Silent nVidia cards

krautmick

Hi,

I have 2 passive cooled GT 240 cards in my system at the moment, but I think I could do with a little more "umph" on the graphics side. The thing is, I hate noise and I am very much into "silent computing", so I am not interested in souped up graphic cards, that sound as loud as a bloody Dyson when running at full capacity.

It seems to me, that more and more high-end cards are offering less and less passive cooled variants out of the box. Be that because the clock rate is getting higher and higher, or perhaps transistor count is so high, that cooling is a major concern, but its hard to get "out-of-the-box" passive cooled cards.

Does anyone have any suggestions or is aware of models (as well as retailers) for better than GT 240 cards, that are passively cooled.

Note: When I mean silent, I mean really silent, as in no music or other background noise to cover the hum of fans and you still barely notice that the PC is on.

2nd Note: No, I am not switching to ATI, not yet anyways. Maybe when I do the next MoBo change, but not now. nVidia cards only pls.

Jonny7

If you want more power go with the 460 GTX (if your PSU is up to it)

Here is a thread debating the quietest models
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=73254

murphthesmurf

Not cheap or easy, but ever though of watercooling ??

The GTX 560 is quiet, the MSI Twin Frozer maybe the quietist
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-gtx-560-ti-twin-frozr-ii-oc-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-880mhz-shader-1760mhz-384-cores

As for passively cooled, I haven't seen one for quite a while, at least not at the mid to high end.

krautmick

Yes, I have been thinking about water cooling for years, but it always seemed to be too much hustle. I'm not into overclocking. If its a trade off between performance and silence, I'd be inclined to go for silence, which also means my components may live a little longer (then again maybe not, due to high temp exposure on average).

The great difficulty I have is that sound is very subjective, so one persons "inaudible" card, is another persons lawn mower. I read about setups where the fans where still audible with game audio running at full pelt, so clearly there is great potential for "noisy cooling" out there.

Buying components with pedominantly passive cooling (SSD drives, passive north/south bridge cooling, passive GPU) has meant I only need to tweak my chassis and PSU fans, making it much easier to reduce fan noise to close to zero.

For info, I am running 3 x 1920x1200 displays of those 2 x 240GTs, occasionally with as many as 4 game client windows in parallel, so they do get taxed a good bit. Still, the passive cooling has proved to be just fine.

Serephucus

If you have the money, I'd look into watercooling. You're right, there is hasstle involved, but assuming you get everything up and running with no problems, you're good to go, there's really only yearly maintanance after that.

I can tell you that a 240 radiator will cool a GPU, even something as power hungry as a 580 passively. Just don't expect temps much better than the stock cooler.

For any fan to be silent in my book is has to be undervolted (unless of course you're using some of those 400RPM fans). Usually, anything over 1000RPM can be heard pretty easily. I have three Akasa Apache fans on a 360 radiator, and running at 5V I can't hear them over my PSU. Mind you, my PSU isn't the quietest thing on the market. It's not horrible, but it's not brilliant either, and I've been meaning to replace it.

One of the best things I've found is to hang your hard drives. This means suspending them on something elastic in a 5.25" bay. You get something like this:

http://www.slashgear.com/gallery/data_files/2/7/8/hdsilence_20080410.jpg

You can also look into sound proofing. Acoustipack do some great stuff. Their new 12mm stuff is great. I have it in my case. I've been looking into this for a few years. If you want specifics, let me know.

Fnz

murphthesmurf wrote: »

The GTX 560 is quiet, the MSI Twin Frozer maybe the quietist
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-gtx-560-ti-twin-frozr-ii-oc-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-880mhz-shader-1760mhz-384-cores

MSI Twin Frozer is quiet when idle but louder than reference GTX 560 under load. [Link]

However the review points out:

Given the low temperatures there's lots of potential left to quieten down the fan by lower fan speed settings.

Cuddlesworth

What more umph do you need? Are we talking about online poker here, because tbh two gt240 cards is overkill. My onboard Intel GMA4500 can do two 1920*1080 screens with ease, dedicated graphics has really been directed and fueled towards 3d performance over the years. Take a look at Windows resource monitor to see if and where there is a actual slowdown.

Also, watercooling brings its own problems. If he is as anal about noise as I think he is, the pump vibrations and noise of the air moving over the rad fins would more then likely annoy him.

Serephucus

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Also, watercooling brings its own problems. If he is as anal about noise as I think he is, the pump vibrations and noise of the air moving over the rad fins would more then likely annoy him.

No more than the air moving over the fins hf his current GPU heatsinks would. As for pump vibrations, as long as it's mounted correctly, the PSU fan is going to be far louder.

Cuddlesworth

Serephucus wrote: »

No more than the air moving over the fins hf his current GPU heatsinks would. As for pump vibrations, as long as it's mounted correctly, the PSU fan is going to be far louder.

Having done a few quiet builds in the past, you can get near silent psu's. In fact the biggest problem was always the HD, which can be solved now days by SSD's.

Water cooling rads have fans which pull air over tightly packed fins from a close distance(either direct or 1 and a 1/2 inches away). This produces a audible noise beyond that of which the fan itself would produce on its own. Its not comparable to the noise of air flowing through a case over passive heatsinks.

Serephucus

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Having done a few quiet builds in the past, you can get near silent psu's. In fact the biggest problem was always the HD, which can be solved now days by SSD's.

Water cooling rads have fans which pull air over tightly packed fins from a close distance(either direct or 1 and a 1/2 inches away). This produces a audible noise beyond that of which the fan itself would produce on its own. Its not comparable to the noise of air flowing through a case over passive heatsinks.

Of course you can get near-silent PSUs, odds are though that the pump would still be quieter. An MCP-655 on level two is basically inaudible once you have panels on your case.

As for the heatsinks, yeah, I know, but it's the closest thing I could think of. Also, rads like the SR-1 and RX360 have 2-3 fins per centimeter, so they're in no way dense. Also, as I said, you can run a C2D/C2Q and a midrange GPU passively from a good 360 rad.

That's only gerryrigging too. If he wants a truely passive system, just hook everything up to a Phobya 1080 or something. They're not even that much more expensive than a good 360, they're just a bitch to mount.

krautmick

No, not Online poker, more like 4 Eve Online clients running with heavy shader options and intense 3D. When I say taxed, I mean taxed

They are working fine as it, with the 2 GT240, but I can't really crank it up to maximum settings, or my FPS goes down to a level that it becomes annoying.

Also, I need more "omph" for other games which I may play at times, using a single monitor (as SLI doesn't really work with three afaik). E.g. "World in Conflict" and the likes is still struggling to run in 1900*1200 with full detail on a single GT240.

But as I said, I'd rather put up with a few more poor pixels than with humming and hissing noises, and yes, SDDs have made a big difference.

Serephucus

A simple idea I had a while back, that I couldn't implement, due to not having the right room layout:

Simply put your computer in another room. Run the monitor, keyboard, and mouse cables through a wall, and you're good to go. If you want, you can also grab some spare wire, an extend your power and reset buttons out to a little box on your desk as well, as well as your CD drive, if you use one.

krautmick

Anyway, going back to the silent cards:

Its clear that there seem to be no more passively cooled cards since the GT 240s anymore. I suppose density etc just doesn't allow for it an the market for quiet computing seems to be far more nieche than the overclocking gamers.

Now, I looked into the GTX 460 Series, which seems interesting. It does seem to be rated more quiet than other models:
http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-GTX-460-1GB-card-632.html

But I am worried by comments on DABS about issues with drivers, see last comment:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/best-value-geforce-gtx-460-700mhz-1gb-pci-express-2-0-hdmi--sonic--72KQ.html?refs=4294945034-467410000

Another factor is fan designs, that blow hot air back into the case, which isn't a good idea for a passively cooled system.

I don't mind going north of €200 for a good card, although I don't need to have the latest and greatest. I wish there was a searchable database, where you could search by chipset and noise level, as right now it is very hit and miss.

Serephucus

If you're looking at a 460, MSI's Cyclone series are probably your best bet.

The highest fanless card I've been able to find is a GT 430, if that helps.

krautmick

Well, actually I was considering a Gigabyte:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-460-715mhz-1gb-pci-e-hdmi-overclocked-73H1.html?refs=4294945034-467410000-466870000

Which would be due to go into this Mobo:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/gigabyte-am3-amd-790fx-ddr3-atx-a-l-6M6R.html

One of the few I can find able to handle 3 double width GPUs. I plan to use the 460 for the main monitor and the 2 passive 240 for the left and right monitors each, which should work out fine, provided that 460 doesn't turn out to be a mini-Dyson in disguise.