Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

They make noise, too.

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Aneon
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Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:08 am
Location: Sweden

Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by Aneon » Mon Jan 10, 2011 5:31 pm

I’ve been looking for a graphic card that is near-silent with its original cooler, and costs around $200.

The cards I've found the most interesting are:
  • ASUS Radeon HD 6850 "DirectCU" (recommended by SPCS)
  • PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 PCS+
  • Sapphire Radeon HD 6850
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC
I finally found a comparison of noise levels of all these cards:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?i ... 37&page=12

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC seems amazingly silent and strong for its price.

Although slightly more expensive, it seems to be one of the quietest stock cards around, being extremely silent both at idle and under heavy load. The other cards seem almost as silent at idle but are a bit louder under load.

It seems to beat the 6850s with some margin, between 10-20% increase in frame rate, which alone could justify the higher price.

It do seem to draw a lot more power, but also runs at much lower temperatures (which I guess could have positive effects on the overall sound level of your system?).

I’m far from an expert on the subject, which also explains why I’m so interested in stock coolers, because I really want to avoid having to change expensive parts.

Feel free to share your own experiences and thoughts on the subject!

micksh
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Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by micksh » Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:25 pm

Nexus noise measurements are worthless. Their noise floor is too high and they have a lot of other noise sources in PC. They can't register difference in video card noise.

They say Powercolor 6850 PCS+ is quieter than Sapphire 6850 at idle?
I trust these measurements better. PCS+ - 20.3 dBA, Sapphire - 10.8 dBA
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2010/powercolor ... ndex10.php
Also see about Toxic and Gigabyte 460 OC
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2010/sapphire_r ... ndex10.php

Aneon
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Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:08 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by Aneon » Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:35 pm

Thanks for the link. I'm surprised that they get such different results comparing the PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 PCS+ with the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850.

Too bad they don't test the Gigabyte 460 GTX SOC version as it's supposedly very different from the OC version.

walle
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Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:52 am

Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by walle » Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:00 pm

The cards aftermarket cooler options...

This is what I always look at when building a system, it doesn't mean it's right for you and I'm in no way implying it is, but I feel it's a wise approach to take.

No fun having spent $200 on a card to later discover that you cannot fit an aftermarket cooler of your choice.

The GTX 460 is severely limited because NVIDIA changed the spacing between the mounting holes around the GPU area, they also moved the GPU closer to the rear IO plate, which further limits the options.

For example, it rules out the Thermalright HR-03 and the T-rad.

Disclaimer:
I may be wrong on the GPU having been moved closer. It could be that some brands are using their own design and that its not NVIDIA, I am a bit tired right now and am making this post in haste, just as to highlight these issues in case you didn't know about them already.

For all I know you could be ready to place your order, as I'm typing this.

Aneon
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Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:08 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by Aneon » Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:44 pm

walle: Thanks, that's an important point you make. You're right that this might not be a good card if you plan on changing the stock cooler.

I've also read that it's quite larger, larger than a standard GTX 460 card, which could be problematic for some smaller cases.

However, my own plan is to find a card that is quiet enough out of the box, so I won't have to manually change the cooler, risk hurting the card (I'm not very handy) and lose my warranty. The others listed above also seem like good choices, according to some sources.

As micksh noted, it's hard to know exactly how quiet the cards are in a quiet system. That's why we love Silent PC reviews, such as their ASUS 6850 DirectCU review. Now that I think about it, I would probably buy that card if it was available to me, just to be safe.

But regardless, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC does seem like a very good, cool and quiet card with its built-in WindForce 2X fans. Although I don't know exactly how well it performs in a quiet system, I think it'll be sufficient for my needs. Here are some additional reviews and comparisons:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte- ... c-review/8
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?i ... 85&page=12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... llFullInfo

If I do buy it, I'll come back here and comment on its sound level.

frenchie
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Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by frenchie » Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:43 am

I have the Gigabyte GTS450 OC (and my own extra overclock on top of that) with the windforce 2x cooler. It does a GREAT job keeping the card cool. Fans always spin at minimum speed even under load (cannot hear them over a 120mm Nexus at 9V) and temps yet have to exceed 60°C after a month of folding. I'm very impressed by this cooler.

I have the eVGA GTX460 super clocked (with my extra own overclock on top of that again :) ) and it's not too noisy, but definetly not quiet, even at 30% fan speed. After a bit of testing, to my ear, it's as noisy as a 120mm Nexus at 10V. I changed my airflow setup and tuned the fan speed on the card with Afterburner to make sure that the fan speed never exceeds 30%, unless video card temps go through the roof.

To summarize what I'm trying to say : Gigabyte's windforce cooler is great (efficent and quiet), as opposed to other single fan coolers that have to be tweaked. I realise I'm not talking about the same cards, and the power draws are different, but Gibabyte's design (Accelero style) and dual fans (larger than usual fans) looks like a win/win situation for me.

Just my 2 cents :)

quest_for_silence
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Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:24 pm

frenchie wrote:To summarize what I'm trying to say : Gigabyte's windforce cooler is great (efficent and quiet), as opposed to other single fan coolers that have to be tweaked. I realise I'm not talking about the same cards, and the power draws are different, but Gibabyte's design (Accelero style) and dual fans (larger than usual fans) looks like a win/win situation for me.
I mean it's not the cooler, it's the GPU (and its BIOS) to define the sound character of the GTX 460.

The WindForce is great on the GTS 450, it's great on the HD6850, but mostly because those cards are far more efficient than any GTX 460: any 460 suffers of the same problem of your EVGA (by chance a few months ago I swapped an EVGA with two MSI GTS 450 OC Cyclone: these turned out to be as quiet and cool as your Gigabyte).

To furtherly lower the GTX 460 noise floor you have modding its BIOS (lowering fan speed and core voltage).

MatH
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Location: EU/Slovenia

Re: Best silent GPU at $200 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC?

Post by MatH » Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:04 am

I turned my Gigabyte GTX460 OC 1GB in a semi passive card by adapting steps from this post. I modded bios for my card and set minimum fan speed to 20%. As it turns out fans can't spin at 20% and stand still. However the GPU temperature is only 35°C when idle. When playing 1920x1080 mkv video GPU heats up to 45°C leaving the fans at 20% (not spinning). Nevertheless fans do start spinning when needed (the one close to DVI plugs starts at 27% the other one at 30%). They ramp up to 60% when running Fur mark stability test with max GPU temperature being 71°C (as it was before the mod).
It appears that Gigabyte windforce cooler is leaky enough to work as passive when idle and it's certainly is quiet enough when playing games. 8)


A recipe for bios mod of Gigabyte GTX 460 OC 1GB (rev 1.0):

Ingredients:

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A)Gigabyte VGA Tools bios to backup and flash bios

Image
B)Gigabyte VGA Tools OC guru to monitor temperature and fan speed

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C)UltraEdit to set minimum fan speed in firmware

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D)NiBitor to set voltage in firmware and make valid CRC of firmware

1. Backup your bios with "VGA Tools Bios". Always make sure you have unchanged backup of bios. If there is updated bios on Gigabyte page, get it.

2. Open the latest bios in UltraEdit and in line 00006600h, column f change value 28 to 14 (image C). 28 in hex is 40 in dec while 14 is 20.

3. Add .rom file extension to your bios file (vga_bios_gv-n460oc-1gi_f3.rom) and open it in NiBitor. Go to "Tools"/"Fermi voltage" and change values in Setting 0 to 0.75 (image D)

4. remove .rom file extension and flash new bios with "VGA Tools Bios"

5. Monitor results with "VGA Tools OC Guru"

P.S.
I've also modded my case and drilled 90 f90mm holes in the bottom but I'm pretty sure that card with bios mod is just as safe as one with factory bios because fans start spinning if needed.
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