• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

HIS x1900xt ICEQ3

S

sitalchauhan

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
244
Hi. Just a quick question about the 'HIS x1900xt ICEQ3'

When idle, is the ICEQ3 cooler audiable at all?

I am building a system which has 3 120mm fans that are all 21dB and I want the system to be inaudiable (or as close to) at idle... Dont mind if it is slightly audiable at load though. I know about the vf900 and Accelero aftermath heatsinks, but I just want to know about the ICEQ3 cooler :)

Thanks,
Sital
 
I would say that it extremely quiet. Can only slightly hear anything from my computer. My computer has 2 120mm slow moving fans and zal on the cpu. I'm gald I choose this card rather than my friends noisey saphire! Although he paid considerably less than I did!
 
My IceQ3 runs the following profile for the cooling fan (pulled from the video BIOS):

Temp (C):Fan Duty Cycle (%)

0 :27
70 :32
80 :36
88 :50
91 :55
94 :59
97 :68
100 :100

Basically, under no load (idle), the fan is limited to 27% of full speed, as long as the VPU temp stays below 70C (it should easily, unless your room temp is very high). According to RivaTuner, that equates to about 1725rpm. I usually run mine at a fixed rate of 68% (3110 rpm). In my opinion, 68% offers the best balance of low sound for good cooling. If you notice, the default will only hit 68% if the VPU reaches 97C! I rarely hit over 65C in games with the fan set to a fixed rate of 68%. With the fan in auto, I would hit the high 70's or even 80C under the same conditions. I am idling at 43C right now (room ambient is 26C).

The default fan profile is very quiet to my ears; I cannot hear the fan above the other fans in my case. I suppose you could always flash a new fan profile to the BIOS that would run even quieter under light loads...I really like my HIS IceQ3. Did I also mention RivaTuner is an excellent program as well?

Your results will vary.
 
It doesn't pay to go too quiet, unless you like the sound of HDD's "clicking" :D
3 21db fans are going to produce over 25db anyway, so it's going to be quiet but certainly not inaudible. I doubt you'll hear the ICEQ3 over them.
 
Thanks for the responses and thanks for your profile and recommendations.
I'll most probably also get riviatuner and set up my own custom profile.
I am going to enclose my hard drive in a silent enclosure, so hopefully the 'clicking' shouldnt be a problem :D I guess I will see how quiet it actually is, but as it will be under my desk, it should be very quiet.
 
I have a P180 and at 68% I can hear the fan(not annoying at all though), anything lower I really don't notice above my case fans.

I tried to compromise quiet with OC and I set my two upper case fans to medium instead of low to get my temps during load lower. At medium I hear a slight hum coming from by PC and the HIS does not make a difference until you get to about 68%. I customized my fan profile in ATITool also, I set my fan to 50% at 60c and at 75c I think I go 68%. I have not hit 68% speed much in benchmarking.

The fan at 100% is pretty damn loud, but I have only ever hit that manually, temps just don't get that high with the heatsink they put on this thing.
 
ditto, p180 plus this card = very quite pc
i even have a raptor in it, and the raptor sounds like a wisper duing seek times.
 
Not to pick on [H] but if you want the best answer to this question you might want to check the forum over @ SiletPCReview. These guys can silence any system. SPCR And as far as personal experience goes, You'd be hard pressed to find a quietter solution it seems. I haven't tried the VF900 and AC solution but the ICEQ can't be heard, in my already quiet system. (not in the sig) It has only 3 undervolted fans and an AAM enabled hard drive, and an S12 PSU, so its saying alot.
 
I agree about SilentPC review, I referenced that site a lot during this build. I also just picked up a Nexus 120 fan they recommended to test out on my Scythe Ninja.

Sadly though, only a couple user reviews on the X1900XT IceQ3 last I looked. He got more responses here I think because the userbase is more performance oriented.
 
I was messing with ATI Overdrive and I noticed that the default fan controls would allow my card to get up in 80-81c at times. I think that heat lowering my 3dmark scores too.

So I tested through ATI Tool running 68% all the time and the Phive0 is spot on, my card never gets above 65c and score are better. I have overclocked to 650/801. I think the memory can go higher, but that is tops on the GPU without messing with voltage and I don't want to do that.

I have not tried Rivatuner, just overdrive, overclocker and ATI Tool. ATI Tool seems to work best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top