How loud is the 5870?

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RubbingAlcoholic

Limp Gawd
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Sep 5, 2009
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I'm thinking of upgrading to i7 and getting a 5870, but I'm worried the card might be really loud. I have a 3870 that sounded so much like a vacuum cleaner that I had to put a passive heatsink on it, but I don't think that's an option for the newer cards. So how loud are these exactly, and is it safe to just tune the fan speed down?
 
Seems it depends who you ask really. Reviews say it's fine, bunch of users say it's hard to notice, and a few seem to have run into units with bad fans that sound real bad.
 
Mine, which seems happy <30% fan usage 99% of the time is virtually silent to me. The case fans make more noise. Now >30% and you start to hear it, very mild. It's not until 45-50% I'd say it's annoyingly loud. Thankfully it never gets there, F@H, or gaming.
 
When the card heats up, it can get loud. It's not nearly as annoying as the 4870/4890 though, thanks to a lower pitched sound. As long as I keep it under 33%, it gets lost in the sound coming from my case and CPU cooler. From 33-45%, it is possible to pick it out, and from 45-100% it's the loudest thing in my system. Making a custom fan curve in Afterburner, I limited the top end fan speed to 35%, and even overclocked and overvolted, the temps peaked at 88c, which is below the thermal protection cutoff(100c). Now that I wear headphones while gaming, I have the fan speed set to rise to 50% @ 50C, and a one for one rise afterwards with it idling at 25%. With this, I've yet to see temps go past 65C.
 
RubbingAlcoholic said:
I'm thinking of upgrading to i7 and getting a 5870, but I'm worried the card might be really loud. I have a 3870 that sounded so much like a vacuum cleaner that I had to put a passive heatsink on it, but I don't think that's an option for the newer cards. So how loud are these exactly, and is it safe to just tune the fan speed down?
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Silent on desktop usage, you might be able to hear it while gaming a little, but probably not over your fans.
 
I would get the Vapor-x. I'm planning on getting that or the 2gb 5870 when they come out.
 
Personally, I have not heard the fan on my 5870 yet. I had to check when it was new, I thought it wasnt spinning. And during Eyefinity goodness at 4800x1200, I still dont hear it over my case fans.
 
40%? IDEAL. 50%? Slightly noisy. 70% deifnitely audible and can be distracting. 100% downright loud as hell, as loud as a blow dryer. But us 1 ghz'ers do need 100% on air.
 
MJZ said:
you might be able to hear it while gaming a little,
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Unless you play your games so loud your guts are vibrating from the base, like me. (I don't just hear my games, I feel them.) I doubt I'd even hear it at 100% in that case. :cool:
 
My 5870 is one of the quietest cards I've owned. It's still the loudest thing in my system, but my system is silent, so yeah :p. Mine never exceeds 33% in games, which is a quiet "whoosh" in a silent room, and blends nicely with the other fans in the system. Up to 45%, I can't hear it through my headphones. When I crank clocks to 1GHz+, I have to turn the fan up to 70%, which is noisy, but becomes white noise once I start gaming and have my headphones on. 100% is annoying no matter what I do.
 
I have to echo the above in that, my 5870 is the quietest card I have owned in a while.. granted I have the fan on auto and it never really goes above 35%, and temps seem to load in the high 60s... when I play with the manual control at 40% on up I can hear the fan and it does get loud and moves some serious air when you get into the 50% area and above...
 
I found the 5870 to be quieter than the 4850 I had previously. I still ended up putting on a 3rd party cooler for temperature reasons, but it's even more quiet now. :)
 
I think a few of the earlier posts are pretty spot on, 40% is about ideal, fairily quiet, barely audible over normal noise, 55% entering a game I can hear my bottom two cards wind up even with a nice pair of noise cancelling headphones. 70-100%x3 and my cat freaks out, I can easily hear them and be annoyed by the sound they make through my headphones, they remind me of 120mm deltas at that speed.
 
I've noticed a high pitched wine on my XFX 5870, goes away if I set the fan to 20% manually.
Any ideas?
 
I have a 5970 and set my fan speed to 28% and i cant hear it. I have a bunch of 120mm fans on the side panel blowing in on my components and an exhaust fan ALL hooked up to a fan controller where i have my fans at there lowest speed so my comp is dead quiet. The loudest thing is the 5970 which by the way uses the same fan for the 5870 but as noted, i can barley hear it. I have solid state hard drives, i HATE noise, as long as you have a well ventilated case, the card shouldnt be set to higher than 33% MAX. Oh, and my 5970 is overclocked to 800 by 1150 with no extra voltage. When i bring it past 5870 speeds with voltage, then im forced to run my fan at 35 and since my computer is really quiet, thats annoying to me personally. Some people might fing that just fine though.
 
Tripp17 said:
I have a 5970 and set my fan speed to 28% and i cant hear it. I have a bunch of 120mm fans on the side panel blowing in on my components and an exhaust fan ALL hooked up to a fan controller where i have my fans at there lowest speed so my comp is dead quiet. The loudest thing is the 5970 which by the way uses the same fan for the 5870 but as noted, i can barley hear it. I have solid state hard drives, i HATE noise, as long as you have a well ventilated case, the card shouldnt be set to higher than 33% MAX. Oh, and my 5970 is overclocked to 800 by 1150 with no extra voltage. When i bring it past 5870 speeds with voltage, then im forced to run my fan at 35 and since my computer is really quiet, thats annoying to me personally. Some people might fing that just fine though.
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Have you looked at your temperatures? Those fans speeds will yield some dangerously high temps.
 
Unless you turn it up manually, it's never particularly noticeable, crysis or otherwise.
 
MJZ said:
Have you looked at your temperatures? Those fans speeds will yield some dangerously high temps.
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Yes, in gaming it gets to mid 70s after hours of playing and idle is between 37-43 depending on room temp and what not. I cut to 120mm circels in the side panal clear plastic and mounted 120mm fans near the processor, and the other right next to the intake of the graphic card, so its 2 holes at opposite corners. Ive been building comps for ever, i ceck temps 4-5 times a day. But thanks.
 
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