I need a quiet GTX 460

[Convert]

You'd think this would be easy, you'd think some site out there would test the different offerings to find out which ones had desirable coolers. Well to that my friends I would say that you would only kinda sorta be right!

It's been a while since I bought a quiet video card, everything from my 9800GTX to my several 4850's to my current dual GTS 250 setup have all come with inferior to stock cooling solutions. As my ears bleed I take a small amount of solace in the fact that under the mass of assorted cables and non see through door that the cooler looks cool. Ok so maybe I don’t take solace in that at all.

My intentions have always been to purchase a quiet cooler mind you, just that a few times I have fallen prey to the assumption that the coolers look better and therefore must perform better otherwise there would be no point in forgoing the stock cooler, right? Right?! That and the fact that the manufacturer will change the cooler design over the lifetime of the card. Then mix in a dash that the card might have a stock cooler but they neglected to include any kind of active fan management so it runs at full speed.

Anyways, nonsensical rant aside, I am not going to make the same mistakes again. This time I am going to find out for sure which models offer reasonably quiet coolers before I pull the trigger.

I am after the 1GB variant of the card, I would like low noise while idle and also while under load. Load noise level actually isn't such a big deal provided the card will return to sane levels after it cools down. My GTS250's for example offer no such ability, the PC needs to be rebooted in order for the speeds to be reduced. I currently use the EVGA precision tool but oft times I forget I have forced the fan speeds down and then I fire up a game and wonder why the thing crashes.

I just want to know who has a 460, what model they have and how loud they consider it to be.

Thanks!

[potatochobit]

obviously if you get a first edition card with a stock or reference cooler it will be noisy
if you are DEAD serious about noise you need to look at water cooling.

all the 460s can control the fan so idle can be dead silent, but your ATI 4850 cards should have been the same?
anyway, you want to get a card with a big fan in the middle like this one Gigabyte
or this one Palitt

EDIT:
evga comes with a free game

[[SDG]Mantis]

The Gigabyte is quieter than my case fans even when folding in a SFF case with an 80mm intake and 120mm exhaust fan. Now the 80mm fan, even though I don't have it dialed all the way up is not the most quiet thing in the world.

I don't know what case you case fan setup you are using, so your opinion may vary. But the Gigabyte card is very quiet and the fans are about 90% at the moment.

[MrBojangles]

I have fallen prey to the assumption that the coolers look better and therefore must perform better otherwise there would be no point in forgoing the stock cooler, right? Right?!

You were correct in your assumptions sir. Cool stickers, flames, and racing strips will always and i do mean ALWAYS make things go faster and preform better.

[Convert]

obviously if you get a first edition card with a stock or reference cooler it will be noisy
if you are DEAD serious about noise you need to look at water cooling.

all the 460s can control the fan so idle can be dead silent, but your ATI 4850 cards should have been the same?
anyway, you want to get a card with a big fan in the middle like this one Gigabyte
or this one Palitt

EDIT:
evga comes with a free game

Actually the stock coolers can be quite good, in all of my scenarios the stock coolers were quieter than the aftermarket ones. I am not after silent, I am just after quiet. The 4850's had aftermarket fans and were loud at idle, I have ones from asus, gigabyte and HIS.

Out of those cards you mention, there has been mixed reviews about the gigabyte card with regards to noise. The Palit was loud but they released a bios update to take care of a fan speed control issue. The EVGA has good reviews and the cooler is a stock one. I've also had my eye on the asus card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121391

I don't know what case you case fan setup you are using, so your opinion may vary. But the Gigabyte card is very quiet and the fans are about 90% at the moment.

Thanks for first hand report. Do you know if it's possible to control the fan speeds manually with your card? Was just curious since it deviates from the stock cooling solution. I assume it also does a good job about ramping down the fans? My case is a CM Cosmos using the stock 120MM fans.

You were correct in your assumptions sir. Cool stickers, flames, and racing strips will always and i do mean ALWAYS make things go faster and preform better.

Ok so I didn't meant it exactly like that, it's not that the coolers had stickers on them, they were all decked out with large coolers and heatpipes. They actually looked functionally better, but yes, it turned out to be nothing more than show. It just doesn't make sense why they put a fancy cooler on it that is worse than the stock one.. I guess maybe they deviated from standard board layout, or their aftermarket ones were actually cheaper than the stock ones.

[Voldenuit]

You could check out the Palit Sonic 460, although I have read reviews of the Palit Sonic Platinum (overclocked edition) that claims the fan is tuned for cooling rather than quiet.

[morphine]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/ - They test several 460s here.

I'm actually quite interested in this thread's outcome, as I'll also be on the market for a 460 if I can sell my 4870.

[[SDG]Mantis]

I don't know what case you case fan setup you are using, so your opinion may vary. But the Gigabyte card is very quiet and the fans are about 90% at the moment.

Thanks for first hand report. Do you know if it's possible to control the fan speeds manually with your card? Was just curious since it deviates from the stock cooling solution. I assume it also does a good job about ramping down the fans? My case is a CM Cosmos using the stock 120MM fans.

It is likely that your case is a bit quieter than mine, then. The Thermaltake adjustable 80mm intake, though turned down, still is noticeable. The stock fans on a Cosmos really should be almost inaudible against all but a completely silent room.

As for adjustable fan speed, unless you are in a game or folding, the fans are thoroughly inaudible even with the case open. It is quieter than the EVGA single-slot 8800GT that it replaced. You can go into the Nvidia control panel if you also install the Nvidia system tools program. It lets you set up profiles, so you could automatically run one profile at Windows start, another when a game starts, and then return to the first when the game exits.

[squeeb]

As others have stated, the Gigabyte GTX 460 is amazingly quiet. The build quality of the card is outstanding as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125333

I got this one about 3 weeks ago. Been very happy with it!

[Dizik]

I got my EVGA 460 GTX last week and it's been deathly quiet.

[Sargent Duck]

I've got my 4850 passively cooled. Can't get much quieter than that. It does need some air blowing over the cooler though. I have an Antec Sonata III with a 120 (Sythe) that's mounted right in the middle of the case. It's a very tight fit with the power wires going to the back of the video card, but haven't had too much problem.

[[SDG]Mantis]

I got my EVGA 460 GTX last week and it's been deathly quiet.

So EVGA finally came out with a stock cooler for the SC editions, I see. The EE coolers were the ones that were purportedly a bit on the loud side.

[anamericangod]

Stumbled across this thread randomly. I've been using a 4850 since release day, and the noise and heat are terrible as countless other users have mentioned.

As I've upgraded over the years, I've tried to get the most quiet parts available, even if it meant sacrificing a little bit of performance or not being able to overclock that much more. To me it's worth it.

I think I am going to pull the trigger on the Gigabyte model of the GTX 460, and I will post again here when I do. External exhaust isn't an issue as I'm using a P180 with plenty of exhaust, and right now the loudest part of my system is the 4850 and the Intel stock cooler.

I've read a lot of reviews and whenever somebody says a certain model is "quiet" I think to myself, "Well what exactly are they comparing it to? What's the rest of their system like?" I think I've had enough of the internal struggle and I will find out for myself. If anything was really that much more quiet, we would know for sure.

So, back to the green team I go.

[StuG]

Its all about knowing how to cool a case properly, as well as getting the right fans for all your parts. My rig is inaudible anywhere in a completely silent room from more than 3 feet away (ontop of the table). Now I spent ALOT of time making it that way....but its definably do-able.

[Voldenuit]

Stumbled across this thread randomly. I've been using a 4850 since release day, and the noise and heat are terrible as countless other users have mentioned.

As I've upgraded over the years, I've tried to get the most quiet parts available, even if it meant sacrificing a little bit of performance or not being able to overclock that much more. To me it's worth it.

I think I am going to pull the trigger on the Gigabyte model of the GTX 460, and I will post again here when I do. External exhaust isn't an issue as I'm using a P180 with plenty of exhaust, and right now the loudest part of my system is the 4850 and the Intel stock cooler.

I'd hold off. The Accelero S2 can be had for $15, and will cool a 4850 perfectly (I ran it on mine for over a year in a SFF case). Just like you (presumably), I read plenty of reviews that said the stock 4850 was "quiet". Well, either they were wrong or all those reviewers were deaf, because it was unbearable.

Accelero S2. Not quiet. Silent.

[tanker27]

So does anyone know of any aftermarket coolers that work on the 460? My 460 sounds like a weed eater under load.....certainly a step backwards from the gtx 275 I replaced. (BTW its a Galaxy, I got a great deal on it at fry's...so it was hard to pass on)

[[SDG]Mantis]

So does anyone know of any aftermarket coolers that work on the 460? My 460 sounds like a weed eater under load.....certainly a step backwards from the gtx 275 I replaced. (BTW its a Galaxy, I got a great deal on it at fry's...so it was hard to pass on)

That's a common complaint for the Galaxy model if you read around. Looking at the way the design is put together is the fan end-user swappable? I thought that I read somewhere that it was. That might be the easiest and cheapest solution.

The card is very new for an aftermarket cooler and there are quite a few with non-stock cooling already on the market. Arctic Cooling just released a GF100 cooler (Accelero XTREME Plus). You could contact them and ask if it also works for the GF104 cards. To top it off, reading forums, different cards seem to have different cooler mounting holes. Palit/Gainward cards seem to have G92 cooler mounting holes. I'd try to measure the card and mount holes and look at the available coolers...starting with the Accelero XTREME Plus.

Hunting around Arctic Cooling's site a bit more, I also found a reference to the ECS Geforce GTX460 which apparently uses an Accelero TWIN TURBO Pro. Of course, that might not be a reference design board in the ECS card...so that cooler might not work on other GTX460's.

Fortunately, Arctic Cooling has dimensioned drawings for many of its coolers, so you can measure and check to see if the cooler fits.

[Evilsnare]

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC
MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 768 MB

Those 2 cards are the most quiet in one of reviews (warning: not in english):

http://www.benchmark.pl/testy_i_recenzj ... 10526.html

[morphine]

I got a Gigabyte GTX 460 OC (1GB) today. Jebus this think *really* is freaking quiet.

[anamericangod]

I got a Gigabyte GTX 460 OC (1GB) today. Jebus this think *really* is freaking quiet.

These became available just moments ago. Supposed to be the most quiet as well as the most cool of the 460's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814134117

I'm trying to decide which I want first: One of those, or a Corsair 700D. Or wait until the ATI/AMD 6000 series...

[SomeOtherGeek]

Want super quiet go watercooled. I saw a bunch of vga watercoolers on eBay for under 100 bucks. But then that is just me and I know they are expensive. But like the others said having a awesome air flow case will do the trick.

[FuturePastNow]

I got a Gigabyte GTX 460 OC (1GB) today. Jebus this think *really* is freaking quiet.

These became available just moments ago. Supposed to be the most quiet as well as the most cool of the 460's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814134117

I'm trying to decide which I want first: One of those, or a Corsair 700D. Or wait until the ATI/AMD 6000 series...

Also looks like a triple-slot card... which may not be an issue for you.

At this point, with about a month to go, I would wait for the AMD 6000 cards. At the least, they may drive Nvidia to cut prices.

[TruePurple]

Does it have to be a gtx 460? If you got a fanless, passively cooled video card like radeon 5750 powercolor go!green card, you would never hear a single sound from your video card again. The go!green also lacks/doesn't need power connection for less case clutter. They cost $170 (including S&H if you know where to look) Other passively cooled 5750's cost $146 or so, but aren't quit as energy efficient and cool running I guess.