How loud is the GTX480 suppose to be?

RangerXML

RangerXML

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 16, 2006
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I got my (not so trouble free) step up a couple of days ago. I installed it pretty trouble free with the high-flow back plate and tested it out on a couple of games. I have to say when it gets around 85-94 it starts to get load, and I'm not talking about trouble getting air load, just the fan is spinning so fast load. When I installed it I already played around with the air flow and got a 5 degree drop just by turning one of the fans around in my case to push air onto the PCIe slots where the card is. I may have Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones, but I like to use my 5.1 and the fan can really pull me out of it.

Initially I was disappointed in the performance of the card over my GTX470 that I stepped up from, but then I realized when I was doing some stuff in the BIOS that the OC somehow got reset. OCed it again and gonna test it out with my new Acer 23.6" 120hz and 3D Vision tonight.
 
How close is your machine to your poerson? I use 16ft DVI cables and run the machine 8 ft from me under its own computer desk and the side of my main wrap around desk. Noise and heat when added to the fact that I have to run a window AC (has nothing to do with the 480s, but a room PACKED with gear and getting a ton of sun) 3 480s aren't anymore of an issue than 3 280s were for me.
 
Loud, lol, LOUD!

Its located under my desk, next to me. I use to have it on my desk, but that was already to loud for me. There is no room for me to move it anywhere else, full tower and I don't wasn't to run wires across my office where there would be room. Maybe I can hold out for some kind of 3rd party cooling solution or this might be what brings me on the water cooling band wagon (h8 the idea of changing fluids).
 
RangerXML said:
Loud, lol, LOUD!

Its located under my desk, next to me. I use to have it on my desk, but that was already to loud for me. There is no room for me to move it anywhere else, full tower and I don't wasn't to run wires across my office where there would be room. Maybe I can hold out for some kind of 3rd party cooling solution or this might be what brings me on the water cooling band wagon (h8 the idea of changing fluids).
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If you set it up right, you don't really have to change the fluids ever. Mainteinance shouldn't be a big deal, if you get the right kind of fluid, you can leave it going forever practically as long as you don't have leaks or anything like that.

My biggest suggestion to you though would be a large radiator(s). As large as you can fit in your case/workspace. You might even be able to get away with a couple 200mm radiators if you have the space. 200mm fans are dead quiet for the air that they push, and would be ideal for the solution. Next closest thing would be a radiator designed for 140mm fans.

I'm not sure of what kind of heat load a single 200mm rad can take, have to find some load/temp tables for those.
 
RangerXML said:
Loud, lol, LOUD!

Its located under my desk, next to me. I use to have it on my desk, but that was already to loud for me. There is no room for me to move it anywhere else, full tower and I don't wasn't to run wires across my office where there would be room. Maybe I can hold out for some kind of 3rd party cooling solution or this might be what brings me on the water cooling band wagon (h8 the idea of changing fluids).
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Honestly, you could watercool just the card(s) and not spend a ton of money.
If you use silver coils in the loop you would only need to change the fluid(distilled water) once a year tops.:D

I assumed it was LOUD, not load.....made me laugh though. I thought maybe you had english as a second language.
 
magoo said:
Honestly, you could watercool just the card(s) and not spend a ton of money.
If you use silver coils in the loop you would only need to change the fluid(distilled water) once a year tops.:D

I assumed it was LOUD, not load.....made me laugh though. I thought maybe you had english as a second language.
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Yuppers, English is my second language. Though there is no excuse for load vs loud. I'm looking at solutions of changing out some of the case fans to ones that push more air, but are still relatively quiet. Honestly I don't think my friends GTX480 is this loud, but then again I think it has better air flow.
 
my 470s are LOUD.. and I work in a colo 3 days a week... I think that says something. ;) but you can just put on the headphones and tune it out fairly easily but I don't like having to need the headphones to escape the fan noise.... I am going water on mine though (just pulled the trigger on a full koolance setup) as I spend enough time listening to that at work...
 
RangerXML said:
Yuppers, English is my second language. Though there is no excuse for load vs loud. I'm looking at solutions of changing out some of the case fans to ones that push more air, but are still relatively quiet. Honestly I don't think my friends GTX480 is this loud, but then again I think it has better air flow.
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You might have luck with aftermarket coolers for them if they will fit, not sure what is out there though.
 
magoo said:
Nice but a load of dung.
My 5870 with the stock cooler running the fan at 45% under full load will only reach 60C.

If I was going to watercool my stuff, I'd recommend BitsPower blocks, an MCP 655, and a 120.3 radiator.
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I'm sorry, but why is this a load of dung? It's about $80, and with a good 120mm fan people are posting good 30-35* C temperature drops on their GTX480s with a significant noise decrease. 120mm fans are much quieter than a GPU fan, and tower coolers work excellent on a CPU. What's the problem with using them on a GPU? Obviously, it would be tricky to use this in SLI, but you can flip the tower over and run it towards the opposite direction if your case will fit it.

I don't see what a comparison to a 5870 has to do with this.

Also, both my 5870s are cooled by a Bitspower block on a watercooling loop. I spent $500 on my watercooling parts, which is about what you will do spend if you do a quality setup with full cover blocks on 2 GPUs. You can definitely do aircooling cheaper, even if you source used/cheapo watercooling stuff.
 
I'm sorry, but why is this a load of dung?
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This is nothing personal.

It's dung because of the results the company suggests.

My example of the 5870 was that I can garner better results by simply turning up the fan cycle on my stock cooler.:)
 
I honestly can say that these puppy's are the loudest cards I have ever owned. However I don't ever leave the fan on the auto setting. I always have Precision Tune running to control the fans. When Im not gaming I keep them on 55%. Not to bad at that at all. Cant hardly even hear them. When I game, I put them on between 80%-90%. My temps never go above 75c but it starts to get loud. I just turn up my Klipsch 2.1 speakers till I cant hear them or use my Sony cans. Depends on if someone is watching TV as to which audio option I use. My PC is in the living room so I have to use the cans if anyone is home most of the time.
 
I have a spitfire on my 480 and my max temps are 55c, and even in games with dx11 and full 99% gpu usage (like avp) temps rarely go above 62c. Keep in mind that it's also completely quiet as the 140mm fan I use from thermalright is 900rpm. My microwave is louder than my pc now.
 
delete (forum wasnt responding / double posted).
 
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480's are fairly loud using stock cooling when under load, Lately ive been playing Lego Harry Potter (don't laugh its fun) and the game doesn't push the card over 82C so its fairly quiet, other games such as Crysis / Just Cause 2 tend to make the GPU fan audible over my case fans, but im also using the Auto fan speed setting on the card. (evga precision). I havent had any stability / crash issues so I figure its all good, I also have my case sitting pretty much right next to me on the ground in a cubby with this desk.
 
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damit.. now I had to go and by Lego Harry Potter... it is fun. lol. needed to play with the settings a little... the DOF setting is messed up, but got it working nicely at 5760x1080 in under a min...

in other GTX 4xx loundness news my wc gear should be here Monday.. woot!
 
magoo said:
Nice but a load of dung.
My 5870 with the stock cooler running the fan at 45% under full load will only reach 60C.

If I was going to watercool my stuff, I'd recommend BitsPower blocks, an MCP 655, and a 120.3 radiator.
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No WAY you're gonna find a complete water block/radiator/pump setup for anywhere near the Spitfire's price ($70 - $80). Spitfire keeps my setup whisper quiet while keeping temps low. Oh, and no worries about replacing the fluid once a year or leaks occurring.
 
alxnet2003 said:
No WAY you're gonna find a complete water block/radiator/pump setup for anywhere near the Spitfire's price ($70 - $80). Spitfire keeps my setup whisper quiet while keeping temps low. Oh, and no worries about replacing the fluid once a year or leaks occurring.
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No way is a spitfire going to give you water cooling temps or silence, either (depending on the heat load, there are other discrepancies too). I personally think $70 is severely pushing it for a piece of metal with a couple pipes in it.
 
With the Spitfire, do you connect the 120mm or 140mm fan to the power lead on the video card?
 
In my experience the GTX 480 isn't very loud until you get past 70-75% fan speed. I use my fan at 82% speed, which is the highest I can get before I can hear the fan even through my headphones.

If anything, the 480 is a lot quieter than my 4870x2. The 480's fan doesn't whine like the 4870x2's fan did. It's more of a whoosh noise.

At 82% fan speed my card averages 80c and maxes out at around 83c when playing Just Cause 2 with all the details maxed out.

I am running an EVGA GTX 480 SC+ with the high airflow I/O shield and the backplate on the card.
 
I can't even hear my 480 - like, at all.

My GTX 275 on the other hand was as loud as a small hair dryer, and I'm not exaggerating.
 
CompuG##K said:
If anything, the 480 is a lot quieter than my 4870x2. The 480's fan doesn't whine like the 4870x2's fan did. It's more of a whoosh noise.
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That's exactly right.

My old GTX 275 made a hair dryer noise. It was loud, ugly, and distracting. My 480, on the other hand, makes a much more gentle whirring noise.
 
WabeWalker said:
That's exactly right.

My old GTX 275 made a hair dryer noise. It was loud, ugly, and distracting. My 480, on the other hand, makes a much more gentle whirring noise.
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Uh. Maybe it doesn't make the high pitched whine. But the noise from a fan is due to turbulence. The 480's fan blows into really one of the most jam packed sinks I've ever seen and out some tiny slits in the back.

It sounded like a jet engine to me. Water was definitely the way to go, especially since I wanted to keep my faster PCIE slots and sandwich the cards.

EDIT: C'mon you people saying 480's are silent or quiet, just stop kidding yourselves.
 
Emission said:
No way is a spitfire going to give you water cooling temps or silence, either (depending on the heat load, there are other discrepancies too). I personally think $70 is severely pushing it for a piece of metal with a couple pipes in it.
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Ummm, the Spitfire uses a single 120mm fan spinning at 900-1000rpm. Quieter than a double fanned water cooling radiator. I clock my GTX 480 at 860 core with this whisper quiet setup. Water cooling gets you marginally higher core rates at about 3x-4x the price of this setup. Sure water looks cool but why spend the money and worry about maintaining water levels and leaks and such?

Edit: Regarding temps, the Spitfire lowers my idle and full load temps by 30 degrees consistently compared to stock. This is with a single 120mm fan at 1000rpm. Water will do slightly better but again, $300+ for a complete setup just ain't worth it.
 
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thehybridfrog said:
EDIT: C'mon you people saying 480's are silent or quiet, just stop kidding yourselves.
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Of course they aren't silent at high load but honestly I just don't get it. I've had PLENTY of hardware in the past that was hot and loud, that's why I years ago positioned my rig a good distance from my chair and I'd have burned up a long time ago without a window AC.

It's like the most powerful GPU that some people around here have ever had is a Colecovison.
 
alxnet2003 said:
Ummm, the Spitfire uses a single 120mm fan spinning at 900-1000rpm. Quieter than a double fanned water cooling radiator. I clock my GTX 480 at 860 core with this whisper quiet setup. Water cooling gets you marginally higher core rates at about 3x-4x the price of this setup. Sure water looks cool but why spend the money and worry about maintaining water levels and leaks and such?

Edit: Regarding temps, the Spitfire lowers my idle and full load temps by 30 degrees consistently compared to stock. This is with a single 120mm fan at 1000rpm. Water will do slightly better but again, $300+ for a complete setup just ain't worth it.
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Water cooling can be expanded to the rest of your system rather easily, however, and you can watercool 2 GPUs more easily. Or 3, which would be impossible with a Spitfire.

That said, it looks like an awesome product and would probably be my solution if I had a single 480.
 
Q: How quiet are your 480s?
A (from nvidia fanboy): Wow it is SO quiet, I use it to put my baby to sleep at night!
 
vjcsmoke said:
I knew the "my 480" is completely silent post was gonna come sooner or later. But wow. I didn't know that there were so many hearing impaired [H] members. LOL.
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My GTX 275 would ramp up its fans, and eventually sound like a hair dryer. The GTX 480 in comparison is amazingly quiet.
 
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