SPCR

Hello all,
I finally took the leap and ordered a graphics card that can do some gaming. I have decided I can sacrifice some noise
(I'm currently passive, I know there are passive gaming cards ) Anyway, did a bit of lurking here and it seems the Hawk
MSI 6870 is a well thought of silenter card. My question is about using Afterburner to control the fan speed. What is a safe
idle speed (I have read 20%) and at what temp should I start ramping up the speed of the fan. I read that over 40 % was definitely
noticable but at load I can deal with some fan noise as the game will be going. Just new to this fan speed thing and wondered
if any users had some experience with this or a similar setup using the Afterburner software. Thanks a ton for any help.
Scott

I'm using a Gigabyte HD6870 Super Overclock. With MSI Afterburner, 28% fan speed is extremely quiet, and I have it setup to max out at 40% fan speed under load.

Be careful not to go too low though, otherwise one or both of the fans will stop spinning.

Wow,
thanks for the quick reply. Good to know I was afraid the idle RPM's might be too low I'm gonna try 28% to start
Thats pretty great you can run 40% under load. I'm assuming your temps are within range at that RPM's sounds
like a great cooler. Again thanks for the reply.
Scott

minkyboodle wrote:I'm assuming your temps are within range at that RPM's

About 80c max on the GPU, VRMs ~80c. Perfectly acceptable IMO.

EDIT: ooh, lower than I expected

I previously owned the Hawk. In silent mode (switch on card), you can set the minimal fanspeed to below 20%. Do that for idle.

Under load try to keep it under 38%. Anything higher will be really annoying. 80c is indeed fine, the Hawk has good durable parts.

If you have the option, try to set a graph for you casefans to kick in with higher temps in you case. Most modern mobo's have that option and it is essential for silent computing