EVGA Hybrid vs. EVGA ACX vs other brands for noise levels?

[boe]

Hello,

I'm curious if there have been any serious db comparisons between the 980 or 980 TI of various vendors and even between the EVGA hybrid water cooler and ACX cooler solutions. It seems strange that some people say how quiet water cooling is and others say water pumps are intolerably loud. I've never tried one so I couldn't say. I don't mean to overclock but I do play games that push cards hard.

I currently have the EVGA 780 with ACX and it seems a little quieter than my previous direct CU card although I never actually tested each to compare and they are different GPUs so it wouldn't be apples to apples. Since I'm getting ready for my next card, I'm curious what was the best for cooling with noise being a priority.

[baii]

The pump tend to be the dominate noise during idle. The best air cooling card probably is the zotac amp extend or msi lightning.

[boe]

I have no idea if this site is reliable or not as they have some contradictory data but this might be a start if they are - http://techreport.com/review/28685/gefo ... compared/5

[CA_Steve]

So, the trick is finding test results for multiple cards from the same site as all sites have different test setups and equipment - meaning you can't compare results across sites..

Hexus review of the Hybrid. Awesome for temps, not that great for noise. Hexus review of the SC version..

At Hardwareluxx, the EVGA SC comes in at 44.7dB under load, the Asus Strix at 42.1dB

At TPU, EVGA SC is 35dB vs 37dB for MSI Gaming and 39dB for the Asus Strix.

TPU's review database is a great first place to look.

[boe]

So, the trick is finding test results for multiple cards from the same site as all sites have different test setups and equipment - meaning you can't compare results across sites..

Hexus review of the Hybrid. Awesome for temps, not that great for noise. Hexus review of the SC version..

At Hardwareluxx, the EVGA SC comes in at 44.7dB under load, the Asus Strix at 42.1dB

At TPU, EVGA SC is 35dB vs 37dB for MSI Gaming and 39dB for the Asus Strix.

TPU's review database is a great first place to look.

Thanks - I guess air cooled might be quietest still - I was hoping with a new gen of pumps there might be something quieter. I don't want a custom loop, just an AIO that might be quieter. Maybe some day something with noctua fans and some quiet AIO pump and something like the nzxt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyL_a7zBbD8 or if you don't want to mess with little thermal radiators (I had some fall off) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2SFSYl60jk However without a super quiet AIO pump which I don't know if they exist, I'd be better off with a EVGA with ACX or Asus Strix.

[Abula]

Thanks - I guess air cooled might be quietest still - I was hoping with a new gen of pumps there might be something quieter. I don't want a custom loop, just an AIO that might be quieter. Maybe some day something with noctua fans and some quiet AIO pump and something like the nzxt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyL_a7zBbD8 or if you don't want to mess with little thermal radiators (I had some fall off) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2SFSYl60jk However without a super quiet AIO pump which I don't know if they exist, I'd be better off with a EVGA with ACX or Asus Strix.

If you want the quietest get an reference style and strap an Prolimatech MK26, a GTX980TI user that say it wont pass 50C, assuming he used high rpms fans, i doubt you will ever reach 80C with very low rpms, the cooler is so massive that could cool a GTX480, thats what ill be doing if pascal single gpu can move 4k, else i see water in my future.

[boe]

Thanks - I guess air cooled might be quietest still - I was hoping with a new gen of pumps there might be something quieter. I don't want a custom loop, just an AIO that might be quieter. Maybe some day something with noctua fans and some quiet AIO pump and something like the nzxt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyL_a7zBbD8 or if you don't want to mess with little thermal radiators (I had some fall off) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2SFSYl60jk However without a super quiet AIO pump which I don't know if they exist, I'd be better off with a EVGA with ACX or Asus Strix.

If you want the quietest get an reference style and strap an Prolimatech MK26, a GTX980TI user that say it wont pass 50C, assuming he used high rpms fans, i doubt you will ever reach 80C with very low rpms, the cooler is so massive that could cool a GTX480, thats what ill be doing if pascal single gpu can move 4k, else i see water in my future.

Thanks - I think I could actually fit that in my system! I might want this for Pascal. It would be great if some manufacturers have a Pascal card with some sort of Lbracket to stabilize the backplate to card to help with sag.

[Abula]

Thanks - I think I could actually fit that in my system! I might want this for Pascal. It would be great if some manufacturers have a Pascal card with some sort of Lbracket to stabilize the backplate to card to help with sag.

The Artic Accerelo 4 has a backplate and L bracket, i installed one on my GTX780 and worked great, i didn't see much sagging (check Fractal Design Define R4 build at the middle of the thread for pics), but the prolimatech mk26 is in another league, one of the reasons i went with the FT02 was for the orientation, a cooler like this shouldn't put much strain on the PCB nor the PCIe slot oriented up, that said, i cant wait to go back to a single GPU again, crossing finger that pascal will be good enough.

But remember with any GPU, crosscheck with the manufacturer of the heatsink, as a lot are doing custom design pcb and vrm, thus compatibility with aftermarket is not guarantee, again check with the manufacturer before committing to a card.

[boe]

Thanks - I think I could actually fit that in my system! I might want this for Pascal. It would be great if some manufacturers have a Pascal card with some sort of Lbracket to stabilize the backplate to card to help with sag.

The Artic Accerelo 4 has a backplate and L bracket, i installed one on my GTX780 and worked great, i didn't see much sagging (check Fractal Design Define R4 build at the middle of the thread for pics), but the prolimatech mk26 is in another league, one of the reasons i went with the FT02 was for the orientation, a cooler like this shouldn't put much strain on the PCB nor the PCIe slot oriented up, that said, i cant wait to go back to a single GPU again, crossing finger that pascal will be good enough.

But remember with any GPU, crosscheck with the manufacturer of the heatsink, as a lot are doing custom design pcb and vrm, thus compatibility with aftermarket is not guarantee, again check with the manufacturer before committing to a card.

Combine the two and you'd have the perfect cooler! BTW - I'd like to hire you to clean up the wiring on the other side of my system - your system is amazingly tidy. I love the radiator backplate and the l bracket on the Arctic but I love the ginormous cooler on the Prolimatech so I can put standard noctua quiet fans on the thing.

[boe]

I was so interested in the arctic, I double checked my case - I probably only have about 10mm of clearance above my card due to the massive cooler I put on my CPU. I think I'd have to forgo the top radiator (even though I really like it) as the top plate would probably add about 4mm alone. I have 15 spindle drives in my system and unless the drives are doing a lot of activity it is relatively quiet. When I play games even the EVGA ACX is a little louder than I'd like though. Most of the time you can't hear it but when playing games the fans crank up.