Quieting down my graphics card

[istari675]

I recently purchased the Deep Silence 6 to help out cutting down a lot of the sound coming from my case. At the moment the most dominant sound coming from my case is the graphics card. Mostly because the case has open vents in the back of it for some reason. Are there any professional ways I could block these vents up with very little expertise required personally?

GPU - ASUS GTX780 DCU2 OC

 

[EarthDog]

The vents let out hot air.. it's not good to block them...

You have a couple of choices... buy an aftermarket cooler..watercool it, change the fan profile, or limit fps.

I'm actually surprised that you are complaining about the direct currently cooler... it's pretty quiet.

What temps are getting?

 

[istari675]

Max the temps ever get on the card is lik 75c. I can put my hand on those vents and there is no heat coming from them. I also have the system set up as a positive pressure system for dust management purposes. I have specifically prepared everything in my case to be quiet. My CPU cooler is the H240x with crazy quiet fans that I cant even hear over the pumps buzzing. Primary hard drive is an SSD. I have specifically tested each fan to make sure that the noise was coming from the GPU.

 

[Conumdrum]

Looks like you have done what you can. Bump max temps to 80C by decreasing the max fan RPMS? 80 isn't terrible.

Get an updated card? Move your PC to another spot so it's less loud?

Maybe the case airflow is so poor that the GPU is trying to compensate? Take the side panel off and check temps....

 

[istari675]

Looks like you have done what you can. Bump max temps to 80C by decreasing the max fan RPMS? 80 isn't terrible.

Get an updated card? Move your PC to another spot so it's less loud?

Maybe the case airflow is so poor that the GPU is trying to compensate? Take the side panel off and check temps....

the GPU is the loudest thing in the system at idle at the moment. When the system is idle the GPU is always at the lowest RPM setting (37%). Replacing the cooling system on the card would be a bit beyond me, and I still value the card enough to want to keep the warranty on it. If this is one of the quieter cards I will need to resort to a liquid cooled GPU in the future to keep it in par with the volume of the rest of my case.

 

[EarthDog]

Well,some of the latest gpu's have their fans shut off white ie and only turn on at 60c...if you cherish qubit that much perhaps sell what you have and grab something newer...

 

[istari675]

Well,some of the latest gpu's have their fans shut off white ie and only turn on at 60c...if you cherish qubit that much perhaps sell what you have and grab something newer...

I was afraid of that. With a new generation of graphics cards 2 months away this seems like the worst time to upgrade a graphics card. I've never actually been onboard for a new generation of cards though so I have no idea how long it takes non reference cards to start being released after the reference card comes out.

 

[knoober]

New TIM and oil the fans?

http://www.overclockers.com/em-spinning-lubricate-pc-fans/

I realize the fans arent making any out of the ordinary noise, but if you are carefull even a quiet fan can benefit from maintenance. Ive seen my fans go from a whisper to silent from routine maintenance.

I suggest new/better TIM because perhaps you can bring your temps down a few degrees and the fans will stay running slower longer. With fans slower= quieter. Good luck though

 

[EarthDog]

I was afraid of that. With a new generation of graphics cards 2 months away this seems like the worst time to upgrade a graphics card. I've never actually been onboard for a new generation of cards though so I have no idea how long it takes non reference cards to start being released after the reference card comes out.

thanks for reading through that autocorrected mess, lol!

You have a few months before new gpus come out. I don't expect anything until at least June or July if not later in 3Q

 

[istari675]

That never came to mind at all. I wonder how difficult it would be to oil the fan in the graphics card though. Ive never even tried removing the fan. If it just comes off with a little pressure that would be fine, but I assume I would need to take off the entire heatsink to get at it.

Now that im looking it seems like my card is starting to lose value pretty quickly. The main reason I didnt want to try aftermarket coolers is because I didnt want to mess up and be out 450 bucks.

I am pretty desperate to isolate the sound coming from that card. If I buy a card now and in a few months theres a card that has 2x the power I am gonna feel cheated.

 

[knoober]

That never came to mind at all. I wonder how difficult it would be to oil the fan in the graphics card though. Ive never even tried removing the fan. If it just comes off with a little pressure that would be fine, but I assume I would need to take off the entire heatsink to get at it.

You might be able to remove it without removing the heatsink. Look between the blades and see if you can find the tiny screws that hold it down. The last one I did was accessible from the front, but I had the sink off anyway

 

[istari675]

I looked around and it is pretty solidly in there. I cant find any obvious way to pull the blades out.

 

[trents]

Ear plugs. Pretty cheap compared to new GPUs.

 

[cstarritt]

Have you tried taking control of fan speed with overclocking software like EVGA PrecisionX? Also, you could ditch the stock fans and rig up some sort of shroud for whatever fan(s) you want to use, and maybe even rig up an air duct to have it draw cool air from outside the case.

 

[PvtWulf]

Check Youtube for your particular vid card, peeps post all kinds of videos of taking apart of their cards.