Quietest High Performance Video Card

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impactdax

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Jul 23, 2007
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I am looking to build a high end gaming machine that is as quiet as possible. I have enclosures for the hard drive, sound dampening material in the case, super quiet case and fans etc... The loudest item will be the video card.

The best performing passively cooled direct 10x card I can find is the GeoForce 8600GTS with 256 GB. I was considering 2 of them in SLI, but two are still not as powerful as even one 8800gts and this gives me nowhere to go for future gaming requirements. So, I am thinking about 1 8800GTS or 1 8800GTX. The rep at Puget (they are building my computer) told me that the new nvidia cards seem to have quieter fans than in the past. Does anyone have any specs on noise level from these two cards at low loads (word, excel, internet etc) and high loads (Supreme Commander)? The cards they sell are ASUS brand if that makes a difference.

Thanks
 
The fans on the 8800gts is pretty damn quiet, I only notice it when its @ 100% while gaming, and even then its not loud.

Honestly I'd say get a 8800 over the 8600, the performance is well worth it. While in 2d mode, you can set the fan to something like 50 or 60% speed, and not hear it at all. I can barely hear it @ 80%.
 
I have heard the 8800 series are quiet, and i have heard them at lans and they are quiet, a lot quieter than the 7xxx series and the 86xx series because the fan is much larger and doesn't have to rev upto a cagillion rpm to cool the card down.
 
Does anyone know if the gtx is any louder than the gts? I heard that the fan is the same, but the gtx may be louder just because it has more electronics and the fan has to rev higher to cool it. If that's true I guess I would be okay with that because it would only be louder when I really need the extra processing power. Does this logic make sense?
 
impactdax said:
Does anyone know if the gtx is any louder than the gts? I heard that the fan is the same, but the gtx may be louder just because it has more electronics and the fan has to rev higher to cool it. If that's true I guess I would be okay with that because it would only be louder when I really need the extra processing power. Does this logic make sense?
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Basically, and yes. As far as I know both of the 8800 cards have the same cooler. The GTX would be on average louder because on average the card would run hotter, thereby making the fan rev up more.
 
impactdax said:
Does anyone know if the gtx is any louder than the gts? I heard that the fan is the same, but the gtx may be louder just because it has more electronics and the fan has to rev higher to cool it. If that's true I guess I would be okay with that because it would only be louder when I really need the extra processing power. Does this logic make sense?
Click to expand...

True, but not by a whole lot. GTS and GTX fans essentially produce the same amount of noise, is it at idle or under load:

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/geforce-8800/index.x?pg=16

Definitely get the GTX.
 
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