Keeping 2 HD 4890's quiet

[tinman]

This review on Techpowerup has me seriously considering them as an option for my new build.

The only problem is that they are extremely noisy. Any one know of any good and inexpensive solutions? Iv looked around for good VGA water cooling as well as sound dampening cases.

Would appreciate any input.

 

[Schwartz]

Wow you have LOTS of money

 

[tinman]

I'm buying them though my company, R2400 each at PC international. Which is less than a GTX 295.

Thanks for your insightful input

 

[general_koffi]

You should only need to run the fans at 50%, if your case has decent ventilation. That should be bearable... My single HD4870 is very loud at 100%, but absolutely fine at 50%. It's not like you'll hear it at all with speakers going or headphones on. If you let the fans judge their own speed automatically, you probaly won't hear them at all, but IMO they get a bit hot when left that way.

If you demand absolute silence, then water cooling is your only hope, but it's a real mission IMO.

You must run games at a pretty high resolution to need two HD 4890's in the first place. That's an awesome price you're getting them for, though.

 

[dudewotevr]

You can use ATI Tray Tools to change the card's automatic fan table, or set different speeds for idle and load.

Also you can change the idle clock to something like 500/250 to save power, at 28% fan my 4870 512mb is around 40-45 deg. depending on the weather..
Load I don't let the Fan go above 40-42% (depending on the OC), 70-80 deg. depending on how intensive the game is.
I have profiles of:
2D: 500/250
3D: 750/900
4D: 750/1000
5D: 800/1100
..you can then assign to each game, as it requires, through the profile system and it loads it automatically with the game..
Awesome program, in fact I don't even have CCC installed..

 

[Elev8r]

Try this: http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/t-rad2/product_vga_cooler_trad2.html or http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/vga/002/scvms1000_detail.html

Both work brilliantly and they're supa quiet. Only problem you might have is fitting the T-Rad2 on both cards, there might not be enough space between the two...
Of course, you could look into watercooling, but that's obviously very expensive if you want stuff that works well. (http://www.3dgameman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53463#watercooling)

 

[Nameite]

Get water cooling, its worth it.

Those 4890s are bloody hot

 

[killadoob]

You should only hear the noise when gaming, surely you'll have the sound load so should not be a problem.

 

[I am Penguin]

I'm buying them though my company, R2400 each at PC international. Which is less than a GTX 295.

Thanks for your insightful input

Watercooling FTW. As experiment just ask someone to trip the mains supply while you are at the PC desk and then "feel" the moment of quietness. No alternative.

As another option make sure the case is WELL ventilated as I have found that improving case ventilation, removing heat from the oven (PC box) improves existing GPU ventilation too thus the Gpu fans reduce in speed..

Conclusion
Overall, Nvidia did a good job with the GTX 295. The 55nm GT200 performs well and it's a step in the right direction. It's not very quiet, but not too loud, either, and the power consumption is high, but this is a top of the range card so power consumption is not a priority. However, this is not to say that it's the worst power-hog around, far from it, as it consumes less than HD 4870 X2 in both idle and workload scenarios, which is really impressive, especially after taking today's results into consideration.

Obviously, it has enough power to outperform the HD 4870 X2, but it's hard to make any sort of verdict before we see it in action with finalized drivers and, more importantly, before we see the retail price.

The price is what will make or break it. ATI's HD4870X2 sells for €400, and since a single GTX280 card currently costs over €335. We're not sure about GTX295 pricing, but we're hoping it will sell for around €500.

All in all, it seems like the "performance belt" is getting back to the green corner, but we'll still wait for the final version of this card before we reach our final verdict. However, Nvidia does have an ace up its sleeve for 2009, and you've guessed it, it's Physx.