edh, thanks for your suggestions, but it seems that for now that software is a bit unreliable with GTX 670, so I'll wait.

However, I have bought and just installed an AC Mono Plus on my GTX 670, and here are some results.
It idles at 30% fan speed, which is ~900 rpm, not acceptable to me, I want under 600, considering that idle temps are just 30C.
In Furmark extreme burn it reaches a GPU temp of 60C at 1140 rpm, with a GPU speed of 915-928 MHz.
The large VRM heatsink also reached 60C, but I had to open the case (P150) to keep a thermal probe touching it.
With the case open the GPU temp dropped to 55C. There are some issues when installing the Mono Plus though.
I was unable to put heatsinks on two of the memory chips, because the Mono Plus's base is too large.
Actually I used some Thermalright heatsinks (not the ones coming with Mono Plus), that have a sticky tape on them.
And after realizing that I can't install the cooler with them I had to rip them off the card.
So don't permanently glue memory heatsinks (onto two of the memory chips with this issue) before installing Mono Plus.
Also, the PCB is bolted to the back of the card through the stock heatsink's shroud. Without the shroud the bolt
has nothing to catch into, and my card is sagging a bit. I need to find a thin bolt and nut that would fit instead.

PS. Since I'm keeping the card in my backup PC, I gave Afterburner a try, but I was unable to lower minimum fan speed below 30%.
I set the fan ramp-up to 10% at 30C till 50% at 60C, and more afterwards, but in practice nothing happened.

I picked up the regular Asus 670 DCII (non-TOP) from Newegg. I'll be posting here with my impressions once it arrives and I get it installed. I'm currently using a 6970 with AC Twin Turbo II (stock fan assembly replaced by two Scythe Kama Flow 92mm fans), so I will be comparing it to a pretty quiet baseline.

I also ordered a few 120mm Nexus, planning to replace all the fans in my R3 with these and running them at 5v from a fan controller. I'm also switching over to 100% solid state storage.

My system should be a pretty quiet testbed.

Another user her chiming in on the goodness/quietness of the Gigabyte Windforce GTX670. Running it in my RV02 (all 180mm fans at 600rpm, no top 120mm exhaust fan, silver arrow cpu cooler running reduced speed) and frankly I cannot hear it over the other fans at idle (22%(750rpm), 33C) and while gaming I can only barely hear it and it seems a very pleasant tone. Dont think I have seen it over 65c yet.

And I am a pretty picky SOB when it comes to noise especially in the last few months when I build a 0 moving parts pc (A-tech fabrication STPC-300).

Gary

Good to hear linklemming! I experimented with the "Frame limiter" feature, it is available through MSI Afterburner. I set the frame limit to 60 and the fan curve to only go above 30% if the card reaches 70C. Result is most games run silently at 30% and 60C at almost constant 60 frames (this is at 120hz). It even needs less power. I love this card.

Thanks for the heads up. I will play with the frame limiter (I am assuming it is different from Vsync).

My only regret is not buying 2!

Gary

I bought the gigabyte version aswell for my build in progress, all I can say wow the card is soo quiet its really nice. The only thing that bothers me is that it also spins full speed during boot.

Any news on the bios flash (asus)?

Techpowerup has a nice review of the Gigabyte Windforce GTX 670

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Giga ... Windforce/

On a side note, if your looking at watercooling a GTX 670, this is the card to get at the moment. Since it uses a 680 PCB, 680 water blocks can be used from what I have heard. I currently have no need for this but am considering water cooling with a radiator in another room to reduce both noise and generated heat.

I scored another on newegg yesterday...so my only regret is now gone!

Gary

If you are going to watercool, the eVGA 670 FTW also works as it is on a 680 PCB as well while also being a nice black PCB.

so I bought the GTX 670 gigabyte version, at first everything was really nice and quiet but after I started to do 3Dmark 2011 tests the pain came in

So basically when I start load test the video card starts to squeal like really bad, I also tested a Asus GTX670 and did the same thing.

I tested in my other silent rig and did the same thing also... tested 2 different PSU's, another motherboard but the problem stays.

Either I got 2 bad cards or what is going on lol