Will a powerful GPU only be loud while gaming?

[vargonian]

I have a pretty basic question.  So... I am building an HTPC for my girlfriend (in a Node 202 case, if that matters), but I also want to make it gaming-capable.  She doesn't play games at all, and will only use it for watching TV/movies (either streaming or local).  She will have zero tolerance for a loud box by the TV, though.  

 

My question is: If I put a somewhat beefy GPU in there (let's say a GTX 2070 Super), will it cause the system to be loud even when playing video (or god forbid, when idle)?  Or will it only get loud while gaming?  If it's only loud while gaming, that's totally fine.

 

Thank you!

[Mira Yurizaki]

If it's a custom cooler board, they typically come with a zero RPM fan mode when the GPU is idling and they only turn on the fans when its at a certain temperature.

[Gamer Schnitzel]

Yes but you need to really look into the specific GPU that you will be buying. There are so many kinds of them. Even the powerful ones have versions where they only have 1 fan which will run even at no load. Additionally this is not just about the load but the temps. GPUs dont wait for you to play games to start spinning up, they wait for their temps to go up. If you're gonna use a shitty case with no airflow the GPU will be noisy even if you don't ever start a game on it.

Try to find a "beefy" GPU with proper cooling and make sure whatever case you use has proper airflow and put the box somewhere where the holes aren't blocked and you should be fine.

[Mooshi]

Is this actually for her or low key for you to play with lmao

[vargonian]

7 minutes ago, Gamer Schnitzel said:

GPUs dont wait for you to play games to start spinning up, they wait for their temps to go up.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this actually--so it's theoretically possible for the fans on the GPU to kick in even if some other component is causing the case (or GPU, rather) to be hot?

I've heard that the Node 202 can be kind of an oven, so that's why I'm nervous about it.  Here is my parts list, actually.  I'm told the Ryzen 7 3700X runs cooler than the Intel equivalent but I'm new to AMD processors.
 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Xq4Cdm

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($309.99 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler  ($39.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  ($223.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 5 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($149.94 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card  ($499.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: Corsair SF 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply  ($119.99 @ Corsair) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 54.97 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($19.95 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 54.97 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($19.95 @ Amazon) 

 

 

[MegaDave91]

17 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

If it's a custom cooler board, they typically come with a zero RPM fan mode when the GPU is idling and they only turn on the fans when its at a certain temperature.

This

[Jimkirk363]

I have a 1080 and i play Age of Empires 1 and 2 Definitive Editions, World of War Ships & City Skylines and at the moment the side of my system is off and i cant hear a peep from it thankfully touch wood.

[vargonian]

6 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Is this actually for her or low key for you to play with lmao

Arrgh, you're echoing my girlfriend.   She is already accusing me of just getting this for myself, but if it were for myself it would be a full-fledged gaming tower with an RTX 2080 Ti.  She watches TV and movies every day, waaaay more than I do; it's her favorite pasttime.  But she's been relying on an old, slow Roku stick for years now and I want to vastly improve her experience.  Realistically I will probably account for about 5% of the usage of this HTPC, when I want to immerse myself in a game like Raft or when we have company over and we want to play Jackbox Party Pack (which of course requires a ton of graphics processing power ).

[Mooshi]

3 minutes ago, vargonian said:

Arrgh, you're echoing my girlfriend.   She is already accusing me of just getting this for myself, but if it were for myself it would be a full-fledged gaming tower with an RTX 2080 Ti.  She watches TV and movies every day, waaaay more than I do; it's her favorite pasttime.  But she's been relying on an old, slow Roku stick for years now and I want to vastly improve her experience.  Realistically I will probably account for about 5% of the usage of this HTPC, when I want to immerse myself in a game like Raft or when we have company over and we want to play Jackbox Party Pack (which of course requires a ton of graphics processing power ).

Nothing wrong with more power lol

[vargonian]

14 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Nothing wrong with more power lol

Yeah, exactly!   I was initially going to get a 1660 Super which would be plenty powerful I'm sure, but then I thought: "Well, if I got something even more powerful it would just open up more options".  But then I worried about heat/fan noise implications of that, which is what led me here.