please [SPCR] what is the most quesitist GTX 970?

[blake312]

I am trying to find the quietist GTX 970 for my silent build, I have tired EVGA GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ But it was loud as hell even at low RPM, I have done some research and these are the cards that I think are the quietist ( Top being the most quiet ).


MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G
ASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 970
GIGABYTE G1 Gaming


I am looking for someone who maybe has used all of them and can compare, if there any other suggestions then the ones listed I am all ears, also I am quite surpised silentpcreview hasn't review all the gtx 970's yet, it be awesome if they could ( please Lawrence Lee :0 it be awesome ), maybe I wouldn't have to look all over web for noise testing of these cards or even have to ask the question which is the most quietist 970 .

[Abula]

I am quite surpised silentpcreview hasn't review all the gtx 970's yet, it be awesome if they could

This are not typical cards that SPCR user go for, its more a gaming card, that said there are some that do.

I am looking for someone who maybe has used all of them and can compare, if there any other suggestions then the ones listed I am all ears,

Its going to be extremely hard to find someone that has use all 3, if you can settle for one that tested a couple of ASUS GTX970 and the MSI GTX980Ti, ill give you my opinion, both cards are great, specially at idle or low loads both are very good, inaudible and passive, at mid load i would say the same also, where you can find a difference is at load, the MSI is more efficient cooling and under the same load needs to ramp the rpm less than the Asus, usually above 2k rpms the asus go subsonic (not really, but very noticeable), while with my MSIs i rarely reach those rpms, but usually with the Asus was common. So if you are not going to load them, go for whichever you like or prefer, if you do plan to play heavy, then go with MSI.

I am quite surpised silentpcreview hasn't review all the gtx 970's yet

SPCR as most hardware websites, depends on manufactures to submit samples for them to test and review, so blame the manufactures for not giving SPCR samples.

One last comment, personally what i do given that we cant have all the GPUs we consider on SPCR reviews, i use other sites (mostly techpowerup), given they dont have the instruments and Anechoic Chamber that SPCR uses, they are practical into comparing between the same website reviews to see which is loudest (not that their measurements are accurate in dbs, more that the delta is or should be).

[Smanci]

You can pick gigabyte or quiet but not both. It's got that 1,6k RPM minimum fan speed.

[ggumdol]

Hi,

I think it's now quite clear that MSI GTX 970 Gaming and ASUS GTX 970 Strix are the quietest options available. First things first, if you are looking for 1080p gaming, I think you can buy GTX 960 to maintain the lower overall noise level, rather than struggling with overpowered GTX 970 graphics cards.

Having said that, I recently bought ASUS GTX 970 Strix (a secondhand one used for 5 months) which has far more graphical prowess than what I actually need. As Abula pointed out, at the maximum, the fans of ASUS GTX 970 Strix are certainly unbearably high-pitched and sounds like an airplane engine. However, personally, I seem to slightly prefer ASUS GTX 970 Strix to MSI GTX 970 Gaming because of the high-quality and nice-looking (yes, aesthetical aspects matter!) backplate, desinged for cooling graphic memories.

Since I'm really sensitive to noise level during gaming, I decided to upper-bound the power consumption level of it by 70-75% via MSI Afterburner (I can't recall the exact figure) and installed two Noctua NF-S12A PWM fans on other PCI-E slots. I still get 55-60fps for almost all triple-A games in 1080p. I didn't install aftermarket coolers on ASUS GTX 970 Strix because it's simply too expensive gadget for me. Now the speed of two fans of ASUS GTX 970 Strix rise only up to 900 rpms while the two Noctua fans rotate around 600 rpms. It's decently, if not absolutely, quiet for my gaming.

In summary:

1) Consider limiting the power consumption of GTX 970 via the likes of MSI Afterburner.
2) Consider installing two high-quality fans on remaining PCI-E slots.

Or just go with MSI GTX 970 Gaming since it seems to have a bigger heatsink.

[Quinnbeast]

I'd be fairly confident in recommending the MSI card. I use an MSI 780, which runs quite a bit hotter than the 970, and even then the MSI Frozr fan design does a remarkable job and will be quieter still on the 970. The fans on the Frozr cooler are bigger than most, and don't ramp up as much as the Strix under full load / in a hot system.

The Gigabtye cards can often get the best results for out-and-out cooling, but tends to be a little noiser on average.

P.S. If you're buying a GPU because it looks nice, you're doing it wrong

[ggumdol]

In terms of thermal performance which might be associated with acoustic performance, MSI 970 (Gamig) achieves lower GPU temperature than ASUS 970 (Strix):

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/as ... iew,9.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/ms ... iew,9.html

MSI 970 GPU Temperature: 65 Celsius
ASUS 970 GPU Temperature: 70 Celsius (in line with my own burning test)

However, due to the rather meagre VRAM heatsink of MSI 970, its VRAM temperature is a bit higher:

MSI 970 VRAM Temperature: 87 Celsius
ASUS 970 VRAM Temperature: 80 Celsius

I admit that ASUS 970 fans have high-pitched acoustic characteristics and are a bit noisy to my liking. During the burning test in my own rig, the ASUS 970 GPU temperature reaches around 71 Celsius while the fans' duty cycle and rotation speeds are 51% and 1672 rpm. As far as I can gather, ASUS 970 turns out to be a bit noisier with high-frequency componenets. However, MSI 970 seems to be consuming more power unnecessarily. To put everything into perspective, it's a hard decision to make.

[Abula]

I second ggumdol comments, thats what i experience, even though its not the same card, my Asus GTX970 Strix were very quiet as long as i dont get near the 80C, around 70C are still decently quiet, but i do load them hard and even easy to drive games like Diablo3 will push my Asus cards to this mark, where they were around 2.5k rpms, gaming even with headphones was audible (i dont use noise canceling), while with the MSI GTX980Ti under the same load they hang around 8C lower, and even pushing them near the 80C mark, they fan/heatsink combo allows the cards to be lower in rpms, from what i remember not even 2k, there was a very significant drop in noise while gaming, the setup is not silent under load, but with MSI i reached a point where its not annoying nor i can identify the load because a jet engine is on the background, i cant no longer hear if the cards are loaded as i did with Asus.

Again take my comments with a grain of salt, as im using a SLI setup, in most cases the first gpu will go much higher than the second and my case temp go a lot higher than single gpu cards setups, but the valid conclusion is that if you do plan on loading the cards near their 80C mark, MSI will be quieter, if you dont plan on loading them, then Asus is as good, the cards behave very similar if the 80C marks isn't reached, but personally im sold on MSI for the time being, i do easily reach 80C on demanding games at least on my first GPU.