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Then you have either:
1. a VERY loud PC
2. don't care about noise
The ACX is hotter, louder, and uses more power than the Asus. They're nearly the same price too.
I also had an EVGA rep tell me it was normal for my card to artifact and crash in Tomb Raider.
edit: @ 100% fan, the ACX is easily one of the most annoying cards I've ever heard. The fan is not smooth at all. Instead is a broken up vaaabvvaroom, vvvavavaroom, vavavarooom. A friwnd of mine has one too and it does the same thing.
It's really a matter of preference. But we have the same card. My friend has an ACX as well and feels similar to me about the noise level. So I'm fairly certain the HSF is not broken. Even Xonar in this very thread thinks the ACX fans are too loud. Here's a few more comments from around the web...
About the ACX cooler on the 770...
"Under normal use the EVGA card was noticeably louder as well..."
"Still on my 2nd ACX card, still the same ridiculous resonance from the fans at various speeds, still the same deathly silence from EVGA support. Will have to purchase an aftermarket cooler. Even the cheapo Palit cards I've had before didn't make any resonance noise. "
For what it's worth, I used an Android app called sound meter to check the noise from the card. What I found was this:
39% fan = 40db
70% fan = 45db
100% fan = 50 db
39% fan is audible over all my other case fans, but only slightly. @ 70% I begin to become annoyed. 100% isn't even an option as it simply overpowers even my closed headphones.
As long as I'm playing a game w/ lots of action and DO NOT overclock/overvolt, it's not a problem. But any quiet part, overclock/overvolt will push the fan above my tolerance threshold, which is admittedly VERY low vs most folks.
So when I say you have a loud PC, that's probably pushing it. But when I say you don't care about sound, it's obvious that to some extent, you do not. Or 70% would not be "whisper quiet" and 100% would not be tolerable. I'm glad you're able to deal w/ the noise and it doesn't bother you. People disagree, it's OK.
As for the comment from EVGA, I created a post on OCN to get some thoughts from others. In it, you'll see that I spoke w/ another EVGA rep who told me that it SHOULD NOT artifact on a factory overclock. Also, the rep didn't say it was normal, but that it could happen. I can't help but think either he heard this from someone else and repeated it, or that perhaps Tomb Raider and it's next gen engine w/ things like tressFX actually do push cards harder than most and some of these SC's do fail.
Another poster commented that, "Could be factory TIM. I had a Titan that threw artifacts with just the tiniest of OCs. I re-applied the TIM. Bam, gone. After that it OCd like a beast, artifact free. Could have been a tiny spot on the GPU that did not have good contact with paste, heating it up. Even though it never showed high temps on PresX or AB."
I'm going to swap the TIM on it tonight and test again as it's an interesting theory. And much easier than having to RMA.
Now do you really think I would have taken the time to post all that if I was making it up? What could I possibly have to gain by making this up, lol. I suppose I could be a shill for Galaxy in an attempt to make EVGA look bad.
That's because "silent" pc aficionados are a niche of a niche of a niche. PC gaming is a niche, buyers of high end video cards are a niche, buyers of non reference coolers are a niche, and those of us that like a near SILENT experience are even fewer in number.
The EVGA thread is filled w/ unhappy users.
Galaxy has nothing to do w/ thread. It's a completely random company I picked for my random shilling explanation of why I made up the EVGA tech support call. /sarcasm
Like I said, I'm glad you're happy w/ your card. I'm not and just expressing my opinion...like Xonar did, so those that appreciate a silent gaming card can know that this is not in fact a silent card. From my perspective it is much louder than my previous card...a Galaxy GTX 580. But that card had a beefier heatsink, less TDP, and 3 bigger fans.
Here's a comment from an Amazon review...
"I wish they'll learn from Gigabyte, which use the half-transparent fans, way more quiet.
At the second you load a game, the (EVGA) card starts sounding like a broken refrigerator.
It's a 700$ card for gods sake, EVGA- spend extra 4$ for better quiter cooling with the transparent lightweight blades.
Actually, spend those extra 4$ for all your video cards. I'm a Gigabyte boy, but tried once EVGA since the good reviews. Wish I could go back.
There's "moderately noisy" (which all my Gigabyte cards are, while gaming), and there's "hell loud" which describes well the EVGA approach."
I actually saw this comment before ordering and it did cause hesitation. However it was one guy and I figured he was just too sensitive/got a broken card. Turns out he's just another silent gamer like me.
Compared to the Asus cooler...it's noisy. Again 5 db is enough to bother me.
Exactly, my opinion. I've already qualified it as being less than popular and even rare. I don't see why it's a good or bad thing we don't all share my opinion though. I don't see why that matters @ all. The fact that the majority of ACX owners are happy can only do one thing...discourage EVGA from improving their product line. And as we can see from the graph, the Asus cooler is def quieter and cooler. My opinion does two things:
The Asus 780 is quite a bit cooler and quieter than most 780's. I've only owned 2 Asus GPU's in my life. I loved my triple fan Galaxy, but the 780 Galaxy is only 2 fans. The MSI is 3, but very $$. The Asus is just the best overall for the $. Prove me wrong and I'll glady order a _______ if it's better than the Asus!LOL, gotta love fanboyz.
This is probably how I should have worded it, but I'm extreme when it comes to noise. There's more than a few out there that agree w/ me however, so why not represent those that have much less tolerance for noise than probably 95% of those that game. I'm not even alone in this thread as Xonar thinks it's too loud as well!
