Blower style coolers - then and now

M

Momo

Gawd
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Mar 3, 2005
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So i've got a reference design 5850 with the blower style cooler from XFX.

I'd like to get a GTX680.

Are these basically the same fans, and therefore the same noise produced at the same RPM?

Or have the manufacturers changed the blade design / messed with the RPM of these blowers over the last couple years to make them quieter?
 
The GTX680 is pretty quiet on auto. They run fairly cool.
 
Well to be honest, my 680 gets fairly audible at 70+ fan. I'd say not a whole lot different than my 8800gtxs, however, you definitely don't have to run the 680 fan that high - it runs pretty cool. Like sub 80 under load. My 8800s would have to run at 85+ to keep temps below 90 (or in the case of my hotter card in SLI, 100). The highest temp I've seen on my 680 with auto fan is 72 I think. And that probably equates to sub 70 fan.

Bottom line is really this: if you manually set it to 70+ its noticable. 85+ and its pretty loud
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
That's not all true, while they are quiet, both of mine hit 75-85deg c
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75-80C is fairly cool for a modern video card, especially on a reference design. The stock fan profile is not aggressive at all either, with a few tweaks you can keep the cards cooler and not increase noise much.
 
How is it with those blowers/sinks, dont they trap alot of dust that's hard getting rid of ?
 
Only if your case is dusty (use air filters, people!) :p I've had a GTX 260 running in a PC for several years now without any dust accumulation in it's HSF assembly.
 
My 680 is vastly more quiet than my 6970's with the reference cooler were. Even manually set, I can't even hear the fan until it gets over 60% speed, and it never gets that high on auto. My 6970's were noticeable at anything over about 35% fan speed.
 
70% fan speed is 'fairly audible' ? really? what kind of case do you have Stricken?

I've got a corsair 800d, with a radiator up top... so video card noise leaks out the top. 70% fan speed on a 5850 blower is freakin LOUD and high pitched and noisy as heck...

I'm seriously considering switching to a non-top-vented design, just to reduce the noise... but my brain says get a new quieter video card first. Darn brain ;)

edit: yes, i've gone the aftermarket cooler route. Tried an accelero for my card, the gpu contact was piss poor, so it's away for RMA (3 months ago almost now).
 
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Momo said:
So i've got a reference design 5850 with the blower style cooler from XFX.

I'd like to get a GTX680.

Are these basically the same fans, and therefore the same noise produced at the same RPM?

Or have the manufacturers changed the blade design / messed with the RPM of these blowers over the last couple years to make them quieter?
Click to expand...

IMO the gtx 680 will be quieter. Although both are quiet with auto fan, the 680 is quieter at higher rpm settings
 
Momo said:
... I'm seriously considering switching to a non-top-vented design, just to reduce the noise... but my brain says get a new quieter video card first. Darn brain ;) ...
Click to expand...

Have a look at the raven 2 evolution, or FT02, with a 540 in the bottom. Pretty quiet case.
 
Rizen said:
75-80C is fairly cool for a modern video card, especially on a reference design. The stock fan profile is not aggressive at all either, with a few tweaks you can keep the cards cooler and not increase noise much.
Click to expand...

85 is not cool, it's pretty hot, considering my 7970s never break go much past 77-78degrees, and the 680s can hit 85 in more demanding games. it's a trade off, cooling perf or noise, u get one or the other.

i said 75-85 because it was diff depending on game. check out [H] review for more #s
 
Momo said:
70% fan speed is 'fairly audible' ? really? what kind of case do you have Stricken?

I've got a corsair 800d, with a radiator up top... so video card noise leaks out the top. 70% fan speed on a 5850 blower is freakin LOUD and high pitched and noisy as heck...

I'm seriously considering switching to a non-top-vented design, just to reduce the noise... but my brain says get a new quieter video card first. Darn brain ;)

edit: yes, i've gone the aftermarket cooler route. Tried an accelero for my card, the gpu contact was piss poor, so it's away for RMA (3 months ago almost now).
Click to expand...

I've got a CM Storm Trooper... Though I want to switch to a HAF-X. But yeah 70% is definitely there, and admittedly somewhat annoying. However, this is in a dead quiet room at the moment with no ambient noise. All I can hear is my computer. So while gaming, even if using speakers rather than headphones, I think 70% wouldn't be very discernible over gaming sounds.

I just did my own quick test, 40 and 50% fan are inaudible or nearly so. 60 becomes noticeable, but still not annoying. Soon as I switch to 70, that's when it starts becoming what some would consider loud. 85 sounds like a mini hair dryer.
 
MindBuster said:
How is it with those blowers/sinks, dont they trap alot of dust that's hard getting rid of ?
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I'm not sure about AMD cards, but since nVidia's Fermi cards, the top cover of the cooler can be easily remove by removing several small screws around them. No any clipping mechanism on the GTX 570 I cleaned for my brother so its very easy to remove without any force needed.

There's no need to take apart the entire heatsink, just remove the cover and you can easily wipe off any dust trapped at the edge of the GPU's heatsink.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
85 is not cool, it's pretty hot, considering my 7970s never break go much past 77-78degrees, and the 680s can hit 85 in more demanding games. it's a trade off, cooling perf or noise, u get one or the other.

i said 75-85 because it was diff depending on game. check out [H] review for more #s
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It's cool when you consider that GPUs 2-3 years ago regularly exceeded 90*C. I haven't seen my 580s or 680s go over 85C unless I leave them on auto fan profile and crank the overclocks.
 
Hornet said:
I'm not sure about AMD cards, but since nVidia's Fermi cards, the top cover of the cooler can be easily remove by removing several small screws around them. No any clipping mechanism on the GTX 570 I cleaned for my brother so its very easy to remove without any force needed.

There's no need to take apart the entire heatsink, just remove the cover and you can easily wipe off any dust trapped at the edge of the GPU's heatsink.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it just seemed to me that it would be hard, having dust trapped in the heatsink "channels" or what you would call them, but ofcourse most would be caught by the edge.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
85 is not cool, it's pretty hot, considering my 7970s never break go much past 77-78degrees, and the 680s can hit 85 in more demanding games. it's a trade off, cooling perf or noise, u get one or the other.

i said 75-85 because it was diff depending on game. check out [H] review for more #s
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Radeon 7970 is WAYYYYYY louder even on lower fan percentages than the GTX 680 even on higher settings %-wise. I've owned both. My cards never top 75c in SLI on auto-fan for GTX 680's (2 cards) and it never goes above about 55-58% on auto either, in BF3. Quite quiet, and blazingly fast. The Radeon 7970 on 40% fan was audible and above what I'd like by far at 44%.... the GTX 680's become audible/above my preference at ~68-70%. 7970 would go to 44-48% on auto, too! GTX 680 is the clear winner in this department... well actually basically every department, but you get the point.
 
When I first got my 470 it was louder than all getout; it really sounded like I had a leaf blower in my case. =( At some point Nvidia tweaked the fan profiles and I pretty much never hear it anymore, unless I'm really pushing the card by folding or something. It really was night and day amazing. I can't believe that AMD hasn't been able to pull off something like this.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Yeah, the Radeon 7970 is WAYYYYYY louder even on lower fan percentages than the GTX 680 even on higher settings %-wise. I've owned both. My cards never top 75c in SLI on auto-fan for GTX 680's (2 cards) and it never goes above about 55-58% on auto either, in BF3. Quite quiet, and blazingly fast. The Radeon 7970 on 40% fan was audible and above what I'd like by far at 44%.... the GTX 680's become audible/above my preference at ~68-70%. 7970 would go to 44-48% on auto, too! GTX 680 is the clear winner in this department... well actually basically every department, but you get the point.
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Forget fan % please. That's just voltage supplied.

What are the fan RPM's @ 68-70% on the GTX680, and at 44% on the 7970?

Might just be the same RPM...
 
GTX 470 was by far the loudest card I ever owned with the reference cooler. Only because I was overclocking it to 800mhz and had to crank the fan up to keep it cool though.
 
Momo said:
Forget fan % please. That's just voltage supplied.

What are the fan RPM's @ 68-70% on the GTX680, and at 44% on the 7970?

Might just be the same RPM...
Click to expand...

I don't know offhand. I care about the noise for cooling done and for that my gtx 680s rock.
 
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