Quietest possible air-cooled R9 290(x)?

P

phrawzty

n00b
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
2
Hello, long-time lurker, first-time poster here. :)

My primary decision-making factor in the purchase of any new component for a gaming rig is noise: I want the quietest possible components (within reason). Price, performance, and other factors come second. I concede that this generally means I need to stay behind the technology curve; that said, I am curious if anybody can speak to the possibility of quiet, air-cooled R9 290(x)'s - especially anyone with a similar preference for relative silence.

Bluntly stated: are there any R9 290(x) air-cooled video cards that don't sound like jet engines?

(I would normally also consider a water-cooled solution, but I'm already water-cooling my CPU, my current chassis isn't large enough to house two radiators.)

Thank you for your time and consideration.
 
The Powercolor 290X PCS+ and the Sapphire Toxic are both quiet and cool. The powercolor set to quiet mode is a little quieter and still keeps the card quite cool. Overall, taking temps and noise together into consideration they are about the same. The Sapphire has the advantage of being a 2 slot cooler where the Powercolor is a 3 slot. You can also set custom fan curves to quiet them a bit more.

The Sapphire Vapor-X "should" be even better, but I haven't seen a review where I can compare them (one site reviewing all 3 with realistic testing procedures). I tend to use TechPowerUp because they test with the cards inside of a case at 1 meter distance. They haven't tested the Vapor-X yet. The Vapor-X also carries a fairly large price premium compared to the other two, and I doubt it would be worth the additional cost.
 
I'd wager the Gigabyte Windforce and the Sapphire Tri-X are probably the quietest.

There are a lot of cards that are quiet enough for most people. It's the reference cooler thay gets ridiculously loud.
 
TheGamerZ said:
I'd wager the Gigabyte Windforce and the Sapphire Tri-X are probably the quietest.

There are a lot of cards that are quiet enough for most people. It's the reference cooler thay gets ridiculously loud.
Click to expand...

The Gigabyte cooler isn't as good as the Trix or Powercolor PCS (both of which I'd highly recommend).
 
I fitted an AC Extreme III cooler to mine and it is very quiet and cool.
This is with permanent 12V fan which can be heard if I get quite close to it.
At 1 metre away I cant tell the difference between it and my case fans (Antec 900) which run at their slowest speed, it never gets any louder than this, even under extreme load.
You can feed less volts to the fan and get utter silence if you wish.
Or use the GPU fan header and control the fan speed depending on load so you get the best cooling under load and complete silence when not in use.
Its really quiet at 12V such that I left it at that.

ps I also water cool my CPU with a completely silent 250mm fan.
 
If I were in the market (in no particular order):

Sapphire Tri-X or Vapor-X
Powercolor PCS+
MSI Gaming or Lightning
 
Probably the best built cooler is the Lightning. The quietest will probably vary from card to card even with the same manufacturer.
 
Aren't larger fans quieter than smaller fans? I know with servers and network gear the smaller fans are whinier. Surprised everyone is suggesting GPUs with three smaller fans vs two larger ones.
 
Considering the Vapor-X is probably locked, the Tri-X would OC better.
I haven't found any reviews or anybody who owns the card to specify either way.

The Vapor-X card is the same heatsink, slightly thicker and with a vapor chamber. If it doesn't cool better than the original Tri-X, Sapphire doesn't deserve to be in business.
 
R9 290(x)? not sure if you mean either/or with that. I have the Sapphire Vapor X R9 290

Reviews - http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-r9-280x-vapor-x-oc-and-r9-290-vapor-x-oc-review/

http://www.legitreviews.com/sapphire-vapor-x-r9-290-tri-x-oc-video-card-review_139177

Great card, going on week 2 with it now. Very quite and does overclock nicely - "The Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC responds well to overclocking, hitting an additional 17% manual increase with some voltage changes. This took the core speed from 1,030 mhz to 1,205 mhz"

Has a tiny switch that enables a ultra silent mode, only running the middle fan until temps get around 60c I think, then the other two kick in. Also a nifty Sapphire logo light changes from blue to yellow and red depending on temps. Never gets to red, even overclocked.

Very impressed so far - coming from a RMA'd Asus R9 290 DirectCUII that had the black screen crash issue. So far this card has been perfect - running latest 14.4 drivers.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top