Which GTX460 for quiet?

[Onus]

One of the games I play is Sacred 2, which benefits from PhysX. I have decided to upgrade from a HD4850 to a GTX460. I expect performance to be excellent, so my biggest concerns are heat and noise. Is this MSI Cyclone model as quiet as it looks, or is there a better choice?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510

I'm quite sure I don't need the performance of a GTX470 or GTX480, as Dragon Age: Origins is probably the most demanding game I play. I have a sufficient PSU.
Thanks for your comments.

 

[Anik8]

MSI Cyclone is the most quiet,MSI Hawk offers better cooling and OC

 

[17seconds]

The ECS GTX460 Black card is the quietest and coolest. With a $20 rebate, it is just over $200.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134117

The ECS Black runs a full 16c degrees cooler than the MSI Cyclone (!!!) and a full 9c cooler than the MSI Hawk. At the same time, it runs at 37dB at load compared to the MSI Cyclone and Hawk at 43dB.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ecs-geforce-gtx-460-black-review/8

Of all the GTX460's tested at Guru3d, the ECS Black beats them all in heat and noise levels.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ecs-geforce-gtx-460-black-review/1
"ECS Elite Group also released a handful of GeForce GTX 460 cards, based on the reference design with a slight overclock, yet also a BLACK series graphics card which is a factory overclocked model with an Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo PRO cooler sitting on top of that GPU. Now we've already seen a couple of models based on this cooling solution, but the ECS card really is something special.

We spot amazingly cool temperatures of the GPU versus a downright nice factory overclock. And for the freaks, if you like to overclock a little yourself and utilize software like MSI's Afterburner then this product can be overclocked even further, really high actually, yet still have a product that remains 100% silent."

 

[Onus]

Nice information.
I would not be able to use the ECS card; it's a triple-slot, and I may install it into a PC-Q08 mini-ITX case. Ventilation is quite good in that case (and I could reverse the PSU to add even more), but I'm pretty sure that width wouldn't fit.

 

[17seconds]

Yep, I'm glad you caught that. At least you have the links to the charts to compare other GTX460's in terms of heat and noise output. Most of them are either double or triple slot cards. The MSI Hawk would probably be better than the Cyclone for heat and noise. I also hear the Gigabyte version is pretty good.

 

[Onus]

Best answer selected by jtt283.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey