Fast, Cool, and Quiet?

[Mercutio]

What's the coolest running, quietest, superfast card? I'm looking at the high end (GTX280, 4870, etc), but heat and noise are concerns. If it's possible to replace the stock heatsink/fan with an aftermarket one to keep noise/cooling in line, then I'm very open to that as well.

Thank you!

 

[Valset]

they are all going to produce a lot of heat. no real way around that for the high end. but look for something along the line of the big passive heat sinks that you can attach a large fan to. as far as being quite if you use a 4870 stock fan without turning up the fan its pretty damn quite.

 

[Mercutio]

Has anyone here actually used a passive heatsink with any of the current high end cards?

 

[Valset]

yes but they usually put a fan on it. still a good options as a big fan is pretty quite. and works better then the stock cooler.

 

[RadXge]

GTX 280 + http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/hr-03_gtx/product_vga_cooler_hr03gtx.html

 

[Mercutio]

Oh wow... I'm sold. That cooler looks incredible.