Quiet video card

K

Kaizer

Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2001
Messages
737
Every couple of years I ask the same question of this forum, and have yet to be disappointed.

What is the current leader in terms of quiet, and still able to game at 4k?

I currently have an nvidia 960, its working ok for me, but some games at 4k just don't play that well.

I value quiet over performance to be honest.

I prefer nvidia, but have used AMD in the past with little issue.
 
My Sapphire Nitro Fury is pretty much silent, the cooling solution on it is amazing. Big card tho at over 12", and getting a little long in the tooth for AAA at 4k but I've never owned a quieter card (on air)

EDIT: to add, I've heard good things about Zotac's new cooler, so if I was wanting AAA at 4k right this minute, and need a quiet air cooled card, I'd pick up one of their 1080ti's https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-amp-extreme
 
Nothing scientific here but my MSI GTX 1080ti Gaming is so quiet I had to visualy check if the fans were moving. They were, no noticeable sound.
 
With the announcement that Nvidia is pushing their production up, im curious if I should wait for the new cards to arrive to get in on that "not the latest and greatest" discount. I suppose I should have mentioned I try to stay under 300. I just dont ever get the benefit of having that slightly faster video card. I tend to play older games (mmo).
 
Kaizer said:
With the announcement that Nvidia is pushing their production up, im curious if I should wait for the new cards to arrive to get in on that "not the latest and greatest" discount. I suppose I should have mentioned I try to stay under 300. I just dont ever get the benefit of having that slightly faster video card. I tend to play older games (mmo).
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I mean Vega and Volta should push prices of Pascal down. A 960, your upgrade path next would be a 1070 i think. Its has sales down to $350 atm. If your looking for a firm price under $300 and 1070 performance sounds good, wait till Vega and Volta.
 
SighTurtle said:
I mean Vega and Volta should push prices of Pascal down. A 960, your upgrade path next would be a 1070 i think. Its has sales down to $350 atm. If your looking for a firm price under $300 and 1070 performance sounds good, wait till Vega and Volta.
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I couldn't agree more.
 
Of the 1070s, anyone have any votes on which may be the quietest?

Thanks for the advice so far.
 
I have a MSI 1070 Gaming Z, pretty quiet, fans won't kick on until 60C.
 
I have a Gigabyte 1070G1 and it is quieter than my case fans, which are themselves very quiet. I believe that most, if not all, the aftermarket 1070's are set up so the fans don't run till you get to a certain temp. Usually 60c by default.
 
x2 on MSI TwinFrozr. This rx480 is pretty quiet. Of course, having a good case helps. This Dell T3500 is thick and heavy with double layer panels. Cannot hear the card at all at full speeds.
 
Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme here. It's virtually dead silent. Clocked @ 2100/4500 and during several hours of heavy gaming temps hover around 60c loaded and I still can't hear the fans.
 
My gut feeling is that a 1070 is a bad buy right now. I think we will see the largest price drops on those cards with the new gen from AMD coming out soon and NVidia not too long after that.
 
I had an Arctic Accelero Xtreme III on my GTX 970 and was pretty happy with it.

I'll be getting another to put on my GTX 1070, so I'll see if that turns out well.
Though I'm going for an ITX now build instead of mATX like the old one, so getting the acoustics where I want them is more difficult than it was in the old build.
 
How quiet does it REALLY need to be? If you're willing to shell out the cash, check out one of those Calyos cases with the integrated heatpipe cooling.

It literally has NO fans. NO pumps. If you use a passive PSU, the only thing you'll hear is coilwhine.
 
heres my recommendation for a quiet powerhouse:
2017-05-02.jpg
 
I would avoid the coil whine ridden nvidia 900 series gpus. There are some good 1060 and 1070 cards that may be quiet enough. you'll have to go low power like a 1050ti for complete silence as they runc ooler
 
UnrulyCactus said:
How quiet does it REALLY need to be? If you're willing to shell out the cash, check out one of those Calyos cases with the integrated heatpipe cooling.

It literally has NO fans. NO pumps. If you use a passive PSU, the only thing you'll hear is coilwhine.
Click to expand...


Jesus Christ thats amazing.
 
UnrulyCactus said:
How quiet does it REALLY need to be? If you're willing to shell out the cash, check out one of those Calyos cases with the integrated heatpipe cooling.

It literally has NO fans. NO pumps. If you use a passive PSU, the only thing you'll hear is coilwhine.
Click to expand...
Superb.
If I hadnt mounted my PC inside a table I would consider this.

Only question mark are the temps they have given to watercooling on the kickstarter page.
They place it not as good cooling as using AIO and louder.
Not true on either account unless you cheap out.
 
RamonGTP said:
My gut feeling is that a 1070 is a bad buy right now. I think we will see the largest price drops on those cards with the new gen from AMD coming out soon and NVidia not too long after that.
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Yeah but still you gotta admit the 1070 is still a formidable card. If price keep dropping they'll be great deals to be had.
 
Kaizer said:
With the announcement that Nvidia is pushing their production up, im curious if I should wait for the new cards to arrive to get in on that "not the latest and greatest" discount. I suppose I should have mentioned I try to stay under 300. I just dont ever get the benefit of having that slightly faster video card. I tend to play older games (mmo).
Click to expand...
Used 1070 or 1080 would be great. Waiting a little longer for new products to come out is almost always a good idea if you can, people will upgrade given time and will upgrade even faster knowing new tech is out or soon to be out
 
Napoleon said:
Used 1070 or 1080 would be great. Waiting a little longer for new products to come out is almost always a good idea if you can, people will upgrade given time and will upgrade even faster knowing new tech is out or soon to be out
Click to expand...

Who here doesn't want the lastest and greatest? Sometimes the pockets don't go that deep.
 
Nebulous said:
Who here doesn't want the lastest and greatest? Sometimes the pockets don't go that deep.
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Absolutely, and with performance/price increasing constantly as tech progresses, both the value/deal finding and cutting edge enthusiast groups can be happy.

Edit: actually, I'm not sure why I didn't suggest this before, but if you could find an EVGA gtx 980ti hybrid cooling card used that should meet all your goals

This post is from 3 months ago but the guy didn't appear to sell them https://hardforum.com/threads/fs-evga-980ti-hybrid-card-mint.1922835/

I'm sure there are others around
 
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Napoleon said:
Absolutely, and with performance/price increasing constantly as tech progresses, both the value/deal finding and cutting edge enthusiast groups can be happy.

Edit: actually, I'm not sure why I didn't suggest this before, but if you could find an EVGA gtx 980ti hybrid cooling card used that should meet all your goals
Click to expand...

True that! I lucked out when I was shopping for a new card. Yeah I wanted the 1080, but funds didn't reach that far. I waited a few days and in my search found my current card. Saw the beast was on sale from the $460+ and in the end my cost was $380 for a brand new card. Last time I was able to afford a brand new video card was when the GF4 Ti4600 hit the shelves :eek:

Now I look at the Ti cards and only drool. Do I want a Ti? Sure as hell yeah, but my current card still holds it's own in all the games I play. I'm happy ;)
 
Bigc208 said:
Nothing scientific here but my MSI GTX 1080ti Gaming is so quiet I had to visualy check if the fans were moving. They were, no noticeable sound.
Click to expand...

I have the MSI GTX 1080 Ti as well. It's pretty quiet, but the cooling isn't quite as good as a triple fan solution, so temps are still higher. And if you go above 50%, the fan noise does start to become audible. Triple fan cards are definitely the quietest but on the flip side don't fit small cases very well (as they are often 13+" long).
 
If it makes a difference. I've owned 2 1070s.

An EVGA SC
Currently Asus Strix.

the EVGA SC was easily quieter under load fan wise than the Asus, but had some very minor coil whine under heavy load/high fps. I have not heard anything coil whine wise for the Asus at all cept for stupid 3000fps loading screens or something like that. But the fans are definitely louder.

My EVGA SC 'died' randomly hence the swap with warranty (got a credit). If I had to pick again I'd reconsider the EVGA, the Strix is huge and not as quiet as I'd have hoped. My previous 970 from MSI had quiet fans, but notable coil noise.
 
Man I missed most of these replies :(

Thanks for all the advice. I'm happy with my current case, its a corsair case built for quiet. Corsair Carbide Series 330 - http://a.co/2VHUjAm

But... that case is pretty damn sweet. When I decide this isnt good enough.. ill be all over that :)

Think im going to wait for that next gen to drop. Its getting tempting though because a few games just arent playing well at 4k.
 
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