumaRN]

Originally posted by: aggressor

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
It'd be great if you could make a recording of the 7x00GTX at the same distance for a good comparison.

Although I must admit that the X1800 sounds a little scary.

Can you control the fan speed in software like you can with ATIs cards? It's the only way to compare apples to apples. I still have the 7800GT sitting here, but the 7800GTX is long gone.

Yea use RivaTuner to manually change it.

 

[Zenoth]

I really like ATi ... but one thing they should have considered, is nVidia's (or should I say Leadtek's, BFG's and others related to nVidia GPU publishers) approach to air-cooling solution on high-end products (bigger fans, moves more air with less noise, along with heat-pipes to help the whole cooling process being more efficient).

It's actually my only, but sincere complaint about ATi GPUs in terms of reference cooling. Very disappointing.

 

[Gstanfor]

That's dreadful, sounds worse than the recording I heard of nV30 Ultra. Speaking of which - where are the people who bagged nV30's fan noise now? Surely the Ati fan noise is just as bad, or do their claims of selective bias only apply to nVIDIA enthusiasts?

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: fierydemise
Just something for everyone to remember, this recording is taken from far closer and with a far cleaner line then it usually has to you, and your speakers are aimed right at you.

His recording is pretty dead on. The only difference between that and real life is that you don't hear quite as much wind noise. However, I think that actually only serves to drown out the howling sound, which is what you tend to notice the most.

 

[fierydemise]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: fierydemise
Just something for everyone to remember, this recording is taken from far closer and with a far cleaner line then it usually has to you, and your speakers are aimed right at you.

His recording is pretty dead on. The only difference between that and real life is that you don't hear quite as much wind noise. However, I think that actually only serves to drown out the howling sound, which is what you tend to notice the most.

OK I was just going by what seemed logical, I don't own anything that good so I wouldn't know

 

[BFG10K]

Great job on that recording. :thumbsup:

It definitely sounds just like a jet engine taxiing and then taking off from a runway.

 

[shabby]

Damn that is annoying, its like the fx dustbuster all over again.

 

[Golgatha]

This is why I have an Accelero coming on Monday. It's not annoying until you start gaming and then it gets audibly loud and is quite frankly very distracting when there is a quiet part in the game you're playing. I think ATI could use some Arctic Cooling engineering lessons for their next reference cooler. Those Arctic Cooling coolers can't cost that much more than the huge stock HSF on the X1800XT.

 

[buzzsaw13]

It isn't that loud I would know, that used to be my card before I sold it to the OP, and I slept right next to it blasting at 100 percent

 

[FalllenAngell]

LOL
I kept thinking "this must be as bad as it gets" but it just kept getting worse!

I have a little vacuum cleaner that sounds like ATI cards.

 

[potato28]

"Honey can you stop vacuming now? I think the rug is clean."

 

[SonicIce]

i think this is useless since there is nothing to compare it to

 

[Wreckage]

That blows! (pun intended).

In many high end computers with 20 case fans that may not be a big deal, but otherwise I would find that distracting.

 

[SonicIce]

Here is what it really sounds like:
http://users.ameritech.net/hemirich/x1800xtJET.mp3

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
Here is what it really sounds like:
http://users.ameritech.net/hemirich/x1800xtJET.mp3

LMAO!! Aggressor, can you do a recording while playing a game? That's where it counts the most. Personally I don't think it's a big deal for those that run air cooling systems while gaming anyway since game noises drown out computer fan noise and if you wear headphones then it's rare to even hear the fans unless you got one of those tornado fans in your system.