MSI Twin Frozr II GTX 560 comments

[swaaye]

This card could be quiet if the fan profile wasn't tuned to keep it under ~70C. It gets very loud due to this. MSI's Afterburner app can control the fans though, but I'm hoping for Nibitor to get an update so I can reprogram the BIOS.

With Afterburner, the cooler seems to be able to keep the card around 85-90C with the fan speed at around 45% (min is 40%). It is rather quiet this way. There is little to no bearing noise to the fans AFACT.

Also as shown in a few reviews now, there is no plate cooling the RAM or VRMs. I'm not sure how much this matters considering the airflow coming down onto them however.

[frostedflakes]

It's the same on my 5770 with Twin Frozr II, fan profile on these cards is a lot more aggressive than it needs to be. But you have to keep in mind these are designed more for overclockers than quiet PC users. Although they are excellent for quiet PCs after a bit of tweaking.

[cordis]

Thanks for the tip, I have a twin frozr 460, and it's pretty loud, so a fan profile fix could be the answer. Any links on the review(s) you mention? I haven't seen much specific for 560s yet.

[swaaye]

Yeah definitely look up MSI's Afterburner app because it has excellent fan control.

Reviews tend to say that the cooler is very quiet but I think that's because they test the cards outside of a case. On the test bench there is a steady supply of cold air unlike in a case where a lot of the hot air gets recycled into the cooler. Obviously a continuous supply of cold air makes the cooler much more efficient and it probably doesn't warm up enough to spin the fans up.

Reviews
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphi ... b-review/1
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20293/3
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews ... infrozr_2/
http://www.pureoverclock.com/article1202.html

[falcon26]

Wow I was just about to pull the trigger on this card too. So your saying its too loud? Every review I've seen says pretty much the opposite. Although I would take someone word from these forums before any review. I'm glad I saw this thread. Now I'm not sure what to get....

[swaaye]

It can be very quiet but not with their stock settings. Their BIOS tries to maintain a 20C advantage (see advertisements) over the reference cooler and this is rather aggressive. So once it hits about 70C the fans spin up like crazy. If you use the Afterburner app and make a profile that doesn't ramp until 85C or so, it barely needs to spin up from the 40% min speed. Mine runs 40-45% and stays under 90C and I can't hear it over my quiet 7-volted fans.

After tweaks this is exactly what I was looking for. I'm hoping to be able to edit the BIOS in the future when Nibitor gets 560 support.

Like I said I think the reviews see such good results because they test the cards out in open air and not in a case. So the cards are eating cold air instead of the recycled warmed air inside a case.

My case is actually not so great either because the it's uATX and the mobo is flipped. The result is that it is probably eating more hot air than it would in a more typical case. I set up a ducted front 80mm to deliver cold air to the video card and that helped a lot I think.

[falcon26]

I read some reviews that said the stock reference cooler on the GTX 560's are one of the quietest coolers around. Almost dead silent and it also cools the card very well. Most reviews said their is no need for an aftermarket cooler. I may just get a EVGA 560 and be done with it..

[quest_for_silence]

I read some reviews that said the stock reference cooler on the GTX 560's are one of the quietest coolers around. Almost dead silent and it also cools the card very well. Most reviews said their is no need for an aftermarket cooler.

Are you kidding, aren't you?

[gcwebbyuk]

I have a similar(ish) card - well two of them - MSI Cyclone 460s. The stock fan settings is pretty agressive, and I have adjusted it with the MSI afterburner, but not sure how hot I should allow the cards to get?

[swaaye]

Like I said, the reviews are probably seeing some artificially quiet results because they test cards outside of a case. The coolers then have access to a steady supply of cool air instead of the typical heated air in a case. So the reviews may not really show a realistic result.

I have a similar(ish) card - well two of them - MSI Cyclone 460s. The stock fan settings is pretty agressive, and I have adjusted it with the MSI afterburner, but not sure how hot I should allow the cards to get?

Under 100C. The thermal throttle points are usually up around 110-120C on cards. ATI cards tend to allow 100C as a maximum before the fan truly spins up and goes bonkers.

[DaveLessnau]

I mentioned this in my thread on the Frozr fitting into my Antec: since the nVidia page for the GTX 560 Ti lists 99 degrees C as the maximum temperature, I used MSI Afterburner to change the fan curve to:

60 degrees: 40%
80 degrees: 45%
90 degrees: 60%
100 degrees: 100%

STALKER sent the temperature to 80 degrees (45% fan). To me, coming from a passive video card, it's still noisy. It's amazing how the Twin Frozr can be inaudible at 40%, yet be fairly loud at a mere 45% (in a Solo).

[swaaye]

It's not that surprising when you consider what the fans sound like at 60% or so. Those babies can pull some crazy RPMs.

[DaveLessnau]

Did anyone actually write down what the default fan curve was? I know it started to ramp the fans up early and quickly. But, I wanted to compare the original to what I changed it to and realized that I didn't record it.