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Brian_S
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GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:57 pm

I decided to see how much of the noise in my case was due to the GTX480 tonight, as my case is definitely not a "silent PC".

I have a CoolerMaster Cosmos 1010 with 2 X 120 intake fans, and 3 X 120 outflow fans. The CPU is cooled by a CoolerMaster V8. (love the Coolermaster stuff)

Three of the 120s are cheapies that move a lot of air, and make a fair amount of noise. (side intake, two top fans) So I unplugged those left the case open, and started playing UT3 with my speakers turned off.

And I waited for the "dustbuster"...and I waited for the "loud"....and I waited for the "leafblower".....and after playing half an hour I started thinking "What the heck?".

So I grabbed the heatpipes everyone has warned are a danger to small kids and pets, as well as unsuspecting gamers who play with one hand resting on the video card and the other on their mouse. Yep- the heatpipes were red hot and the fan spinning away.

And it was indeed the "loudest thing in my case" over the two original CoolerMaster 120s I still had running, the chipset fan, and the CoolerMaster V8.

It was also not obtrusive or annoyng at all, just a low hum whirring away like any high speed fan.
I've had a FX5800Ultra, and I can very honestly say the high pitched whine that cooler produced seemed about 5X louder than this. (and 10X more annoying-that literally sounded like a hairdryer)
Also, if ATi makes every card they sell from now on sound exactly like a GTX480, that's OK with me. It's just not a big deal.

I might by some new case fans though, they are pretty noisey, just can't trust $13 per I guess.
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TheEmrys
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:12 pm

Interesting subjective look.

It will definately be different for everyone. Personally, I found my GTX 285 to be too loud.
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Brian_S
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:30 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
Interesting subjective look.

It will definately be different for everyone. Personally, I found my GTX 285 to be too loud.


I'm definitely not a "If I can tell it's on, I'll shoot it" kind of guy. I was honestly surprised.

I saw those vids on H where Kyle is yelling out "100C!" or something, and thought they sounded pretty loud. So I thought I'd check it out for myself, and found my case fans are making more racket than the 480.

OTOH I put my hand in front of the side intake fan and thought "Holy crap! This thing would cool lava!" so it's not all bad.
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Fighterpilot
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:33 pm

Can't seem to find any of those quiet ,cool running GTX480s here in Japan.
By the way ...how's the 480 doin at New Egg,....can't seem to find any there either.....must be a problem with their website.... :lol:
 
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:49 pm

My most recent build I stressed silence over everything else. Antec Sonata III. Scyth 120mm fans. Passively cooled 4850. You can't hear my computer.

My next card will most likely be the highest card that can be passively cooled. (5850? I'll probably skip this generation and go after a 6850). My computer is fast enough as is, silence is where it's at.
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Convert
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:18 pm

Fighterpilot wrote:
Can't seem to find any of those quiet ,cool running GTX480s here in Japan.
By the way ...how's the 480 doin at New Egg,....can't seem to find any there either.....must be a problem with their website.... :lol:

Looks like only the shills get them, on both accounts.
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Sunburn74
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:33 pm

Sargent Duck wrote:
My most recent build I stressed silence over everything else. Antec Sonata III. Scyth 120mm fans. Passively cooled 4850. You can't hear my computer.

My next card will most likely be the highest card that can be passively cooled. (5850? I'll probably skip this generation and go after a 6850). My computer is fast enough as is, silence is where it's at.


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Shining Arcanine
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:48 pm

Brian_S wrote:
TheEmrys wrote:
Interesting subjective look.

It will definately be different for everyone. Personally, I found my GTX 285 to be too loud.


I'm definitely not a "If I can tell it's on, I'll shoot it" kind of guy. I was honestly surprised.

I saw those vids on H where Kyle is yelling out "100C!" or something, and thought they sounded pretty loud. So I thought I'd check it out for myself, and found my case fans are making more racket than the 480.

OTOH I put my hand in front of the side intake fan and thought "Holy crap! This thing would cool lava!" so it's not all bad.


I think is sufficient to say that your case is noisy from the start. Turn off your PC and listen. You will likely discover an eerie silence you did not realize existed (assuming you do not live in a place that is noisy all the time like Las Vegas or New York City). Turn it back on and and you will suddenly realize that your computer is noisy. I have done this with my own computer and it has driven me to extreme lengths to silence it, although I must admit that the recent cards from Nvidia are very quiet, however, that likely depends on the card manufacturer.

I had an ATI AIW 9700 Pro that I considered to be a dustbuster. I replaced its fan with a VGA silencer, which fixed the noise issues. After it died, I was so fed up with ATI for various reasons that I tried an eVGA graphics card, but its heatsink/fan turned out to be worse than the stock heatsink/fan on my old ATI card. I tried replacing it with an aftermarket heatsink, but that did not work very well, so I brought an XFX GeForce 7950 GT, which was passively cooled. It was a dream. After it died on me (which I figured was due to the poor airflow in my case as I use slow spinning fans to make my PC quiet), I brought a XFX GeForce GTS 250. This was after the XFX GeForce 9800 GT that I brought for my cousin's computer against my better judgment because he wanted graphics card that had high performance turned out to be extremely quiet and I have been happy with the GTS 250 since.

Since I mentioned the eVGA card I tried 4 years ago, I have an off topic anecdote I would like to share because I can laugh about it now, which is that I actually had two eVGA graphics cards. The first was a component of my brand new Core 2 Duo system back then and it went on fire the moment I turned on my system; apparently, a dud had passed eVGA's quality assurance. The second was its replacement under warranty, and that is the one that caused me to discover the issue with the fan noise.

Anyway, many noise measurements done by review sites are done 1 cm away from the hub of the graphics card and it has been shown (read about it at silentpcreview.com) that in order to do accurate noise measurements, noise measurements must be taken 1 meter away from the graphics card, rather than 1 centimeter away. While I do not know if the benchmarks that people have been citing have this flaw, it is possible that they do. Although I do not know enough physics to explain why, to my knowledge, it is possible to design a fan A that is quieter than a fan B at 1 centimeter but noisier than fan B at 1 meter. This is what I understand from what I have read at silentpcreview.com, which is the site I visited to learn how to make my computer quieter.
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bobboobles
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:54 pm

I always figured they measured the noise from 1 meter because that's how far away a computer usually is and it should give a realistic representation of the noise level.
 
Meadows
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:55 am

That's because you tested with Unreal Tournament 3, you fool. You were about as CPU-bound as all hell.
 
Brian_S
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:53 am

Meadows wrote:
That's because you tested with Unreal Tournament 3, you fool. You were about as CPU-bound as all hell.


I like UT3 and felt like playing it. I'm in the 4th chapter of Metro 2033 these days well, I'll try that one tonight. :)

I think we can all agree Metro isn't CPU bound.
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Jigar
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:13 am

Meadows wrote:
That's because you tested with Unreal Tournament 3, you fool. You were about as CPU-bound as all hell.


Do you realize that your rudeness is getting out of control ? If he tested GTX480 with UT3 you could have just told him, calling him fool was really uncalled for.

Anyway, back to the topic, Meadows does have a point, you should have tested Dirt2 or some latest games, I had tested UT3 on my HD5850 and the gpu is hardly 45% loaded.

Let us know your thoughts once you test a different game. :)
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Brian_S
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:26 am

Jigar wrote:
Meadows wrote:
That's because you tested with Unreal Tournament 3, you fool. You were about as CPU-bound as all hell.


Do you realize that your rudeness is getting out of control ? If he tested GTX480 with UT3 you could have just told him, calling him fool was really uncalled for.

Anyway, back to the topic, Meadows does have a point, you should have tested Dirt2 or some latest games, I had tested UT3 on my HD5850 and the gpu is hardly 45% loaded.

Let us know your thoughts once you test a different game. :)


Will do. I'd note that this brings up a point I hadn't thought of:

In this era of console adapted games, how accurate is it to generalize noise based on running synthetics with the side of the case off?

In any case, Metro 2033 tonight, have to go to work.
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SecretSquirrel
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Re: GTX480 noise revisited

Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:36 am

This thread is being locked. It duplicates some discussion from other Fermi threads, though I wasn't going to lock it for that, or even merge it for that matter. However, its short existence, we have also have name-calling, general rudeness, and back seat moderating.

-- LOCKED --

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