So I've done a bit of research and I'm at a crossroads at which GPU is really the best.

I currently have a MSI Gaming X 1060 6GB card, it's served me well for 3 years now. It's super quiet, most games run at 1000-1200 RPM and is whisper quiet. Earlier this year, I decided to upgrade to an MSI Gaming Z 2060. I figured, same company, just a better card and it'll be just as quieter if not quieter.

Turns out, it was not only louder, but the fans were almost double the RPM 90% of the time (Roughly 1800-2000 RPM). It ran at 100% all the time, no matter what i was playing. If the temps went above 60c, they'd ramp up. I tried a fan curve, but they were still annoyingly loud, I undervolted the card and that didn't work either. I returned it. Yet in every review I read, the MSI cards are the lowest in DBA. I don't think there was anything wrong with the card seeing as how it was performing fine and I have a mATX board, so changing out GPUs is a pain in the ass.

So my question is, which GPU would be actually silent and run at a lower RPM like my 1060? I know people will say "Any GPU can have a curve, etc", but even with a curve those MSI fans were annoyingly loud. I was looking at the Powercolor Red Devil 5700 and ASUS ROG STRIX 5700/2600 Super because they have silent BIOS switches, if there are any others let me know. I don't need the best and I'm willing to pay a little extra for a quiet card with a good cooler. My budget is around $450. (CPU is a 6700k by the way along with a 550w Corsair RMx for what it's worth)

Thanks for any feedback friends!

Both are good choices, i own a RTX2080Ti Strix and with the silent bios is very quiet.

According to TechPowerUp PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Devil Review, it runs 3db quieter (29 vs 31) and 2C cooler (74 vs 76) on load than the Asus. Even the standard vbios of the Red Devil run cooler and quieter than the Asus Silent vBios.
Also its cheaper atm, both in amazon and newegg,
PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card $420
PowerColor RED DEVIL Radeon RX 5700 XT DirectX 12 AXRX 5700 XT 8GBD6-3DHE/OC 8GB 256-Bit GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 CrossFireX Support ATX Video Card $440 - 20% off

Btw i would format/clean install if you move from Nvida to AMD, some people get by DDU, but in my experience there is always remnants that sometimes have issues.

Thanks for the detailed response.

The only reservation I have about buying AMD is I hear their drivers are a bit wonky right now. Also, if you don't mind me asking, what's the average RPM of your 2080 TI, I understand it's a more powerful card so it'll be different than a 2060, I just want a general idea.

Short answer: usually the card dont pass 1200rpms.
Long answer: i plan my build (Corsiar Air 740) to have the two bottom Be Quiet BL067 PWM to be connected to the GPU 4pin fan connectors, so in essence the card is fully passive in idle, once it reaches around 60C the fan start between 800-1000rpms, once the card reaches 75C the bottom fans (case fans) start, around 80C the fans on the bottom are around 800rpms and the ones on the card are around 1250rpms, sustaining the temps there, if i didn't have the bottom fans helping, it will probably reach 1600rpms and around 84C. But really depends on the games and your settings, for example now im mostly playing WOW Classic @4k full settings and the card never passes 50% load and turn the fans on and off hanging between 55-60C, to me totally inaudible. To contrats, Overwatch played on a 1080p 240hz full settings, i get around 1200rpms on the gpu fans (800rpms on the case fans) on the fans 78C on temperature, slightly audible on a quiet night.

This is up to you, i read they have issues but they work them out, nvidia is not a golden boy lately with drivers either, although i still think they are a little better. If you have second thoughts about AMD, i would suggest to increase your budget a little more toward, ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Advanced Overclocked 8G GDDR6 HDMI DisplayPort USB Type-C Gaming Graphics Card (ROG-STRIX-RTX2070S-A8G-GAMING) $569 - 15% promo off.

From TechPowerUp ASUS GeForce RTX 2070 Super STRIX OC Review 29db on load with the quiet vbios,

Whatever ends to be your choice, hope you have sometime to give some feedback, to see how was your experience noise wise.

the gaming x 1060 was an overbuilt cooler on an efficient card, with the equivalent in terms of cooler/tdp being a ~1660S/ti for this generation. still, I'm surprised your weren't able to wrangle a 2060 with an undervolt. what voltage/clock speed/temperature/fan speed were you seeing? what's your ambient temp, and what's your case airflow like?

I haven't used any 5700xt first hand, but I did keep up with the partner card reviews that hardware unboxed and gamersnexus did. if I were in the market, I'd grab a red devil as the premium model and the gigabyte gaming oc as the more value oriented one. the strix amd cards for the 5700/xt have been pretty widely panned as mediocre and not worth the brand tax.

Have you had a chance to benchmark the games you play to see whether or not your '2060 is maybe overpowered..and is just running internally at high fps...causing the higher fan speeds?

Thanks friend.

The 2070 Super seems nice, but it's a bit out of my price range. I'm ideally looking to spend $350-$400, but I'm willing to spend a bit more for something I know will be quiet and last me another 3-4 years.

If I recall correctly, the undervolt was 0.938V, RPM in games was like 1600-1700, temps were 72-75c. Ambient temp I don't know, but it was February and Early March, so probably not very hot. Airflow is okay, Define Mini C with one intake, one exhaust. NH-D15s cooling my 6700k.



That's something I thought of, unfortunately, I don't have a 1440p monitor to benchmark it with or even a 144hz monitor. The thing that turned me off from even trying is my 1060 runs at 80-85% power and only makes a fraction of the noise even when put at 100% power.

I would suggest the Red Devil 5700xt then, the 29db places it as a very quiet gpu, i think you will be fine with the drivers, i would recommend to do a clean windows 10 install so you avoid as much as possible an issue with the card.

Honestly, i think the video card market is going to get very interesting next year (i doubt it will be cheaper), with Nvidia new gen, AMD with big NAVI, Intel releasing their Xe (i have my doubts we will see a consumer gpu until 2021), and rumor that places ARM releasing one as well. I do think that nvidia broke the price bracket, and all the manufacturers will start fitting the new brackets, i dont think we will see cheaper gpus... but we might, now expecting 3-4 years will depend on your gaming preferences, i expect ray tracing to start getting more support, newer hardware will be needed, as the current gpus are not capable of high fps with raytracing... so who knows whats going to happen, but for sure seems more interesting than the past five years.

PS, i think Steve advise is solid, into testing or checking what fps are you driving your gpus, in WOW i can lower my temps and thus the noise just by limiting my fps, maybe you are playing an older game with the uncapped fps, allowing 300+ will certainly tax you gpu and thus the noise and temperatures, i always cap regardless to have gsync active, but its up to you into whats worth.