XFX Radeon HD 6870 Black - quietest 6870

[Rekonn]

Anandtech had an article yesterday where they were really excited about how quiet the XFX Radeon HD 6870 Black video card was. LINK

"this card is for all practical purposes silent... making it the quietest actively cooled mid-range card we have ever tested in our existing rig."

What do you guys think? Any idea how it would compare to a card with the Gelid Icy Vision aftermarket cooler?

[livetaswim06]

I have no idea how it compares, but I ordered one of the XFX cards, and I will let you know what I hear when I put my build together. I have never built a pc before, but I do have pretty good ears. I expect to do it either this weekend is everything arrives by Friday, or perhaps next week sometime.

[falcon26]

I have that 6870 xfx dual fan card now. Its much quieter than any stock 6870 card yes, but the fans do make a whoosh sound and like a low vibrating sound as well. The card is quiet but its not as quiet as say a 6870 fitted with an artic cooling twin turbo pro. I think I am going to returning it, mainly because I can totally hear the vibrating noise when the room is quiet. Maybe its just the card I have who knows....

[firehorse]

Hi Falcon,

... The card is quiet but its not as quiet as say a 6870 fitted with an artic cooling twin turbo pro. ...

That's really useful to know. Thanks

[Rekonn]

I have that 6870 xfx dual fan card now. Its much quieter than any stock 6870 card yes, but the fans do make a whoosh sound and like a low vibrating sound as well. The card is quiet but its not as quiet as say a 6870 fitted with an artic cooling twin turbo pro. I think I am going to returning it, mainly because I can totally hear the vibrating noise when the room is quiet. Maybe its just the card I have who knows....

Thanks for the info falcon26, that is good to know. Can you tell us a little about your system? Do you have it on a desk right next to you, or on the floor? I see a K62 case in your sig - is the noise from the card noticeable from outside a case already running 6 fans? (4 case, 1 cpu, 1 psu)

[falcon26]

I only have 2 fans in my system so its very quiet. And my case sits on the floor. And it is slightly noticeable the sound from the video card that is. Its like a vibrating noise that you can hear coming from the video card. Its not loud, but to me its annoying. I've heard that the MSI Twin Frozr 6870 or 6950 is quieter than the XFX version. I am actually going to get either the MSI 6870 or 6950 with that cooler on it. I just haven't made up my mind which one yet...

[gizmo]

according to this review http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/ ... II/27.html msi 6950 is not very quiet under load

[livetaswim06]

I just wanted to do a quick shout out about how the XFX 6870 runs. I got the stock clock edition and put it in crossfire and the 2 cards add no noise to my case. The fans are only audible at 45% fan and it never gets up that high during anything I run. All games are very fluid: Crysis, Flight Simulator X, Medieval II Total War, GTA 4.

[Gagorian]

I'm looking for a silent card, either a 6850, 6870 or a 6950. I'm currently looking at buying Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB, any experiences about how much noise the card makes? Link below. Any other recommendations? I just want the most quiet card in that range.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=3663#ov

[livetaswim06]

I think the Gigabyte would be great for you based on Newegg reviews. I just know the XFX is good since I have it. My experience is very limited though, seeing as how the XFX was the first card I purchased since a 32MB AGP card, with a HSF the size of a Saltine.

[Rekonn]

livetaswim06, do you notice the low vibrating noise that falcon26 heard on his? How low can you set the fan speed?

[livetaswim06]

livetaswim06, do you notice the low vibrating noise that falcon26 heard on his? How low can you set the fan speed?

I do not hear any low vibrating noise. I am replacing my stock cpu cooler fan, which I found to be by far my loudest component, so i will see what it sounds like with the quieter fan.

The lowest fan setting is 20% through AMD Overdrive. The point it becomes audible is 45% and it goes up to 100%. At 100% it is quite loud, but I don't think it ever goes that high. I ran Furmark for 10 minutes or so and temps went up to about 83, while fan stayed below 45% so remained quiet.

EDIT: So I installed the Noctua fan to replace the stock fan that comes with the Scythe Mugen 2 rev. B and what a world of difference. Now there is just a gentle whoosh from a system that is not only overclocked, but also in Crossfire. As much as I try I can't hear the VGA. Right now I have Furmark running in background and it is still silent. Temps are quite high at 91 C and fan went up to 45%. The change from before is that I enabled Extreme Burn mode and PostFX and 8X MSAA Samples. Also, my CPU is running at 100%. Everything would be cooler if I had case fans on high as they are set to low.

In conclusion, the card will run hot and quiet. Anyone have any more questions I would be glad to try to answer.

Edit 2: After replacing the heat sink fan I put my ear up to the 2 cards and heard nothing of vibrating. There is a minuscule whine, but not noticeable from more than 6 inches away with cover off.

[quest_for_silence]

So I installed the Noctua fan to replace the stock fan that comes with the Scythe Mugen 2 rev. B and what a world of difference.

Just a side note: it's phisically not possible (unless you were running the Scythe at full speed, while now you run the Noctua through its LNA/ULNA adapter).