I'm building a new PC ASAP. I need to upgrade my passive 9600GT to something more modern. But now I'm accustomed to the whole silent PC thing and I'd like to keep it that way. So which GTX560 Ti is the most quiet (or can be made quiet with modded BIOS or such)?

I've been looking at the MSI Twin Frozr. But does anyone know if these cards are actually silent enough (at idle) to qualify for the elusive SilentPCreview badge of honor?

The Gainward Phantom GTX 560TI is the quietest. Not currently sold in North America, but as you live in Europe you are in luck http://www.proshop.dk/Grafikkort/Gainward-GeForce-GTX-560-Ti-Phantom-2244193.html.

Thanks for the suggestion! It's quite a bit more expensive than the MSI (and the like) though...

I can also get a Club3D GTX 560Ti CoolStream OC Edition, which looks like it could be quiet. I'm not too keen on the brand though.

I have an MSI twin frozr gtx 460 (might be a slightly different brand name, but it's the same kind of cooler) and it's not super quiet. I keep it in a case that's well ventilated, and with a little fan speed limiting in afterburner I've made it fairly quiet. But it really depends on what kind of load you put on it, if you're a heavy gamer or gpu user, you'll want to watch the temps when you drive the fan speed down. The cooler is pretty good at keeping the temps down, but the load is pretty critical.

Take a look here - linky - while these are 560 cards (not Ti), the review may shed some light. Just focus on RPM numbers and temps and disregard db. For db only SCPR can be trusted Anyway, I'd say go Windforce - I've read a lot of positive feedback from users of Nvidia cards with this cooler. Mind you, the same will not apply to Radeons (such as 6850 & similar) with Windforce, as there are still unresolved bios quirks. To my knowledge GB Nvidia cards with Windforce are v v quiet. The Phantom sure looks good and promising but is a tad expensive.

Most custom 560ti's will have some decent cooling. Just look for big dual fans.

Not too keen on gbyte for GPU's. Theyre very flimsy and some dont have voltage regulators.

Biggest issue with most nvidia cards is the horribly high fanspeed at iddle. This is fixed at 40%. You will have to flash your bios to get it any lower.

Define flimsy - lots of GB cards actually use their UD technology - not sure if this really helps, but at least they put more copper there and thicker PCBs. Not thinner or anything.

Are you really sure the hi fan speed at idle plagues Nvidia? That's exactly what happened to some Radeons made by GB. never heard about this problem for Nvidias, tho. Still, this issue can be easily resolved by manually adjusting fan speed.

It goes for all nvidia cards, with the exception of a few (like the Galaxy Anarchy, etc). If you use afterburner you cant lower the fan speed below the 40%. You have to flash your card''s BIOS for that. Which is no biggy if you know your way around these things but daunting if you don't.

ATI/AMD cards have a much lower minimum fanspeed%.

And with flimsy I mean the build quality. Lots of plastic, thin metal parts, etc. Compared to let's say an MSI product the card looks and feels shabby and not sturdy at all. Not talking about individual capacitors, but the overall construction. Very unlike their brilliant motherboards.

Oh, I just realized I was looking at the 2gb version of the Gainward Phantom. The 1 gb is not that much more expensive, so I'll probably end up getting that! Thanks everyone.

I'll update this thread with my impressions once everything is in place (might take a few weeks).

So what are your impressions?

I'm considering one of these two cards myself:
Gainward GeForce GTX 560 Ti Phantom 1GB
MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Hawk

Any idea wich one is the quietest?

The reason I'm considering the Hawk is because of the high clockspeed and
because I want to be able to play new games on high settings.

Both cards cost about the same, so price isn't a factor.

So, if the Hawk is more noisy than the Phantom, the final question would be:
Is it worth getting the Hawk even if it is more noisy than the Phantom?

I won't be getting the new card for a while yet, so I don't have any impressions just yet. But I've heard the Hawk is louder than the Twin Frozr II cooler (don't quote me on that though ). If silence is your primary goal, I'd probably go for the Phantom. I guess you could just OC it as well if need be.

The Hawk has an Twin Frozr III cooler which is in general better (quieter and cooler) than the Twin Frozr II.

Also speedwise, don't buy a card based on clockspeed, but based on the PCB, the components and the voltage regulations. MSI's cards have this covered well in general.

soundwise, I have no clue which one is quieter, the Phantom or the Hawk. I'd guess the Phantom, allthough the Hawk will probably OC better.

You will be able to play most games at high/ultra out at 1080p with both cards, OC'ed or not. so I wouldnt base my decision on a factory overclock.

Thanks for the useful replies.

I've read quite a few tests now, and seeing how much I value a silent pc I'll probably get the Phantom-card.

My MSI Twin Frozr II OC 560 Ti (what a name!) noise level greatly depends on the airflow around the card. In my small uATX box where the video card is upside down, has little air exchange, and is near the PSU - it gets LOUD. But in my big Coolermaster CM 690 with tons of airlfow but quietness due to very slow fans, the GTX 560 fans barely spin up.

In my uATX box I just use Afterburner to make a custom temp/RPM curve which works excellent. Obviously not having to bother with this would be ideal. I have not had luck with Nibitor BIOS editing though (its fan speed box does strange things)

I have been considering running the fans off out straight 5/7v instead of the card's PWM. Another option could be removal of the two little fans and the shroud, and attaching better fans.

I've had good experience with the Gigabyte twin fan cooler (on a GTS 450).

I'm building a new system and considering the MSI 560 Ti boards, in particular the OC and Hawk versions. Is it possible to undo the factory overclock on these boards? It seems like these boards have superior components and cooling solutions to support the factory OC. If I turn back the OC I'm hoping to get better cooling at lower fan speeds, hence quieter. And the capability to turn the OC back on if I want a lot of fast eye candy on occasion.

I plan to fold on the GPU, so the GPU will be near max load 100% of the time. I game, but rarely at resolutions that will tax the GPU.

Am I insane to consider this? The $260 cost for the board is certainly within my budget, but hey, I'll take advice on whether this is just a waste of money that I can spend on a bigger SSD.

Of course you can. MSI's Afterburner wil do the trick. Biggest gain you will get from a bios flash to lower the fanprofile under the 40%.

I now finally have my new card! For budget reasons I chose the Gainward GTX 560 "Phantom". And let me tell you - it's SILENT at idle! There's no difference from my old passive 9600GT to this new card. Awesome!

I'm off to actually try some games now and see how it behaves under load.

EDIT: I've had it for some days now and I think I can hear a small increase in noise over my passive 9600GT. It's very quiet though, but I hesitate to actually call it silent. If it's possible to mod the idle fan RPM to 20%, then I'm sure it would be silent. This is merely speculation though.

I can't really hear it changing under load. It's like 30C @ idle and 60C @ load. Great card!

Give us some RPM figures

1200-ish @ 30% if I remember correctly.

Then your claims about "silence" seem justified I mean, "quiet" can be understood differently by various ppl, depending on preferences, experience and environment. Well, anyway, 1200 rpm for 2 80mm fans seems entirely OK with me, I'd be happy with this kind of noise too. Currently my 5850 sports a HSF with 92mm transplanted from a similar card, 5830, and the fan never goes below 1100 rpm. That's OK with, although I'd still prefer it to run at about 900 rpm in idle. My original 5850 HSF broke down, as in "ballbearings kaput" and it also ran at 1100 rpm, but was a smaller fan. Anyway, at this kind of rpm for this kind of fan, this is OK and any 3,5" will easily cancel this noise.
Good to know about the Phantom, a card to recommend as I see it.

I think the best strategy for those in North America where Gainward is not sold is to buy whatever cost the least and fit an aftermarket cooler to it. Just let the card burn in for a week or so to be sure it is not defective.

I'm in the same boat now, looking for the most quiet GTX 560 Ti under load (not silent as none exist).

I can tell you to never touch the HAWK, have you looked at the blades? So tiny, fan must spin like crazy for proper air flow and what you get is LOUD... I tried one that was probably more problematic than other with high temps and fans @ 100% and had to returned it.

Then I heard of the Gainward Phantom but unfortunatly, not available here in North America.

I recently heard of the Sparkle Calibre X560 Ti DF (the one with new propriatary fans and not the previous model with Arctic Cooling ones) but reviews are rare, looks promising though. Card looks nice too!

I'm really desesparate, I spent so much time Googling for the perfect 560 Ti and I'm not able to find a model I'm confident to order. I would hate to order to find out I'm disapointed and having to return and pay restocking fee. That suck because I upgraded all my PC except the video card.

Now I wonder if I'm good to go until Kepler show up...

Any updates to this thread? Has anyone found an inaudible 560 Ti solution?

Hi, mine started as a Gigabyte OC model and has since gained an Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II. The fans on it were faulty so I ended up replacing them with a pair of AC F9 fans, and modding the BIOS for fanspeed min of 25%
Now idles with the fans ~450rpm and game load 800~900rpm and synthetic load 1000~1100rpm, (IIRC) with good temps so with Afterburner of the like you could trade some more temp for less fan speed. As the F9s are rather nice smooth fans this means idle is truly inaudible and game load is very quiet, below the noise floor of most PCs.
See here.

It does take 4 slots though!
Regards, Seb

Is it hard to flash the BIOS on the Gigabyte card? I have the Gigabyte GTX560 Ti non-OC, and the minimum fan speed isn't low enough for me (I think it's set to 40%).

To answer the OP - I have the dual-fan version: it's quiet at idle (barely audible), but I can definitely single out the fan noise out of my Solo II. I'm hoping I can lower the fan speed to like 25% in MSI Afterburner if I flash the BIOS. I don't care if it's loud when I game, so I have the fan ramp up quickly when it gets hot. By default, it's pretty quiet during load as well.

Flashing the BIOS is pretty easy with any nvidia card. You just need the latest version of Nibitor and the nvidia BIOS flasher to read and then reflash the edited BIOS. IIRC, it's called NVFlash... I did a 550 Ti that had a minimum fan speed of 40% and was able to get it down to 25%.