Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

They make noise, too.

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roadie
Posts: 166
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Location: Liverpool, UK

Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by roadie » Mon Nov 18, 2013 5:48 am

Hey all,

Long time since I have felt the need to post, as I am very happy with the noise and performance of my PC in general. However gaming performance could use a boost for ArmA 3...

nvidia 670s are still relatively cheap if you know where to look, but I would be limited to the stock cooler version. The Tech Reports comments aren't particularly kind on the acoustic properties of the stock cooler:
Yeah, well the GTX 670's cooler sounds cheap. That's why the 670 is relatively noisy at idle, even though it has very little power—and thus heat—to dissipate. The GTX 670's blower emits a rough, friction-filled whine. It's not especially loud, and heck, the thing manages not to register too high on decibel meter under load. Tucked inside of a case that insulates sound well, you might barely notice it. Still, this thing isn't Nvidia's best work.
I was wondering whether anyone had any further experience they could offer?

My PC uses 800 rpm fans inside an Antec Solo, so is pretty quiet!

Thanks!

flemeister
Posts: 346
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:42 am
Location: Australia

Re: Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by flemeister » Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:43 am

If a site outside of SPCR / techpowerup! / Anandtech has a complaint about noise, you know it's serious! :D

Are you sure you're limited to a blower design GPU cooler? The GTX670 isn't that hot a card. Asus DirectCU II, Gigabyte WF3 etc. would be very quiet both at idle and under load, especially if you tweak the fan speed curve with MSI Afterburner. Just make sure the rear exhaust fan in the Antec Solo is able to ramp up a bit when gaming. The PSU fan might ramp up a bit as well with the extra heat, but it would still be better than a noisy and whiney radial fan when it has to spin up.

I'm using a Gigabyte GTX670 OC in a Silverstone SG07. The GPU cooler throws warm air all inside the case, but the rear exhaust fan quickly gets rid of it. Maybe the CPU gets a little warmer than usual, but it's well within limits anyway.

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roadie
Posts: 166
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Location: Liverpool, UK

Re: Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by roadie » Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:58 am

Thanks for the reply.

I am not limited to blower designs - my current 6850 is an open fan design and all fans in my case can ramp up to ~1,500rpm if needed.

I am limited by my case and PSU. The Antec Solo will only allow cards as wide as an ATX motherboard. The Antec NeoHE only has 2x6 pin PCIE leads and I can't convert a molex lead to 8 pin.

I believe the reference 670 is the most powerful option that fulfils both of these requirements. Most non-reference cards are either too long or need extra power, whereas the reference card would fit just fine - at the expense of potentially sounding terrible! I couldn't live with this...

A MSI 270X may fit as per the Hawk thread a few down, but this isn't quite as quick as the 670...

CA_Steve
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Re: Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:24 am

Wow, that game is a GPU pig.

I share your Solo 10.2" gfx card limit pain. It might be time to hack up/remove/use plier-fu on the drive cage. I think this is your best choice.

Here's HT4U's review of the stock GTX 670 (Palit's version). No joy.

claes
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Re: Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by claes » Mon Nov 18, 2013 3:29 pm


roadie
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Location: Liverpool, UK

Re: Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by roadie » Mon Nov 18, 2013 3:41 pm

Thanks for the suggestion, but sadly that uses an 8 pin PCIE lead...

flemeister
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Location: Australia

Re: Stock nvidia 670 cooler observations

Post by flemeister » Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:16 pm

roadie wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, but sadly that uses an 8 pin PCIE lead...
It would work, you'd just need a 2x 6-pin to 1x 8-pin PCI-e adapter cable.

6-pin is rated for 75W
8-pin is rated for 150W (also known as 6+2-pin)

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