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Any 4830,4850,9800 or 9800GTX that are quiet out of the box

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:52 pm
by fabre
Is there any HD 4830, HD 4850, 9800GT or 9800GTX that are quiet out of the box.

I don't mind if the fan ramps up a bit during gaming as long the card is close to silent when idle, like the stock HD 3850 was.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:21 am
by Redzo
Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 1GB. Passive cooled card. Make sure that you have good airflow OR you could just zip tie 92mm fan to the heatsink and run it at 5v. Virtually silent and very good temps.

Read test here

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphi ... 4850-1gb/1

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:14 am
by fabre
Tempting but my case as low airflow and it's probably over my $200 budget.

What about the Asus EAH4830?
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=72
Enjoy Up to 24°C Cooler GPUs with Specially Designed Fansink
The latest EAH4830 Series also comes equipped with a specially designed fansink to quickly transfer heat away from the GPU for extreme cooling. Besides the extraordinary cooling capacity, the fansink on the EAH4830 Series operates with noise levels of only 29 dB-almost imperceptible in a quiet room, catering to users who require maximum cooling without excessive fan rotation noise.
/Edit
Went ahead and ordered the asus card, appears the heatsink is an arctic-cooling unit so it should be pretty quiet.
It's the same heatsink as this one, it goes by the designation accelero L1
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/p ... 45&mID=239

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:53 pm
by fabre
Forget the Asus EAH4830 despite the oem Arctic cooling heatsink, it's very loud (More than the powercolor) and the fan speed cannot be adjusted.

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:17 pm
by thejamppa
HIS HD 4830 is said to be quiet. However if you want out of box cool and quiet card, I say GF 9800 GTX+ with stock nVidia reference cooler is very hard to beat...

Edit: damn I should read all posts thru. However if Asus is not good enough, you may think getting Accelero S1, even that is not out of box solution. However you need to check yourself how badly the noise bothers you. You could also consider RMA card without opening the box...

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:35 pm
by ntavlas
I have to agree to the others, nvidia has the best reference coolers ATM. HIS custom cooler is also quiet so that would be my choice if I got an ATI card.

I still think however, that a cheap card coupled with an accelero is the best solution, as long as the card can adjust the fan speed.

It is a bit of a bummer that your card doesn`t do that, but you could still place a fan of your choice and manually adjust it with a zalman fanmate for example.

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:52 am
by stingy
thejamppa wrote:HIS HD 4830 is said to be quiet. However if you want out of box cool and quiet card, I say GF 9800 GTX+ with stock nVidia reference cooler is very hard to beat...
sorry for being stupid... but which ones are "GF 9800 GTX+ with stock nVidia reference cooler"???

I'm looking to build a really quiet hackintosh for Final Cut Pro and photoshop etc...

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:24 am
by loimlo
All cards were based on my personal experience, but sometimes I only heard some cards running in friend's computer, thus take my words with a grain of salt.

Powercolor 4830, 4850 PCS - they all have fan control and can adjust fan speed with your wish. Powercolor 4830 is hard to beat considering its price, performance, and quiet cooler out of box.
HIS 4830 IceQ, 4850 IceQ - they all have fan control and can adjust fan speed with your wish. Excellent blower design is rare in ATi campaign. Keep away from regular HIS 4830.


All nVIDIA stock blower cooling design - However, I've had unpleasant experience with some 9600GTs about fan clicking. Still very quiet but some people may be disturbed on the desk at midnight. I can't hear clicking fan at all under the table at midnight in P182. They all have fan control and can adjust fan speed with your wish.

I don't know why, yet ASUS licensed AC fans are all loud even by normal guys' standard. Btw, a bit of bios tweaking on fan control would be a godsend for silencers on a budget.

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:44 am
by Riffer
I keep on looking at this thread, and finaly got around to testing my XFX 4830.

In my setup, the card usually runs around 48-50C and fan speed is 67%. At this speed, it can barely be heard against the other fans. At about 60% it is inaudible.

At 100%, it is really loud.

Tested with my ear near the front of the case. I have an under-desk setup, so this is good enough for me.