quietest decent video card

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ShadowStriker

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 8, 2009
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I'm looking to replace my HIS 4870 with something more current, but I can't decide what to get. I want something that can play games decently, but has to not blare at me when I'm playing.
 
6850s and 460s run cool enough to where you can keep the fans at minimum and not have to worry about temps.

I've had both, both from MSI, and I couldn't/can't hear them over my case fans.
 
I just got a 6770 sapphire on newegg for $97 (after rebate) and it includes dirt 3 steam edition.

The card has a huge heatsink and the fan keeps it under 70C in my case at 65% speed which is inaudible. Oh and this is overclocked to 960/1400. Highly recommended deal.
 
You could always go fanless. You'll want to make sure you have good airflow though because my fanless card in my htpc gets hot as hell. It's dead silent though.
 
ShadowStriker said:
I'm looking to replace my HIS 4870 with something more current, but I can't decide what to get. I want something that can play games decently, but has to not blare at me when I'm playing.
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I am in this exact scenario. Got rid of 4870x2 for something quieter, now I need performance back and figure there has to be a high quality solution that isn't a jet turbine
 
Just make sure you get something faster than a 6850/GTX 460. These are not a massive performance increase over your current card.

GTX 560 and 6870 should be your absolute minimum choice for upgrades.
 
defaultluser said:
Just make sure you get something faster than a 6850/GTX 460. These are not a massive performance increase over your current card.

GTX 560 and 6870 should be your absolute minimum choice for upgrades.
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Disagree. A crossfire 6770 setup will be silent and outperform or be the same as a 6970. A 6970 on the other hand, will be loud as hell.. and cost probably an extra $100. You will get an extra 1GB of texture mem however. But if you want silence, crossfire 6770s for ~ $200 is the way to go.
 
stop being a wuss about it and buy aftermarket cooling, then every video card on the market is silent
 
Radeon 5850's, 6850's, and GeForce 460's are incredibly quiet while still retaining the ability to flex some muscle. I love how silent my 5850 and 460 are. I can't personally give an opinion on the higher performance cards though. I WILL NOT keep a card that is loud or even moderately noisy, so I am being honest with you in that these are quiet, at both load and idle. If you want faster, definitely go for non-stock coolers, something like what Gigabyte or MSi do with dual fans on their cards. The MSi Hawk or Cyclone are good silent choices.
 
Anything that is not powerful should be quiet. Anything that is ultra powerful i.e. 6970, 570, 580, 590, 6990
can be made quiet by getting it wet.

I would say the absolute highest peak performance yet be deadly quiet is GTX460/560ti non reference and non reference 6950's.
 
defaultluser said:
Just make sure you get something faster than a 6850/GTX 460. These are not a massive performance increase over your current card.

GTX 560 and 6870 should be your absolute minimum choice for upgrades.
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Looks like he wants the quietest. Says it should perform "decently"
 
tangoseal said:
Anything that is not powerful should be quiet. Anything that is ultra powerful i.e. 6970, 570, 580, 590, 6990
can be made quiet by getting it wet.

I would say the absolute highest peak performance yet be deadly quiet is GTX460/560ti non reference and non reference 6950's.
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put a shaman on my 6970 and it's quieter than my old 5770 @ full load. great product imo if you don't want to spend 200+ for water cooling.
 
kcmastrpc said:
put a shaman on my 6970 and it's quieter than my old 5770 @ full load. great product imo if you don't want to spend 200+ for water cooling.
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Ahh yeah forgot about the good ole shaman! haha good catch! However that thing is absolutely stupid large. You will lose like eery slot on the board once that is on.
 
tangoseal said:
Ahh yeah forgot about the good ole shaman! haha good catch! However that thing is absolutely stupid large. You will lose like eery slot on the board once that is on.
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Yea, I can't even put my Lexa S side panel on because of the perma-mounted fan on the window. I've spent like $800 on new computer shit and the wife is at her limit. So for now my side panel lays against the shamans heatsync.
 
kcmastrpc said:
put a shaman on my 6970 and it's quieter than my old 5770 @ full load. great product imo if you don't want to spend 200+ for water cooling.
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Jeebus, the Shaman looks like a monster, I don't know if it'll fit lol And is the flex healthy for the video card?
 
Honestly, it doesn't even look like it really flexes the card all that much. The weight of it is similar to the stock hs/fan.

I'm now dealing with some serious heat in my case, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to run my 2500k @ 4.5. I ended up moving the fan to the outside of the side-panel and I have a push/pull radiator on the CPU but those temps aren't really my problem. My MSI boards chipset is hitting 127C - or at least that what it says.
 
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