Sub €200 graphics card that's QUIET

quarryman

I have a 560Ti that gets very noisy when gaming.

What can I get these days that would be an upgrade but also very quiet?

Also, I would prefer to stick with Nvidia.

Lu Tze

quarryman wrote: »

I have a 560Ti that gets very noisy when gaming.

What can I get these days that would be an upgrade but also very quiet?

Also, I would prefer to stick with Nvidia.

I don't have any personal recommendation but maybe the 750ti, as it has such a low power draw there is bound to be some very quiet ones with third party coolers.

Recurve360

Think theres passive models of the 750ti out now or soon. They will be completely silent and will be a small upgrade on your 560ti. Not much choice in the sub 200 quid nvidia market apart from the older 660ti

TerrorFirmer

GTX760 is in and around the 200 mark, but you can also get either a 270X or R9 280 regular model with a good cooler for the same money. AMD have a much better grip of the value for money market I think.

560Ti is weak by modern standards, an r9 280 would be a good upgrade for example, equally there can be good deals on the GTX760. Shop around.

750Ti would be marginally faster but a pointless upgrade really.

quarryman

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

GTX760 is in and around the 200 mark,

Would it be quiet though? My 560Ti sounds like a hoover when it gets going.

Having said that it has been ROCK solid in the 3-4 years I've had. Best gfx card I've owned.

Recurve360

Generally if your going to pay for performance your going to get louder GPU's. Some have quite good coolers that arent too bad. As mentioned the 750ti isnt much of an upgrade, but its an example of a decent passive card. You really gotta decide if you want dead quiet and reasonable performance or high performance and slightly more noise

TerrorFirmer

If you pick the right card, then generally even high ends cards are pretty quiet. My last card was a 7970 Windforce and that was quieter than the Intel stock fan. Having said that, usually the cheapest models offer the same performance, but worse acoustics, so you have to establish a medium. Even with 200 euro though you would buy a card that would be an upgrade in terms of performance and noise. 750Ti would be a huge noise/power consumption upgrade but not so much performance. As I said AMD offer the best value in that regard. A good quality r9 280 is the way to go in my opinion on that budget.

Wcool

I am in the same boat. I have and AMD 6870 and it's louder than a hoover when I play games. I just bought a 750Ti from Hardwareversand and hope to build a new pc within the week. I will report back if it is silent and if not if it was an improvement. It's a 2 fan model.

quarryman

Wcool wrote: »

I am in the same boat. I have and AMD 6870 and it's louder than a hoover when I play games. I just bought a 750Ti from Hardwareversand and hope to build a new pc within the week. I will report back if it is silent and if not if it was an improvement. It's a 2 fan model.

Great stuff Wcool. Can you link the model and report back on how quiet it is at full load?

Wcool

it's this one:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC Windforce

Order has been cleared but might be another week. Anyway I will post back when I have it up and running.

Wcool

Well, I finally got the card today. I put it in my existing Asrock z77 mini-itx, core i5 2500k, Silverstone SUGO SG05B case (pretty open case)

It's pretty good. Performance level slightly better than AMD HD 6870, it even plays Metro 2033 reasonably fast. I briefly tried Wolfenstein New Order, Sniper Elite V2 and Metro 2033 and now noise levels are the same as the 6870 was on Idle! You can still hear the fan but it is not irritating. I play on 1 screen, 1920x1280

On full gaming power usage is 150 watt, idle around 70. In short a HUGE improvement. Recommended.

TerrorFirmer

Wcool wrote: »

On full gaming power usage is 150 watt, idle around 70. In short a HUGE improvement. Recommended.

It's actually a good bit faster than a 6870! I assume with the power consumption you're talking whole system?

Wcool

Yes, that's the full system. The card only needs one 6-pin connector rather than the 2 required for the 6870. I think max watt is no more than 70!

It's nothing short of amazing. Maybe in a couple of years we finally have a computer with the size of a couple of CD cases, passively cooled, that can play most games on medium setting! I would stop building then though

I haven't put the system through it's paces but sofar especially Metro is impressive, the 6870 really had trouble with it.

quarryman

*bump.

Cash burning a hole in my pocket now.

What gets me the best upgrade for value but still VERY quiet?