Worth it? Asus 670 TOP vs EVGA 670 FTW

[cmdrdredd]

Which is weird, given how short the reference PCB is. More room for airflow, yet still noisier.

It's the fan itself.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I'd rather go with evga

 

[Nephelee]

+1 on the EVGA. I got mine on Friday and absolutely love it!

 

[Qbah]

I'd go with the ASUS TOP on this alone:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/27.html

That is a sick sick cooler and fan profile

Fan noise of the ASUS GTX 670 DC II is incredible. In idle it is barely audible if you put your ear next to it - using a completely passive PC, in a quiet room. Under load the fan ramps up a tiny bit to handle the extra heat but the difference is barely measurable. As a result the GTX 670 DC II is quieter under load than most other cards in idle!! Perfect job ASUS!

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'd go with the ASUS TOP on this alone:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/27.html

That is a sick sick cooler and fan profile

Quiet is overrated when you are using your computer

 

[lehtv]

Quiet is overrated when you are using your computer

I think it's overrated when you're not using the computer

 

[Don Karnage]

Quiet is overrated when you are using your computer

Uh What?

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Quiet is overrated when you are using your computer

In this day and age there is absolutely no excuses for loud obnoxious hardware for a rig that was done up right.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Uh What?

As an aside it's always funny when hardware noobs claim there hot new quad core CPU "X" has "Y" Ghz "PER CORE" for a grand total of "Z" Ghz combined ROFLMAO !

 

[cmdrdredd]

In this day and age there is absolutely no excuses for loud obnoxious hardware for a rig that was done up right.

Nothing is loud and obnoxious. Everyone just over exaggerates and blows it out of proportion. Nobody has the hearing of a K9.

I think it's overrated when you're not using the computer

Both ways really. I have never ever heard any video card that was too loud when you are gaming. Aren't you using speakers or headphones? How can you actually hear the fan over the explosions or gunfire or clang of metal on metal?

Realistically speaking, you can't. Yeah maybe if you listen for it and at that point you're just being overly picky.


I understand what people are saying when the fan has mechanical issues or strange fluttering sounds that are odd. However, no video card I've ever had with a blower design has spun up enough to be audible over my games. At idle? Please...unless you're running passive I have a very hard time believing it's bothering you.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Nothing is loud and obnoxious. Everyone just over exaggerates and blows it out of proportion. Nobody has the hearing of a K9.

Well it is fairly easy and painless to select components that run cool and hence don't need loud high RPM fans blazing at the outer limits of oblivion LOL. Honestly the loudest or most annoying part in my rig is the HDDs though you could say under gaming load the EVGA GTX 275 is the loudest but it's a nice soft even smooth & dull sound with the perfect default fan profile.

 

[lehtv]

Both ways really.

It was a joke.

I have never ever heard any video card that was too loud when you are gaming.

My current video card, although pretty quiet, is still too loud at load for my liking. And it's a dual fan card with a tweaked fan profile... Any reference cooled card would definitely be too loud. And then there are horrors like the 4870X2 I used to have... good god that was a loud video card.

Aren't you using speakers or headphones? How can you actually hear the fan over the explosions or gunfire or clang of metal on metal?

I use open cup headphones. Games aren't all gunfire and clang of metal on metal, there are plenty of quieter moments.

Realistically speaking, you can't. Yeah maybe if you listen for it and at that point you're just being overly picky.

Speak for yourself. You can't judge other people's subjective tastes

I understand what people are saying when the fan has mechanical issues or strange fluttering sounds that are odd. However, no video card I've ever had with a blower design has spun up enough to be audible over my games. At idle? Please...unless you're running passive I have a very hard time believing it's bothering you.

I'm not running passive, I have five case fans at 500-700RPM. At the lowest speed of 40%, the fan on my GPU was pretty quiet. But in order to not hear it over the case fans, I had to mod the BIOS to reach sub 40% speeds.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You can disagree with me. But you can't tell me I can't disagree. That's the difference here.

The thing is, I've had some of the cards people say are way too loud. It never spun up enough to cause an issue. Not once.

I think some people should stop looking at youtube videos with the camera's microphone stuck right up next to the back of the card on 100%.

Going back to the original question in regard to the GTX 670, none of the cards I've heard from the Reference to the FTW to the dual fan solutions spin up very high at load. They don't need to and they remain pretty quiet.

 

[lehtv]

You can disagree with me. But you can't tell me I can't disagree. That's the difference here.

You're kidding, right? I've not even implied you can't disagree. I even said 'speak for yourself' which grants you your opinion. YOU are the one imposing your view on others.

Everyone just over exaggerates and blows it out of proportion.
[...]
Realistically speaking, you can't. Yeah maybe if you listen for it and at that point you're just being overly picky.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You're kidding, right? I've not even implied you can't disagree. YOU are the one imposing your view on others.

And I'm not really wrong. How many times have you seen someone come here asking about a card and then a link to youtube pops up with someone sticking a microphone down near the blower when it's at 100%?

At 100% all cards are loud. The good thing is, no card should get to 100%.

 

[lehtv]

I don't even know what you're talking about.

 

[cmdrdredd]

It's simple. Someone asks about a card. Someone says "Oh that one has a bad fan listen to this video" and links to it. Then the video misrepresents the noise during use by running it higher than it will get under load during gaming etc.

I've seen that before and I think people should take a more realistic approach. During gaming, when it's stressed...what does the fan do? It probably won't load up to 100% or even 90%. Also, it should be noted that lab testing is not going to be representative of everyone's game/computer room. So while one fan might be 15dB louder on paper by the numbers, there's no telling whether that will be a noticeable difference. I have said it before, noise level is exaggerated.

 

[lehtv]

Sure, that's reasonable. I like realistic. But your posts before went much beyond that, arrogantly claiming that others can't possibly be bothered by GPU fan noise. And your original comment was that quietness is overrated, which obviously implies that you think people are too picky about loud video cards, but then you turn it around and say that video cards aren't loud to begin with.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

The FTW card uses the 680 PCB design making it a stronger overclocking card. Plus the benefit of the 680 cooling fan, thus a quieter card.

The thing that pushed me to buy it (the FTW - just now) was the thought of selling off my old GTX 480 to absorb some of the price.

And I still fail to grasp why you would buy such an overpriced GPU to play UT LOL an OCed FTW version at that LOL.

 

[Qbah]

Unwanted noise bothers me a lot. And I don't want to play at god knows how high volume to not hear the fans - which bothers me too. And that would kinda defy the point of having a quiet PC... Which is to stay quiet not only at idle.

As for my hearing, it's quite good (musical education btw). Just because you can't hear the fans or all the noise they do, doesn't mean there isn't any. I don't need to put volume at 10/10 to start hearing things - 2 or 3 is sufficient. 5 is quite loud...

So if I get a chance to buy components that are very fast (GTX670 - check) and super quiet (ASUS TOP - check), that's the route I usually take. I save myself a lot of headaches for sure (literally). And is what I recommend to others too.

Plus $50 extra? Come on, if $50 makes or breaks a purchase, you shouldn't be spending your salary on such things... Also, the price difference here is small (not even $20 when translating into local currency).

 

[2is]

$50 can be a lot depending on the benefits which will vary from individual to individual. Example, I personally cannot hear my 680 at idle and the only time I hear it at load is in between level/map loading which is a few seconds. Even then, it's faint. For me that $50 would be a waste. I went fairly high-end on my current build so I'm certainly not afraid of spending the coin, but I'm also not a fan of spending extra on something that will yield me no appreciable benefits. And this is from someone who appreciates a quiet PC. I'm running a modest OC of 4.2 GHz because that allows me to maintain good temps with minimal fan speed. I could do 4.4+ if I add another fan to my hsf for push/pull and firing up an intake fan but I settled for 4.2 with one fan on hsf, no intake fans and two exhaust fans at their lowest rpm.

 

[RussianSensation]

The Asus TOP is now $430 on Amazon.

If you have poor airflow, I'd go with the FTW card. If you want a quieter card, I'd go for the Asus.

 

[chimaxi83]

And I still fail to grasp why you would buy such an overpriced GPU to play UT LOL an OCed FTW version at that LOL.

I think you have made your point in his thread already bro. Get over it, not your money or system.

 

[Qbah]

$50 can be a lot depending on the benefits which will vary from individual to individual. Example, I personally cannot hear my 680 at idle and the only time I hear it at load is in between level/map loading which is a few seconds. Even then, it's faint. For me that $50 would be a waste. I went fairly high-end on my current build so I'm certainly not afraid of spending the coin, but I'm also not a fan of spending extra on something that will yield me no appreciable benefits. And this is from someone who appreciates a quiet PC. I'm running a modest OC of 4.2 GHz because that allows me to maintain good temps with minimal fan speed. I could do 4.4+ if I add another fan to my hsf for push/pull and firing up an intake fan but I settled for 4.2 with one fan on hsf, no intake fans and two exhaust fans at their lowest rpm.

Can't get much more high end that the rig in your sig That ASUS GTX680, is it the DCII or the stock cooler?

Anyway, for me my Vapor-X is awesome at idle and just OK at load. And it's quite a bit quieter than any stock cooler. So for me anything stock is too loud. I had a stock HD4870 for a while, that thing was killing me (and a lot of people were swearing it's so quiet! D: ). Changed it to an Accelero TwinTurbo, was great at 7V.

So for me paying (even $50) more for a cooler that will give me a quiet operation is perfectly acceptable. It's not like I'm spending this every month or two... I have this card for ~2 years now and I'm really happy I paid a bit extra for the better cooler.

 

[2is]

It's a refrence design using the stock cooler.

I hear what you're saying which is why i'm saying it varries from individual to individual. If my card was as loud at idle as a 5770 I've got in another machine, it would bother me.