Silent GTX580? it is possible (Update inside)

Souli · Post by **Souli** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:48 am

Hey,
I'm going to buy a GTX580 to replace my broken HD5870 @MK13. I just don't know which one is worth looking into. I've found these 2 cards that look promising http://geizhals.at/a609907.html and http://geizhals.at/a597190.html. The Sparkle looks pretty promising since the cooler was tested by spcr. Is there anything else I should look into? What would you pick?

edit: for my experience with the Sparkle GTX580 scroll down a bit.

axsnetworks · Post by **axsnetworks** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:32 pm

Truth be told, I don't think you will find a "silent" GTX580...
the 580 is quiet with the default cooler, can you make it more quiet? probably, but its a high end card, so it does get hot...
I have one, and its quiet when not gaming, but you can hear it whir as soon as you start playing games or stress it...
if you buy the one that has the AC cooler, keep us post it

fumino · Post by **fumino** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:40 pm

those will probably be the quietest 580s out there, unless someone comes out with a world beating vga cooler design. they certainly have the looks and performance that are tough to match.

i'd venture to say that the sparkle card will be quieter, and maybe run a little cooler as well. the fans push the air through the heatsink, instead of pulling it through and then blowing onto the pcb sink. i think the sparkle design would be more efficient... it seems like it would vent out of the case better too, not only with the larger vent, but guesstimating the airflow through the heatsink.

if i had a windowed case i might take the gainward, but if theyre both within your price range, id say take the sparkle.

svr · Post by **svr** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:53 pm

Gigabyte has a windforce model.

I currently have one reference card and its very quiet at idle. Quiet to mediocre at load depending on game. Note that I have foam padded case.

Which cards would be best for 2x SLI?

Souli · Post by **Souli** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 1:21 pm

I can't hear my current 5870 @ MK-13 with 2x Scythe Slipstream @5V. But the card is kinda dead so I'm looking for a new one. I would like a card with preinstalled cooler since I got a bad experience with changing coolers and warranty. I haven't found a decent 6970 with a silent cooler so I think the Sparkle should be worth a try.

appletree · Post by **appletree** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:05 pm

Just by visual inspection: http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stories/ ... ront_4.jpg tha gainward card heatsink doesn't look as massive as Accelero and it also uses 80cm fans instead of 92cm (on AXP) so I think it's relatively safe to conclude that for given cooling performance the Sparkle card should be quieter or for given noise level the Sparkle card should run cooler.

Speaking from my own experience I have switched recently from Thermalright Shaman to Accelelero Xtreme Plus on GTX 580 and the cooling performance is superb. Like when I set fan control on auto and run furmark with opened case the fan ends on 42% (~1050 rpm) and temp stays on 60C. Note that I have opened the card couple of times without reappllying TIM so the temps are probably worse than they could be. This is for throttled version of Furmark which is however still more GPU intensive then any normal gaming scenario. I had to do bios flash because nvidias default 40% fan speed was unnecessary high but even at 42% the fan acoustics are unobtrusive - I think quieter than Samsung F4 2TB (softmounted to p182 case)

The biggest problem for me actually isn't fan noise at load but VRM buzzing at load - which seems quite high (I have PC on desk in less then 0.5 m distance). I am not sure if it's because the VRM cooling isn't completely adequate or that GTX 580 is simply designed to buzz as with "normal" cooler this would be completely lost in the fan noise. I would be quite interested in knowing if Sparkle card will be better in this aspect - but probably it will as it was designed from ground up with AXP in mind. Also depending on level of quietness you require make sure you have the best possible PSU. (I have Seasonic X-750 and if I should choose again I would have probably chosen X-850 or even higher rated if they existed as with closed case the PSU makes speed-ups and speed-downs more often then I would like.

fumino · Post by **fumino** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:47 pm

on the topic of vrm cooling, the sparkle does come equipped with custom(better) heat sinks for the card than a accelero xp comes with. should help a bit, yah?

svr wrote:Which cards would be best for 2x SLI?

well, if youve got a motherboard with its pcie-x16 slots spaced wide enough(2 slots in between each) than any of them (sounds like the sparkle is being crowned in this thread though, eh?). if youve got a board with only a single slot in between each x16 slot, then probably either that gigabyte, or the msi with the twin frozr ii.

btw, what games are you playing at 2560x1600 to need sli 580s?

svr · Post by **svr** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:48 am

fumino wrote:
svr wrote:Which cards would be best for 2x SLI?
well, if youve got a motherboard with its pcie-x16 slots spaced wide enough(2 slots in between each) than any of them (sounds like the sparkle is being crowned in this thread though, eh?). if youve got a board with only a single slot in between each x16 slot, then probably either that gigabyte, or the msi with the twin frozr ii.

btw, what games are you playing at 2560x1600 to need sli 580s?

I'm in the process of upgrading soon so I could go with any mobo. I game with 3 screens at 5040x1050 which is a bit more than 2560x1600 so yes I need SLI cards to run crysis

That sparkle card is quite rare around here, actually non-existant. Phantom and gigabyte windforce are available. Both of those would propably be better than the reference design.

quest_for_silence · Post by **quest_for_silence** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:01 am

appletree wrote:Just by visual inspection: http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stories/ ... ront_4.jpg tha gainward card heatsink doesn't look as massive as Accelero and it also uses 80cm fans instead of 92cm (on AXP)

Moreover Phantom's cooler has a design too much similar to the flawed original Setsugen's one (fan underneat the heatsink blowing towards it): the same FudZilla said it's not loud (while not it's silent).

svr · Post by **svr** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 6:58 am

I got the gigabyte 580 windforce 3x recently and oh man it is quiet. That is after I lowered its idle 40% fan speed to 30%, I cant hear it over my low speed noctua case fans. 43C at idle and couldnt break 85C in crysis or dawn of war 2 main menu. Fan speed remained below 45% at load.

Silent idle and very quiet load. Excellent card. I'll propably get another to go in SLI.

Souli · Post by **Souli** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:45 am

I just wanted to post my experience with the Sparkle GTX 580. I have the card now for 2 weeks and it was worth the money. Out of the box you can't run the fan below 40% with MSI Afterburner. I just read the bios with nibitor and changed the min fanspeed to 10% and reflashed the card with nvflash. Took me a total of 3 mins. The card is now running at 25% in idle which is quieter than the electric buzzing of my Dell 24" display. So I am pretty happy with it.

So I can rly recommend the card to every1 who is looking for a damn quiet highend gaming card.

Silent GTX580? it is possible (Update inside)

Silent GTX580? it is possible (Update inside)

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?

Re: Silent GTX580?