nVidia 6880 Ultra - how noisy are they?

[viper_larry]

Building my own high power PC but just can't decide on the graphics card. I will probably get an SLi motherboard and the plan was to add one nVidia 6800 Ultra card now and another next year if I need too. However, all the reviews I read say all 6800 Ultra's are noisy.

In this month's PC Pro, they review the 'Gigabyte GV-RX80L256V Radeon X800XL' which does remarkably well, good value and above all, has NO fans. Therefore this would be a silent option.

I play Far Cry a lot and have MOHPA and Brothers in Arms that I haven't started until I upgrade.

Anyone here got a 6800 Ultra and are they really that noisy?

[_dobbo_]

Can the ATI card do SLI though?

I've got an SLI motherboard with two 6600GT's in it and it's damn noisy.

So much so that a water cooling kit is high on my list of crap I want but don't need!

[squirrelz]

I've got a 6800GT and it's pretty quiet. They can adjust the speed of the fan to the level of cooling required, so when you're just browsing websites etc, it runs slowly, and when you're playing HL2, its running faster, but I still don't really notice it.

My previous card was a Geforce 4 Ti4400, with a Zalman Fanless heatsink on it, so I'm used to a silent video card.

[Zod]

My 6800 Ultra makes no more noise than the quiet Zalman fan+heatsink on my processor or the low fan speed high-end GlobalWin power supply.

[_dobbo_]

In fairness to clarify my earlier post - there's nothing to suggest it's the GFX cards that make my machine noisy - it has after all got 7 other fans in it as well....

[Fish]

I've just bought an X800XT with an artic cooler and I'm well pleased.

[Chim450]

I have a 6800 GT overclocked with an arctic cooling fan. I must say it is not that noisy, and it kicks arse even in 1600x1200 with all the detail on in HL2, Doom3 and joint ops.

[viper_larry]

Doesn't sound like they are too noisy then?

No-one got or seen one of the new silent Gigabit cards?

Lastly, any recommendations which 6800 Ultra card is a good one to go for - MSI, XFX, etc...

[Zod]

I've had an MSI 6800 Ultra for a year and have been very happy with it.

[viper_larry]

Zod said:

I've had an MSI 6800 Ultra for a year and have been very happy with it.

Would you say the fan was any noisier than say the PSU fan or case fans?

[Zod]

less noisy than PSU and case fans - I don't actually know what it sounds like, because I can't hear it above the others.


>> Edited by Zod on Wednesday 11th May 17:34

[stuh]

I found my 6800 ultra incredibly noisy when i first got it. I would have prefered the ATI option, but sadly their X800 didn't have dual DVI, which i need to run my panels.

Ended up going to www.quietpc.com and now my PC is virtually silent, due to zalman fans on the GF and CPU, together with a fanless PSU

[viper_larry]

UPDATE: (for anyone that's interested!)

Bought the XFX 6800 Ultra and yep, it was noisy! Got a Zalman fan from QuietPC and made a big difference

Full spec below:

Casetek CS-C1020-2A-SM iQ-Eye
480W Tagan 2Force SLi Ultra Quiet
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI, ATX, DDDR400
AMD Athlon 64 4000 32/64Bit CPU 90Nm
2GB (2x1GB)Corsair, DDR400, non-ECC
2 x 74Gb Western Digital Raptor RAID 0
2 x 300Gb Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 10 RAID 1
256Mb XFX PCI-E 6800Ultra DDR3 Dual
Sony Black 16x DVD-ROM + 48x CD-ROM
Sony DWD 26 Black 16x16x4 DVD±RW
Mitsumi FA404M 1.44 Black FDD+Int USB

[stuh]

Bl00dy hell!

You had any requests for computer time from the national weather center?

[_dobbo_]

viper_larry said:

UPDATE: (for anyone that's interested!) Bought the XFX 6800 Ultra and yep, it was noisy! Got a Zalman fan from QuietPC and made a big difference Full spec below: SUPER BEAST PC

Nice!

[vrooom]

Nice computer i want a new pc.

[judas]

Looking to get a Gainward 6800 Ultra Golden Sample very soon - anyone got one of these?

[MEMSDesign]

I've got the 6800 Ultra Go in my laptop. Plays HL2 and Far Cry in native screen resolution no probs (1920x1200).

It's quiet and portable. Shame I never have time to play on it.