What's the quietest but still powerful card for 1080p?

[diaz]

Here's what I did for quiet operation,

1. Buy most powerful GPU which has good reviews for running cool, usually will be a big cooler on the card.
2. Set nvidia settings to "v-sync" or even "adaptive V-sync".

This usually results in the card using much less than 100%. This means less power, less heat, less RPM on the fans.

When I had the GTX 680, I could sometimes hear the blower cooler spool up, but with a big cooler like the ASUS STRIX, MSI Gaming X/Z, Gigabyte Aeorus, EVGA FTW etc.. those coolers are all awesome, which is why I am getting one of those flavors for my next GPU.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Yeah, my monitor won't go beyond 60, so I intend to keep it that way, though I also intend to max the settings out, even if it means dropping to like 50. As long as it's stable, quiet and not chippy/laggy/whatever.

Guys, do you think the difference between plain 1070 and the ti version is worth $80/€70?

I'm kind of ready to fork out +$100 to go from 1060 3GB to 1070, and quite at peace with the difference between 1070ti and 1080 in +$50 range, but from 1070 to 1070 ti seems to be a huge step right now at $80.

Here are my current options:

PLN 600/$150 — get a 1060 3GB from Gigabyte (WF 2 fans) — probably somewhat decent
PLN 1000/$250 — Palit Dual fan 1070

PLN 1320/ $330 — Colorful iGame GeForce GTX 1070Ti (32dbA under load)
PLN 1400/ $350 — Asus 1070ti Strix (the quietest @ 29dbA)
PLN 1500/ $375 — Zotac 1080 Amp (32dbA)

The 1060 with some OC would let me keep close to, say, 50fps in 1080p ultra, which wouldn't be the end of the world, just no playing around with virtual 1440p.

The 1070 would let me fool around a bit with 1440p, though nothing too fancy. Still neither need nor reason to get a new monitor.

At 1070ti or 1080 I would be tempted to fork out another $200 for a proper 1440p monitor. So let's say it's like $250 for 1070 for maxed 1080p on my nice 24'' AMVA, vs $500 for 1440p on a new 32'' IPS monitor (average-ish, I guess). Do you think this makes for a large improvement in the comfort of a semi-casual gamer's life?

 

[diaz]

Get the STRIX and don't look back. You deserve it.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Get the STRIX and don't look back. You deserve it.

I'm really itching to, because it's a whole 3dbA quieter than anything else really, and OC's better. And perhaps, just perhaps, it could stay passive in a lot of games with a 60 fps lock (strategies, isometric RPGs and such like). But it costs a whole 40% more than plain old 1070! And would probably force me to look for a new monitor…

EDIT: Looks like I'll need to make up my mind faster — the 280X's fans are probably dying on me, unless this is just about lubrication or a loose screw somewhere. It's a good thing my ear plugs arrived earlier tonight. I don't feel like investing much in this card, though I could see if it could be persuaded to accept some of my old 92mm fans eventually — the last time I tried it wouldn't boot. I think it should boot fanless at least, and there's always molex. But it's time for a change of guard.

 

[Maviryk]

I did something completely different for "silent" operation... turned the desk computer cabinet into a silent enclosure. Removed the back of the cabinet for airflow, then sealed/lined the entire thing with foam. It's quieter than ambient at idle, and during gaming it's barely noticeable.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

I don't have a cabinet, but yeah, that sounds great. I suppose I could line the PC case with acoustic foam on both sides (allegedly, roof paper is even better), minus the air holes. And the underside of the top of my desk. And maybe the wall right next to the computer case. Plus one of those anti-vibration carpets like people put under washing machines. I'm already using a double layer of felt.

RE: GPUS, the Zotac Amps at PLN 1500 have sold quickly. There are now MSI GamingX 1080s for 1550.

So basically:
Plain 1070: $250 (Palit, or ~ +$10 for Inno3D)
Nice 1070: $260–270 (40-ish dbA?)
Any 1070ti: $330 (~32dbA)
Strix 1070ti: $350 (~29dbA)
Poor 1080: $250 (40-ish dbA?)
MSI/X 1080: $390 (~31dbA)

The $20–40 increments don't bother me at all, but the huge $80 stop from Palit 1070 to any 1070ti does, considering the performance gain isn't quite +33%.

Then again, considering it can't be excluded that I'd go and buy Accelero and Morpheus eventually, might as well get a Strix or Gaming X right away, on a better chip.

EDIT: Well, then there's Nitro 580 4GB for $150 to just get something better than 1060 3GB, get close to 60/ultra/1080p and forget it for the time being (8GB versions star like $5–10 away but with hot, loud coolers). Still a shame that the card delivers like 45 fps @ 1440p ultra in reviewers' setups, which means more like 40 on mine, so probably not extremely playable @ 1440p. and then I'd like to play around at least with emulated (DSR/VSR) 1440p. And for that it seems a decent 1070 would be optimal (to get 60-ish). On nVidia'a side at the moment no 1060s make sense buying because nice (the ones that really are quiet) 3GB cost through the roof (almost in NIB territory) and 6GBs even more (basically as much as 1070s). Ugh. Decisions, decisions.

EDIT: 'Kay 'kay, reined it in a bit. I've just read some materials about Palit in general and their Dual series in particular, so while I know their 1070 is obviously not going to be best-in-class (which is exactly why it doesn't cost 20% more than it does), it's still by no means a botched product — mostly no frills/bells/whistles. One of the good things about it is that the fans are easy to replace without having to remove the heatsink, and the replacements work. This means the card can easily undergo Noctua Therapy™ for $30 or so. I would basically regard it as a better 1060 to max out my current monitor and forget about the 1060s and 580s as too uncertain. So now this leaves me between the $250 (PLN 1000) for the Palit 1070 vs 1400–1500 for 1070ti/1080.

Can you guys recognize the make of this 1080? https://allegro.pl/geforce-gtx-1080-mini-i7605272563.html It says 'mini', but the shroud doesn't look Zotac to me, and the rest of the crowd use single fans for minis.

 

[diaz]

You said yourself the 1070 ti was the most silent - and on top of that it is a fantastic card. The only other option is the GTX1080 Gaming X. Both are silent and powerful cards.

Treat yourself to something nice, or you will regret it. Come on!

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

You said yourself the 1070 ti was the most silent - and on top of that it is a fantastic card. The only other option is the GTX1080 Gaming X. Both are silent and powerful cards.

Yeah… There seems to be +8% fps in The Witcher 3 (presumably similar percentage in other titles) going from the 1070ti Strix to the 1080 GamingX, but there's also +2dbA under load, so the Strix seems to offer better value for money. This makes me wonder, because usually it's Gaming X that's better than Strix, but for 1070ti it's the other way round. I wonder why.

Treat yourself to something nice, or you will regret it. Come on!

Well, I could still get the Palit and put two high-pressure industrial Noctuas (one up, one down) on it and OC it into stock 1070ti range. (And burn the RAM and get artifacts forever, knowing me, lol.) But at this point we're talking about $75-ish difference, which is probably something I should resolve by erring on the side of surplus rather than shortage… Just thinking about this for hours I'll probably lose more money than just paying extra and trying to get the bucks back by taking some overtime at work. There are some 1080s finishing within 24 hours and a bunch of 1070s finishing the day after, so I'll wait and see, because there are still five of those Strixes up for sale. But I suspect I'll end up taking one of them.

This is quite convincing, isn't it? (34 = ambient.)



(https://whatnext.pl/test-karty-graficznej-asus-geforce-gtx-1070-ti-strix-gaming-advanced/5/)

Essentially, this would make the thingy rise only 5 decibels above the ambient and be on par with those fabled barely audible 1060 coolers. Keeping it 60-locked and perhaps undervolted could probably keep the card largely passive.

EDIT: Oh no, new contenders. The GTX 1080 of unknown making is now at PLN 1350, and there's a plain 1070 MSI Gaming X at PLN 1100. I'm really hesitating now, as the 1080 is costs 50 PLN less than the 1070ti, and for just a little more I could simply swap the two fans on it for BeQuiet/Noctua to make the card even quieter than the Asus Strix 1070ti. On the other hand, the Strixes are 5 months old and still on warranty, whereas the guy who's selling the 1080 is at best its second owner, so the card may well have been mining and sweating since May 2016. And a GTX 1080 wouldn't need a whole world of degradation to fall below a new 1070ti.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Guys, does this look like a possible fake 1080 to you?

It's different from Zotac, because Zotac doesn't make perforated fan shrouds and uses a different fan blade colour, and Zotac's coolers have a more high-quality look. This cooler looks somewhat ancient or basic/generic and not particularly beefy either (two heatpipes?). The card originally comes from Germany, and I've read online that the are some fakes in that market. The seller offers 14-day warranty and has been registered on the auction portal for like 15 years with all positive reviews. Could it be a legit bulk/OEM 1080 perhaps?



I've asked the seller for a GPU-Z screenshot so far.

 

[Vayra]

- For 1080p I would strongly recommend a 1080 over a 1070. Or 1070ti, pretty much the same as 1080.

- Best coolers for the 1070/1080's in terms of noise: MSI Gaming X, Asus Strix, EVGA SC/FTW. Stay away from Gigabyte, they have a history of ****ty fans and issues with themspinning up and down all the time and their RMA service is horrible. My personal preference is the MSI because quite simply, it has larger fan diameters and that alone allows you to keep RPM lower across the board. I also very much like their noise profile at full tilt, very constant and not at all unpleasant or hurricane like. The most you hear of it is air being moved. I've had an EVGA FTW 1070 and it was also very silent, except at higher RPMs.

- There's more to noise than dB, the frequency of it also matters and ironically you tend to notice *changes* in noise more readily than a constant noise. The latter will become less noticeable over time. For this reason, I stay away from fans that stop in idle, I've even set my Gaming X to 20% min. fan speed at all times. Other components in the rig are not passive either, so its a pointless exercise to stop fans, but you do notice them spinning up and down!

- There is no indication whatsoever that a triple fan solution somehow does better either in cooling or in noise.

- Budget choices with still no compromise cooling would be the Palit and Gainward versions. Not the quietest, but great performance.

- All of these choices will OC and perform roughly the same. No need to keep looking at reviews for that.

Yeah… There seems to be +8% fps in The Witcher 3 (presumably similar percentage in other titles) going from the 1070ti Strix to the 1080 GamingX, but there's also +2dbA under load, so the Strix seems to offer better value for money. This makes me wonder, because usually it's Gaming X that's better than Strix, but for 1070ti it's the other way round. I wonder why.

That is a strange definition of value for money you have here. If a card has more top-end performance, it also has more headroom to play with power target while getting the SAME performance, and you could tweak it for a lower noise peak too. Performance and temperature are closely related with Pascal, lower temps = higher perf because it can hold more boost bins, so you can choose your poison here even by simply adjusting a fan curve.

I get the idea, reading this topic that you are way overdoing it in terms of research, getting caught up in insignificant details. It will not necessarily lead you to a better end result FYI. As for that dB comparison graph, it is pointless because it has radically different TDP GPUs in there all side by side and it says nothing about temps under different fan speeds.

As for second-hand and no-name GPUs: buyer beware. The amount of duds going around is far too high to risk it IMO. Get a card with warranty.

 

[Kenrou]

For 1080p 60fps a 1060 6gb is more then enough for 99% of games when paired with a good CPU. Also agree with above, MSI or EVGA are your best bet for quiet if you don't want to watercool or use a passive heatsink. Alternatively if you got a bit of money to splurge you can always get an Accelero from Arctic, they are lauded as some of the quietest heatsinks in the market (there is also a fanless version called S3).

https://www.arctic.ac/uk_en/products/cooling/vga.html

 

[maxfly]

the accelero is a solid after market cooler but you definitely have to check your mount to be sure the hs is making good contact. mine wasnt due to the little plastic spacers being juuuust a little to long. an easy fix, just lay a piece of fine grit sand paper on a flat surface and sand off what you need to.