DirectCU (1 fan) vs. Windforce (2 fans)

[guermantes]

Hi,
Although the Sapphire 6850 is tempting me as a very silent card (see this thread if you are interested viewtopic.php?f=19&t=60475 ), from a noise perspective it feels it bit dumb to buy a Sapphire card that is not Vapor-X. So I began to look at the MSI 6850 Windforce and the Asus 6850 DirectCU. Price differences between all these three cards are pretty much non-existant.
http://gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=945
http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=CE ... templete=2

The Windforce has two large fans and the DirectCU has only one. The Windforce will probably be cooler, but which would be less noisy? Is there anything close to a rule-of thumb here? (I can live with performance difference between these three cards, for the 6850 I am interested only in noise levels)

This is my first attempt at silence in a computer so I don't even know if I am making a huge fuss over differences that I will never be able to hear. As I said in a previous post from a few weeks back my ambition in going for a silent computer is to achieve a build that allows me to listen to a Chopin piano sonata late in the evening without hearing the computer. I would like to marry that first priority with the possibility to have a fairly current generation video card so that I once in a while can enjoy some quality gaming at 1650x1050 resolution with a little bit of eyecandy.

As a last option I am thinking to go for a Sapphire 5850 Vapor-X, but that card is almost 40% more expensive. Maybe the extra FPS bang is not worth it after all, but the card still tempts me since it outperforms the 6850 and also seems to be such a classic so I am kind of thinking that I could be prepared to pay the 40% premium for a tried and tested sure-shot solution as regards noise levels and performance.

Does anyone have something to say as to the above? I'd be very grateful for ideas about how to think about the choice of video card.

Config: i7 950 / Sabertooth x58 / Seasonic x650 / Define R3 case/ 1 WD 2TB Green and 1 regular Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB

[tim851]

The Gigabyte twin-cooler solution on the GTX460 is reputed to be very quiet. I don't see why this one should be louder. How quiet the Asus and Gigabyte are in relation to each other is subject to a comparative review. I'd bet my money on the Gigabyte though. And how quiet they are in absolute terms, that is how quiet they are for your ears, can only be determined by you I'm afraid. But cooling a 19w idle card quietly is not exactly voodoo, so unless you have outlandish silence requirements (as I have) you can give it a go.

[soberspine]

I am also interested which card is more silent, asus or sapphire. From what i read asus can't go lower than 1500 rpm.

[bskd]

I am also interested which card is more silent, asus or sapphire. From what i read asus can't go lower than 1500 rpm.

It can go lower, but it will require a modded vga bios.
Gigabyte should be quieter though.

[guermantes]

I ended up buying a the Gigabyte Windforce 6850 1GB. At first I thought I had a jet engine in the computer but then realized it was spinning at 75% all the time. So I got Afterburner installed and fiddled the fans down to zero and it has stayed there ever since and the temperature never goes above 50 degrees (except for when I am gaming when Afterburner automatically brings it up to where it should be to cool it down to around 60 degrees). So I am quite happy with it.

It is quite non-noticeable as well at 20% speed in my opinion.

I can't recommend it though for the simple reason that this is my first even GPU card with fans so I don't know how well or how bad it actually performs compared to other cards. But since I can put it down to zero RPM with it staying under 50 degrees celsius I am quite happy.

[lb_felipe]

Which do you believe that would be quieter, two ASUS HD 6850 DirectCU (reviewd by SPCR) in CrossFire or one GeForce GTX 580 Vapor Chamber cooler (reference)? Considering that they would be used in a Raven RV02B-E.

[jhhoffma]

My Asus EAH6850 pretty much stays at 1650rpms. You really can't hear it from 1m. As you get closer, you can hear some buzzing, due to it's small size and clear plastic nature.

Overall though, the cooler does such a good job that it's unlikely to ever get loud. It's well built and more efficient than most. I get nervous about Gigabytes large plastic housing with two fans. Any disharmony between the fans is going to cause some vibrations, and generally with coolers like this, that's where the most noticeable noise comes from. But since I don't own a Gigabyte, this is only a guess.