5870 = Noisy

Brent_Justice said:
The problem with testing noise is the condition to do it properly. I have a decibel meter, but I don't have a sound chamber or anything that could test the sound in any meaningful way by isolating it from the CPU fan and other noise. What I can tell you though, is that the fan, even at full load, did not overpower the CPU fan's noise on my test system. Only when I manually set the fan to 50% did it overpower the CPU fan. At full load I never saw it go over 37%.
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That sounds better than the 4870 X2's fan. When I had one of those cards in my system it wasn't too bad. Two was unbearable. (The fan speeds had to be adjusted to keep them both cool enough to avoid lockups.)
 
After reading a lot of newegg reviews (yes, I know) most of the reviewers say the card is fairly quiet.
 
My 5870's fan never goes over 35% during hours of demanding games (i.e. Crysis). My case fans are louder.

Of course, at 100%, the fan is a freakin' wind turbine.
 
The fan is only noisy if you force it to be. It's fairly quiet when set to manual, even during the most demanding of games.
 
I've upgraded from a HD 4890 (with the hairdryer noise at start-up and loud fan noise during game-play) and find the HD 5870 fairly quiet. It's subjective, but I would say it's on par with the GTX 285. I'm still thinking about adding a 2nd one for a nice Crossfire setup, since noise is not that bad (at least compared to the HD 4890).
 
Copyright said:
After reading a lot of newegg reviews (yes, I know) most of the reviewers say the card is fairly quiet.
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I think it's about as quiet as my gtx285/295 units, basically the case fans are louder and they are considered quiet by silentpcreview.com standards. I'm happy with that. :)
 
It is on Par with the GTX285. I had one and now I have the 5870 and they are about even. At startup its also quiet it doesn't rev up like the 4870 and 4890 did.
 
Does the Accelero S1 Rev. 2 work with the 5870? I had a 4890 and it idled at 60c...then would crank up real loud when gaming, and hover in the 70s and low 80s when gaming. With the accelero s1 and a 120mm fan on it and arctic cooling mx-2 paste, it is quiet, idles at 42c(I know right, crazy difference), and load never gets above 60c. I hope to be able to use the accelero when i get a 5870...peace out. Oh I keep the 4890 @ stock speeds.
 
My new 5870 runs cooler than my "old" 4870 ever did. Under load it never goes past 65C and ilde its at 30C. Its overclocked but i have great air flow. i have 2 120mm fans blowing air from outside the case in. I drilled 120mm holes in the plastic side panel and one of the fans directly feeds the 5870. Of course they are hooked up to a fan controller and set to the lowest speeds. In fact my 4.2 Gig icore 7 with my 5870 is one of the quietest ive built in awhile. Im using the corsair H20 and all my fans (4) are set to the lowest settings via my fan controller. I set my 5870 to 28 fan speed and i cant hear it over my hard drives.
 
As another said, if you've got good air flow in your case the fan won't be spinning up high to cool the card under load. Mine is 32C idle 60-63C load in my SilverStone case. I rarely hear the fan and if I do it is low and distant.
 
Blacklash said:
As another said, if you've got good air flow in your case the fan won't be spinning up high to cool the card under load. Mine is 32C idle 60-63C load in my SilverStone case. I rarely hear the fan and if I do it is low and distant.
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Agree. My system case is an Antec 900 (original mk1 version). This is a gaming only system so I have only 1xHDD inside. Mobo is Asus Rampage X48 with [email protected] . I'm using two case fans. 1x 12cm front fan @950rpm and the BIG top fan @low. Airflow is excellent inside the case. There is no need to use more fans with this case. I remind you, only ONE HDD inside.

CPU cooler is a TR True Black 120 with 12cm fan @950rpm.

With these exact conditions and 5870 (stock clocks + auto fan), the system is whisper quiet when sitting idle. After playing crysis for about 30mins, the 5870 fan spins up but the noise is very very low. Yes I can hear it but it's not a problem at all. I have to turn down the volume and move close to the case to hear the 5870 fan moving air.

This cooler is not loud under normal operation with a decent case.
However, if you use manual control and turn it to 45%+ , it is loud. But there is no need to do this!
You can hear the air moving, no fan whine but it's still annoying.
Do not try 80%+ :D:D:D:D:D , I almost jumped off my seat!
 
Right well I've had the XFX 5870 for a few days now. When I set it to autofan, I only notice the noise on startup but once windows starts it becomes quiet again. I tried setting the fan to 45% manual once and it was too noisy for my tastes! Under auto though it doesn't reach my annoyance threshold so that is nice. I'm still wondering if an Accelero would be quieter with better cooling. IF so I'll probably slap one on once they come out for the 5870. I really can't believe Anandtech's reported 62 Dba noise report unless they set the fan to 100% on purpose!
 
My case is noisy enough that when my fan goes to 30%, which is where I usually see it while playing Borderlands, I don't hear any noise. Just played with the controls, looks like anything over 30% I can hear. I'll probably still look at some 3rd party cooling as stuff comes out, I'm still not crazy with the GPU temp running at 80 when playing games, even if that's their spec. I loved how the TT DualOrbs I stuck on my 4850s dropped the temp by 20 degrees.
 
bitgod said:
My case is noisy enough that when my fan goes to 30%, which is where I usually see it while playing Borderlands, I don't hear any noise. Just played with the controls, looks like anything over 30% I can hear. I'll probably still look at some 3rd party cooling as stuff comes out, I'm still not crazy with the GPU temp running at 80 when playing games, even if that's their spec. I loved how the TT DualOrbs I stuck on my 4850s dropped the temp by 20 degrees.
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I didn't like my xfx 5870 creeping just past 80C either (only @ 99% activity in Seelow in WaW), but wanted to stick w/ stock cooling, so I replaced the thermal paste. It hasn't gotten to 80C yet since I did it (usually low to mid 70's).

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When comparing my XFX 5870 to my EVGA GTX 280, the 5870 sounds like a jet engine. I used to set the fan on my GTX to 100% and couldnt hear it at all. ( Keep in mind I am partially deaf ) But the 5870 at 50% is so amazingly loud that it astonishes me that I can hear it. HOWEVER..... the 5870 moves ALOT more air than the stock cooler on the GTX. At 30% the airflow on the 5870 is fairly impressive and feels ( to touch ) like twice the volume as the GTX on 100%. Granted the opening for the GTX is twice as large but still.... The 5870 on auto never gets louder (during Crysis and Dead Space) then the case fans on the Antec Skeleton or the PSU fans (which admittedly I cheaped out on).

That said, I will switch to water cooling as soon as a water block is available for the 5870 since my computer room sounds like a server room (5 PCs burning 24/7)
 
My case is quite loud when I have the fan controller cranked up. The PC Power & Cooling 1200 watt PSU's fan is the loudest fan in my entire case. The pitch/whine is pretty intense it overpowers my Delta fan on my Thermalright Xtreme.
 
The paste swap did very little for me. Maybe 3C max and to be honest the paste on there had a nice impression. I don't think its worth it. Wish Someone would come out with a nice cooler taht also cools the VRM's well. That always seems to be the problem. They can never get the VRM cooling right.
 
While I do wish ATI would have better stock cooling on their cards, it's a bit shortsighted to say they're just crap at making coolers. 3D cards are very expensive to begin with, and ATI doesn't want to unnecessarily raise the price of their cards when the stock cooler will be fine for 90% of people out there.

Saying that, I wish they would have two SKU's for each of their products on launch, one with stock cooling and one with a more efficient, quieter cooler for a premium price. It's a pain in the ass to have to wait a few months for the 3rd party companies to come out with better cooling solutions. The current situation is like a car company releasing a new car in january, but you have to wait to june if you want the updated model that has a muffler on it.
 
Copyright said:
The paste swap did very little for me. Maybe 3C max and to be honest the paste on there had a nice impression. I don't think its worth it. Wish Someone would come out with a nice cooler taht also cools the VRM's well. That always seems to be the problem. They can never get the VRM cooling right.
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3C isn't a bad improvement, but the fan rpm easily can make that up; hence I agree that the paste replacement will probably not be worth it to most people. However, I'm also seeing that I don't get up over 80C any more and that's a real nice improvement.

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