Quietest Radeon HD 7870

[siviline]

As the title says, I am looking for a very quiet HD 7870. Anyone have any suggestions? Are there any benchmarks of this that could help me?

 

[cookybiscuit]

The HIS IceQ is the quietest if I recall correctly. Any of the 7870's at stock clocks should run pretty quiet though, since they don't use a whole bunch of power.

 

[tigerg]

You know..... all this information is available here... on the Tom's site: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/25-Noise-level-Load,2983.html

Hurray for searching!

Cooky is right, the "HIS Radeon HD 7870 IceQ X 2 GB" is the quietest on the list.

 

[unksol]

I'll be honest. I don't understand the random obsession with "quietest". gpus only ramp up while gaming.you can't hear them while gaming. My last gen 6950 toxic being an example...

I look at the manufacture and sapphire has been great, an AMD board partner, and excellent warranty for something that was my (cats) fault. On a limited edition card.

 

[siviline]

Well, I have a bit of OCD when it comes to the noise of my PC. I don't mind a quiet whooshing noise, but other types of noise really get into my head. Although this may seem silly, the IceQ just looks ridiculous to me. Besides, I've had bad experiences with HIS in the past, and I'd rather not go back to them.
Oh, and thank you Tiger! I didn't realize that chart listed noise as well.

 

[siviline]

Also, that chart doesn't have many of the models I've seen for sale. Is there a more complete chart?

 

[unksol]

This is back to me. But no complaint on sapphire noise. Lots of websites do noise assessment. BUT the most important factor is usually your case

 

[J_E_D_70]

Noise is very important in gaming when it gets to the point of being distracting. Mine is a reference model and i will freakin never do that again. Bloody hair dryer a lot of the time. Turning msaa down and txaa up helped a lot (bf3 metro gets loud when folks pop lots of smoke).

 

[fkr]

a quick search for quietest 7870 brought this page up
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64366
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

hope these help I am not going to read through them since when I want quiet I put on headphones or crank the volume

 

[siviline]

I also game kind of late into the night sometimes, and certain members of my family (who's room is right next to mine) go to bed early. We have rather thin walls, so ya. Headphones probably won't do the trick. Thanks for the links though! I'll look into those!

 

[unksol]

^
This is exactly my point. I am either gaming alone. And want the sound experience. Or am gaming with friends. Headset and talking to them. "noise" does not factor in

 

[mclovits]

If you're looking for a quiet card, just above that IceQ card on the list (like 1 or 2 7870's) is the DirectCUII model from Asus. If you want a quiet card get that, the cooling you get while still maintaining performance on DirectCUII coolers is quite rediculous. I have one on my overclocked (TOP) GTX 670 and it's almost inaudible, even when gaming.

 

[wdmfiber]

I'll agree with J_e_d_70; GPU noice can be an aweful experience. It's definitely something that should be reasearched before making a purchase. I think unksol has been lucky and never ended up with a "hair dryer" in his case. The worst I've ever read about were the reference GTX 470 and 480.

Anyway, I've only read good things about the HIS IceQ Radeon cards. They do look a bit weird, kind of like a motor cycle chain guard(as one article mentioned). But the design really works well. It draws air from both sides of the blower (kind of hard to see in pics).

I'll also have to check out the DirectCUII design as mention by mclovits.

And I see there are several reviews of the IceQ 7870 on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkOZhwutP-o

 

[unksol]

Lol. my first case from 2003 I used for 7 years had 7 80mm fans. And 2 4850s at one point. I am not sure it hit "hair dryer" but it definitely got up there. Maybe its just me it does not bother. But I do live alone at the moment.

I really can't see a "modern" gpu being "loud" relative to that setup though

 

[siviline]

Best answer selected by siviline.