Please Recommend A GPU Upgrade From MSI GTX 760

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kage

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I have a MSI GTX 760 GPU and I want to upgrade to a new GPU instead of buying a PS4 and Xbox One. I want a buy new video card that costs under $520 and that is quiet during idle and gaming. I really do not want the GTX 770, I've tried 2 EVGA's GTX 770's and both had noisy fans. I'm willing to try the R9-280x, R9-290 and the GTX 780.

To help you out, here are the current specs on my PC:
1. i7-4770k
2. Asus Maximus VI Hero MB
3. 16 GB Memory
4. MSI GTX 760
5. 250GB SSD
6. 1TB HDD
7. 750 Watt Corsair PS
8. Corsair Carbide 400R Tower
9. Windows 8.1 Pro

Which videocard do you recommend?
 
I think the only thing you need to add is your monitor or at least what resolution you are gaming at (or planning on gaming at) A 760 is already a faster GPU than whats in the XBONE and PS4 so if you're gaming at 1080p then there probably is no reason to upgrade.
 
Your case, motherboard, and PSU are all perfectly acceptable for SLI, so why not another gtx 760? If you didn't already have a card I would say buy the gtx 780 or the 290, but as you already have one gtx 760, the two of them are much more powerful than what you can buy for your $500 dollar price limit. I am running a similar solution with two gtx 670's and so far haven't found anything that slows them down enough to consider upgrading.
 
None of those cards you suggested are quieter than the 770, which is already fairly quiet as far as high end goes (unless the ones you tried were reference coolers).

SLI sounds like a tasty option, though then you're going to get that same fan noise you didn't like on the 770, if not worse.

Either wait or watercool.
 
You need a card with Asus dc ii or msi gaming hsf for quieter operation, or change your fan profile in software. Ime the amd cards are even more terrible for fan noise but I only had a few of the previous generation like the 6950/70, 7870, 7970ghz. Oddly a 7950 twin frozr was the only acceptable card imo of the ones I tried.
 
Noise level is really more dependent on the actual cooling solution used. This varies considerably between the OEMs.

MSI is currently tuning towards the quieter side compared to other manufacturers. Assuming your GTX 760 is a custom (non reference) you are not going to get significant noise improvements (if not worse) with any upgrade.

The EVGA 770s you had were either reference or using their ACX cooler which is on the louder end of the current manufacturer spectrum.

That being said unless the actual cost difference to you is very low there isn't really much point in upgrading from a 760 to 770 or a 280x (AMD side). You'd really need to upgrade to a 780 (Nvidia side) or a 290 (AMD side) to actually get a significant improvement.
 
There are a couple of GTX 780 Classifieds in the for sale section, one of those would do what you need pretty easily I think. They are pretty quiet compared to a blower type cooler.
 
I decided to go with the GTX 780. Which brands are the best and have quiet fans?
 
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Going up from the 760 to an ASUS GTX 780 DCUII http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DWV3NM6 would be a nice upgrade and you could sell your 760 to cut the cost in half.

The 780 can max out anything at 1080p right now and should for a while.
 
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I was just about to recommend the Asus DCII 780 as well...I have some DCII 780tis in my 2 main rigs and they are pretty much SILENT :)
 
Asus GTX 780 DCII, EVGA GTX 780 Classified, GTX 780 Lightning are all strong cards yet quiet.
 
If you plan on sticking with team green I would think a 780 would be a worthy jump.
 
the twin frozr 780 and dcii 780 are the only models to look at, and they're pretty much the same.

the twin frozr 780 is on sale on newegg right now for $489.99 - $30 rebate = $459.99.
 
noobthegreat said:
Dude, why do you keep getting EVGA if you want quiet? They're the loudest of the manufacturers in terms of cooling solutions.
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The ACX cooler is certainly not loud. Not sure what you're talking about here.

Also, there really isn't a "loud" GTX 780. Even the base Titan shroud is quiet, unless you overclock to levels that necessitate high manual fan speeds. Basically, you're way off base here. The ACX isn't the BEST aftermarket cooler, but to say it's loud simply is not true. There are numerous tests on various websites on it to substantiate that.

Now my choice if I were on the market now would probably be the DC 2 simply because i'm somewhat a fan of asus' engineering, but again, the ACX is in no way shape or form a loud cooler. Here's a review of the ACX cooling - note the FTW uses the same cooling solution.

fannoise_load.gif
 
xoleras said:
The ACX cooler is certainly not loud. Not sure what you're talking about here.
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It's because he switched back from 2 EVGAs to an MSI because of loudness. The ACX, while obviously quieter than reference, is still louder than the other aftermarket cooling solutions (higher fan RPM at idle, too).

Just saying 'cause we might see OP come back having again found the fans too loud for his taste. Especially considering the cards are being exchanged for even higher power-draw cards.
 
xoleras said:
The ACX cooler is certainly not loud. Not sure what you're talking about here.
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"They're the loudest of the manufacturers in terms of cooling solutions."

not sure what you're talking about here. he didn't say they're loud, he said they're the loudest, which they are. not only that, but the msi twin frozr 780 is still on sale for $489 - $30 mir, and the 780 ftw is $529 - $20 mir. it makes no sense that he bought the evga when a better card costs less...
 
I believe the GTX 770 and 780 ACX coolers are actually identical as well, with the latter having a higher TDP for the heatsink to deal with.

I wouldn't say the EVGA card's are bad though just that hte design goals were different. For instance the ACX is rather compact compared to other solutions (MSI's Twinfrozr for example actually significantly exceeds the PCB in width allowing the use of the larger 100mm fans). But if your priority and most important consideration was noise the aren't tuned on the lower end compared to other manufacturers.

Loudness is subjective as well. Some people for instance don't find reference 290/290x to have a noise issue. While others find they have to go with watercooling or passive solutions.
 
noobthegreat said:
It's because he switched back from 2 EVGAs to an MSI because of loudness. The ACX, while obviously quieter than reference, is still louder than the other aftermarket cooling solutions (higher fan RPM at idle, too).

Just saying 'cause we might see OP come back having again found the fans too loud for his taste. Especially considering the cards are being exchanged for even higher power-draw cards.
Click to expand...

MSI manufacturers GTX 760 GPUs with the reference GTX 670/680 cooler, which is similar to that used on the 670. That cooler is certainly not as good as either the Titan shroud OR the ACX cooler.

He didn't specify WHICH 760 he has, but since he didn't mention twin frozr I assume he has the reference cooler. And that reference cooler is not the titan shroud, and is substantially worse than the Titan/780 shroud, ACX, OR the twin frozr coolers. If he says his 760 is loud, it's easy to assume that he has a non 780/titan style reference cooler, and not a twin frozr variant.

Here is the "reference" cooler used on the MSI 760. Note that this is the cheap ref design from the GTX 670, and is not the 780 / Titan shroud:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127744

The ACX cooler is not loud. It is competitive with every other cooler out there in terms of noise, you can simply google reviews of the 780 ACX to substantiate this. Sure, you can get on the OCD/nitpick level and say that a twin frozr card is 1.3dB more silent. Sure. Who cares though, they're all silent really................ there really isn't a 780 out there that is loud - even the reference Titan/780 shroud is not loud. Personally if I were on the market, I think that most of the custom cards are quiet. Therefore i'd personally shop for the better custom cards with better potential overclocks. I would opt for the Gigabyte GHZ edition, EVGA classy or the Asus DC II for maximum OC potential. But if that (overclocking potential) didn't matter to me, I can't think of any bad choice in terms of custom 780s in terms of noise really. Or the reference 780 for that matter which is also quiet. Aside from this, a lot of people feel, for GOOD REASONS, that EVGA is the best choice because of their customer service and RMA service. To me that's a completely valid reason for anyone to choose EVGA; my 2 CS dealings with EVGA have been nothing short of excellent. While I love asus, i'm FAIRLY SURE that Asus RMA's aren't in the same league as EVGA. Or MSI for that matter. You could take your chances with another brand, but it's rare for other brands to stand behind their products with good RMA / CS as EVGA does IMO.
 
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Fan noise considerations aside, and from everything I've read the ACX is actually not a bad cooler from a noise perspective, especially with a manual fan curve adjustment through Precision/Afterburner, isn't EVGA still the best in terms of reliability/warranty support? I have had good luck with both ASUS and MSI when I have had to deal with their RMA departments. In fact, I had a good experience with Gigabyte once as well. None of those experiences have come close to comparing however, with the service I received from EVGA when I had to RMA a few cards. They were definitely the fastest and easiest to RMA with. That alone could easily be worth a $30 - 40 premium for some, myself included.
 
I don't believe the OP referred to his GTX 760 as having a noise issue. Instead he said the two EVGA's GTX 770s he tried were loud while attributing the noise issue to them being GTX 770s. If they were ACX designs then he would be getting the exact same heatsink on a higher thermal load with the GTX 780 he is now buying. Of course we don't know since he hasn't really stated what actual models were tried.

I'm just hoping as well the OP realizes that noise level is highly dependent on the cooling solution implemented and design of the board, not just the actual chip used.

kage said:
I have a MSI GTX 760 GPU and I want to upgrade to a new GPU instead of buying a PS4 and Xbox One. I want a buy new video card that costs under $520 and that is quiet during idle and gaming. I really do not want the GTX 770, I've tried 2 EVGA's GTX 770's and both had noisy fans. I'm willing to try the R9-280x, R9-290 and the GTX 780.
Click to expand...

Also I have to again emphasis that "loud" is highly subjective.

The only gauge we have for the OP is he found EVGA GTX 770s to be loud but we don't know what version he was referring to.
 
xoleras said:
MSI manufacturers GTX 760 GPUs with the reference GTX 670/680 cooler, which is similar to that used on the 670. That cooler is certainly not as good as either the Titan shroud OR the ACX cooler.

He didn't specify WHICH 760 he has, but since he didn't mention twin frozr I assume he has the reference cooler. And that reference cooler is not the titan shroud, and is substantially worse than the Titan/780 shroud, ACX, OR the twin frozr coolers. If he says his 760 is loud, it's easy to assume that he has a non 780/titan style reference cooler, and not a twin frozr variant.
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First, let me say I'm not on a crusade because I think EVGA is a great company, and I've owned and loved EVGA cards in the past.

Moving on, working from your assumption, if he currently owns a reference 760, and found EVGA 770s loud, they likely could not have been ACX coolers (because they are quieter than reference by a considerable margin, even taking 760->770 into consideration); therefore we'd be then comparing reference 760 to reference 770.

That then means OP actually and quite only found the loudness in the jump from 760 to 770 in terms of fan noise. The only metric we can reasonably point at then (barring faulty cards) is the power-draw (and therefore thermal load) of the cards, since the 770s have equally (or, as you note the Titan cooler, possibly better) performing cooling solutions.

In the above case, where OP has, for some reason, ONLY tried reference solutions, the outlook is good, because any non-reference card he gets will be quieter than what he's been trying so far.

If not, and we really are talking about trying to outdo a TF (or easier, a HAWK) 760 with higher-end cards in terms of absolute loudness, then it's an uphill battle.

As everyone's said, though, aftermarket 780s aren't so loud that they're unbearable (the 290s are more likely to be such), and one has to accept the fan noise for those cards comes with the territory of higher performance.

So I should probably rephrase my initial suggestion: put up with the "loud" fan noise or set a custom fan profile for higher temps, trading noise for hotter operation.
 
I've read about the ACX being a loud cooler. I just picked up a EVGA GTX 780 Ti w/ACX. I came from a MSI Twin Frozr model. The ACX is just as quiet as the Twin Frozr, and at full 100% is actually a bit more quiet. I am quite sensitive to noise also. Very pleased with it.
 
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