Hello,

Currently my build is ready and dead silent using the Corsair 550D with some noctua fans.

At first I used a GTX 670 from the store here but it is squealing like mad under load. I tested some crisis and the noise is just baaah.

Also tested an od 6870 from MSI that had the same.

Is there anyone using a decent gaming card with the power of the 6870 that doesn't have squealing and has some decent fan noise?

I tested a 5450 fanless one that I use to test pc's at our store, with this I have no squealing at all so sad

I am willing to take a step down in performance along as the card doesn't squeal.

Greetz

I've helped assemble two recent setups with this Gigabyte card: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4211#ov. Owners have not complained of noisiness or squealing, in fact the first one was pleasantly surprised by the idle sound levels.

Since you want power, I'd go for the 670 right now, or wait for the 660s to come out to see if they're better value.

Crysis, Minecraft and some other games are known to cause squealing when played with powerful cards, since parts of the game's engine are not frame-limited, and can reach into the thousands of FPS - given the right processing power. In Crysis it's the menus that give players the most grief. I think you may have had perfectly good, powerful cards, just squeal-inducing software.

Thank you, that was indeed my conclusion swell but its nice to have someone confirm it.

I will test again with fur mark and I think I don't get any squealing there so yea, I remember aswell with my old rig it was the same. Under crisis in menu's loading screen and a little in the gaming I would get squealing, also 3dmark, but in furmark and other games nothing.

Which 670 did you use? Was it one with a stock fan?

I recently undertook to get the quietest GTX 670. Under consideration were the Asus DC2, the Gigabyte Windforce, and the MSI Twin Frozr. All will be silent at idle - and this is from reviewers I consider to be trusted for measuring noise (not quite as well as Mike does, but they are at least trusted down to 20-24db, I think.

My personal choice was the Asus DC2 because it remains virtually silent even at full load. The tradeoff is that I think it gets slightly warmer at load tan the Windforce. You can always adjust the fan profile but then you end up with more noise at load.

Edit: I'd like to note two additional points. First, I'm using my Asus GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 in a Silverstone FT02. Second, I think that any of either the Asus DC2, the Gigabyte Windforce, and the MSI Twin Frozr are fine.

are you having any issues with the dcuii in your fortress? from what ive read, dcuii designs dont work well in vertical cases because the heatpipies extend beyond the heatsource. i cant validate that, but ive heard it from a number of sources, including this forum.

anyway, according to techpowerup's reviews, the asus is far and away the best choice in most cases

I just replaced the stock cooler of an MSI GTX 670 OC with the artic accelero mono plus cooler with great results. I even opened the case to check it because I thought it wasn't working as I could not hear it from the outside at full speed!

The installation was very easy because the original heat vrm heatsink could remain in place. Recommended!

You only need to check if your case is compatible because the card becomes much higher but it wasn't a problem with my Fractal design R2 case.

GPU temps are lower as well with a max of 50 degrees under load and 29 when idle. I haven't tried any extra overclocking yet as the card is fast enough as it is.

Sounds good. What holds the VRM heatsink in place though? If it's just heat-transfer pads, those can easily come loose.

Would be nice to have a user mini-review of the product if you have the time.

The heatsink isn't glued but hold in place by plastic pens with springs. I've absolutely no concerns of it coming loose.

I might take the card out to get some pictures

Here's a link to the MSI card: http://msi.com/product/vga/N670GTX-PM2D2GD5-OC.html


edit: I'm not sure anymore that the afterburner suite is able to control the fan speed as the corresponding line remains at 30%. Still it remains very silent when I force the fan speed up to 100% by running a stress test (MSI Kombuster). I'm still not sure if I can hear it at 100% with the case closed.

Thats your opinion then about the card, or noise levels in general I should say. That card and ive mounted a few in our store is not even close to being silent in a quiet room. I say its about the same noise as having a 1200RPM fan at full load. Ofc if you measure noise in an afternoon you won't hear it that well, but for my point of view on an evening gaming I could hear the card very well. The only way to have a decent power card without to much noise is using an accelero or tuning the bios and fan profile with afterburner etc.

I don't have a problem, but having read this article, I wonder if it's because the direction of the heatpipes is different between the DCII for the ATI 7950 vs the NVIDIA 670? The 7950 design seems to run its pipes straight horizontally (along the length of the card) vs the 670 design that runs its pipes in a U across the "top" of the card.

Here is an article I found that talks about the different heatpipe orientations and how orientation matters the most for heatpipes that in what they call the "TRad" configuration along the length of the video card.

It may also be that because of the configuration of the 670 DC2 heatpipe, that ASUS installed sintered metal powder or metal mesh wick material rather than grooved wick. See this article for a good explanation of the different kinds of heatpipe wick designs. Note that grooved wick is the kind of heatpipe that has more problems overcoming gravity.

Thanks for raising the issue to me. I have to admit that I didn't even know it existed!