Which is the quietest air cooled HD4850?

gremboid · Post by **gremboid** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 3:07 am

Hi,

I'm about to upgrade to a 24" widescreen monitor and my budget will stretch to a Radeon HD4850 card as well. I want the quietest one I can get my hands on though. Obviously a fan-less design would be best, but I'm not sure my system will take the extra heat right now, so I'm looking for solutions with fans.

I think I've narrowed it down to the Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic and Powercolor Radeon HD 4850 PCS+, or as someone has suggest below the HIS Radeon HD 4850 IceQ 4 Turbo.

Does anyone have any idea which card is quieter?

Thanks!

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:14 am

Hello,

I have read a comparison of various 4850 cards (with non-reference cooling) in a Turkish hardware site I frequent..

The HIS 4850 IceQ4 was written to be the quietest of the bunch. (The website is not nearly as interested in silence as SPCR, though.) What I especially liked was that the cooler draws in air from inside the chassis and expels the heated air out of the case from the back.

Here's a link to the page; just to check out what the card looks like: (I hope linking to other forums is not frowned upon here.. It's in Turkish, BTW.)

link

I'm sure, though, that the people in here can give a much more informed advice about silence. I just wanted to post an example.

Good luck!

roilev · Post by **roilev** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:41 am

no fanned VGA cooler comes close to being silent, most have small fans, that can spin very fast

Gigabyte produce passive 1GB model.

You can make your own fanless card with Accelero S1 Rev. 2, but you have to provide some airflow to cool the RAM and mosfet sinks.
You can tie 2 quiet (80 or 92mm, or even 120mm) fans to it too, like I did

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:03 pm

Heres the Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GH passive 4850 for $200 on newegg.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 7:27 pm

I thought I would try to revitalize this thread.

I am looking for a 4850 that the exausts the air out the back like the HIS. Are these reasonably quite? Are there any quieter brands with the same configuration?

DeDeRa · Post by **DeDeRa** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:22 am

I have a Gainward HD4850 GS (Golden Sample). At 20% the fan spins at 850rpm. Even with your ear close you can`t hear it. At 40% where it stands right now, being in the case, the gpu isn`t heareable, deadsilent. (~980rpm).
Good luck.

Here are some pictures from my gpu:

Enjoy!

le: More quite than that is only fanless S1!

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:36 am

if you can wait...XFX should be releasing their ATi line in the next couple of months.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:38 am

If there is no good deal on boxing day, I may wait as aztec suggested.

Dedera, Gainward seems a good choice, but I notice that one of the reviews says it exausts into the case as well due to the open construction. At least it doesn't exaust onto the card below, which is my main concern.

DeDeRa · Post by **DeDeRa** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:57 am

This Gainward is more than ok. Comes with stock 700/2200 freq, and i use it at 800/2400 for daily-use, and the temp rise with just 4*.
GL.

friend · Post by **friend** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:13 am

The Turkish forum which one suggested as the lower noise one ?

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:04 am

Hello,

They mentioned that HIS IceQ4 Turbo was the quietest of the bunch. They also liked the fact that it exhausts the warmed air from the back of the case.

It was a comparison / test of 4850's with non-reference cooling. The other contestants were ASUS EAH4850 TOP Edition, Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample and Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic.

I know that these cards don't claim to be the quietest ones on the market, and noise was just one of the things measured in the test; but still, it might give an idea.

DeDeRa · Post by **DeDeRa** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:37 am

I didn`t listen to other 4850, just stock ones, but my Gainward isn`t noisy at all, almost deadsilent. Figure it yourself, a fan that spins at only 850rpm.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 6:22 pm

I ended up ordering a HIS H485QX512P.

I'll report back when I have it installed and can do some testing.

Thanks all.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 1:10 am

Hello,

I hope you like the card! I've read that HIS is also making a 4870 which uses cooler with the same principle. I'm keeping my eyes open for that card.

By the way; I would be very sorry if the card I recommended turns out to be not so quiet (unlike the review), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed..

ugrakarma · Post by **ugrakarma** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 9:37 am

Naturally gigabyte started selling a passive model after I went for one with a fan by powercolor but back then waiting didn't seem like an option. If you have to find something negative about the powercolor pcs+ 4850 it doesn't blow the hot air out of the case like the HIS iceq models. Highly subjective impression compared to a 2900pro with a hr-03 & sharkoon 92mm at 5 volts was that they were pretty much the same. The following link made the difference for me.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powe ... CS/25.html

In normal usage the fan doesn't spin up much but with furmark... It will be interesting to hear comments about the iceq models as well so perhaps I can continue lamenting about my timing again.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 5:51 am

I installed the HIS 4850 Iceq4 1GB in my computer two days ago, and it's NOT SPCR-quiet.
For someone not used to quiet computing, it may seem quiet, especially when dampened by the case.
But the fan in 2D is ticking and at load it's hissing badly. I'll replace the stock cooler in about a week with the Accelero S1 and turbo module.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 6:05 am

pixel wrote:Hello,

I hope you like the card! I've read that HIS is also making a 4870 which uses cooler with the same principle. I'm keeping my eyes open for that card.

By the way; I would be very sorry if the card I recommended turns out to be not so quiet (unlike the review), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed..

Received the card yesterday from Tigerdirect - in obviously used condition, so back it goes

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 4:05 am

Sorry to hear that Riffer.. I'm from Turkey and have no experience with TigerDirect; but I hope they'll offer an acceptable solution.

Tzupy: Thanks for the comment! I guess I shouldn't have relied so heavily on one review.. I hope I haven't caused anyone to make a purchase they regret.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:53 am

Well, my other fans are very quiet in 2D (I ramp up when gaming, using Scythe Kaze Master controller):
Front Nexus 92 mm at 800 rpm, back Slipstream at 600 rpm, PSU at 520 rpm and CPU at ~500 rpm.
So the Iceq4 doesn't match my other quiet fans. In 2D it's reasonably quiet, but the noise quality is poor.
I could compare it with a 120 mm fan at 900-1,000 rpm, with ball bearings of poor quality.
It's a bit louder than a Slipstream at full 800 rpm, but the Slipstream sounds smoother.

I just listened again to it, and it's by far the loudest component in my setup. Oddly, the noise seems now to be whirring, not ticking?
Right now the fan speed reported by CCC is 14% and GPU temperature is 52C.

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:34 am

aztec wrote:if you can wait...XFX should be releasing their ATi line in the next couple of months.

I notice that they are now available to order at some vendors.

Are their GForce cards quiet?

gechu · Post by **gechu** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:14 am

According to earlier posts in this thread, the HIS Radeon HD 4850 IceQ 4 is not quiet enough. But have anyone considered undervolting the card and taking full control of the fan? I.e. set up some kind of dynamc function that reduces the voltage, and fan-speed to near zero RPM?