How loud is "loud" for a graphics card?

[hsjj3]

Ever since getting my GTX 960 a few weeks back, I have found myself worrying about temperature and noise. It is my first "proper" GPU purchase, cause I previously had a PCIE-powered GTX 750.
 
I have been looking at reviews on the Internet, and the GTX 960 consistently ranks the lowest in terms of the card temperature and noise produced, when compared to products like the R9 380 and GTX 970.
 
So I've been wondering, am I just being unrealistic in my temperature and noise expectations, coming from a GTX 750? I have the GTX 960 running at 45% fan speed (1750RPM) at 80C. I hear people saying they run their cards with the fan % set to equal the temperature, but I tried it and at 65% the sound gets worryingly loud to my ears.
 
I do usually game at nights, when it is almost pin drop silent as well. During the day, if the TV is on or the ceiling fan is on medium speed, I can't tell when the fan is blowing at 45%.
 
Maybe it is because I have grown up over the years thinking that whenever you hear a loud fan from your PC, things are about to fail. When I used to play RollerCoaster Tycoon 10-15 years ago, my PC used to sound like a jet taking off. One fine day, the entire system just shut off and failed.
 
So anyway, long story short, how loud is your GPU when under load, and is there a need to worry about it?

[Guest]

Whatever is loud to you is the answer.

For me it doesn't matter as I always use a headset but others prefer their pc to be silent. 

[DioOmicida]

As I game with headphones on, there really is no too loud for me.
As long as it's never picked up by the mic, it can get as loud as it wants.
So that's really a personal preference question.

[g12601]

I have a loud intake fan that is causing a lot of noise. My GPU (gtx 950)does cause some of the noise, but the highest temp. I have ever gotten was around 65c. How do you have your fans?

 

[HPWebcamAble]

2 minutes ago, hsjj3 said:

GTX 960 consistently ranks the lowest in terms of the card temperature and noise produced, when compared to products like the R9 380 and GTX 970

It should, as the 960 is a less powerful card, therefore it produces less heat

 

3 minutes ago, hsjj3 said:

I have the GTX 960 running at 45% fan speed (1750RPM) at 80C

That's pretty warm for a GPU. 90 C is when you'd start to worry, but 80 C isn't exactly great. I'd recommend you keep the fan on auto

 

4 minutes ago, hsjj3 said:

long story short, how loud is your GPU when under load, and is there a need to worry about it?

My MSI 970 Twin Frozr is dead silent compared to my Hyper T2 CPU cooler (which is a terrible cooler, I didn't realize how small it was before I bought it!)

There's no need to worry IF your GPU is being adequately cooled

 

What version of the 960 did you buy? The noise depends on the cooler you have on it.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

When I am gaming, I don't really care as long as the card is audible over the game. But at idle, the hdd is the loudest thing in my pc.

[mathijs727]

Even through my headphones my R9 290X can get pretty load.

It does have quite an aggresive fan curve (running at 80%/90% under full load) and a cooler that is a bit mediocre (there's more then enough room to make the fans bigger,  but for some reason they stuck with small fans which are inefficient and noisy).

 

Considering you have a GTX960, it should not be that loud (especially with a decent cooler like MSI Twin Frozer).

What helps too is limiting your framerate in games where you get enough. For example I use AMDs frame rate target control to limit my fps to 150 (144Hz screen).

This way my graphics card doesnt sound like a jet engine is light games like CS:GO and League of Legends.

[HPWebcamAble]

4 minutes ago, mathijs727 said:

it should not be that loud (especially with a decent cooler like MSI Twin Frozer)

I'm guessing he didn't get the Twin Frozr

[Chewique]

Do you have a cheap case? 

[hsjj3]

Again guys, my issue is I have nothing to compare the loudness to, except the GTX 750 which is not considered to be a "serious" card in terms of temperature/fan volume.

 

Looking at GTX 1080 reviews for example, the fan volume seems very high and the temperature is 82C....but I have never experienced what such a high-powered card sounds like.

 

I have the single-fan GTX 960. I think the fan is 92mm. Like I said it runs at 45% ~1750RPM when my temps hit 80C. The default fan profile had it at 40%, so I upped it a bit. 

 

Also, at 45%, it is still not that loud. It's softer than my case fan which is also 92mm and also spins at around 1800RPM. It's just that if I bump up the fan to 60-65% to get my maximum temps under 100% load below 80C...then it sounds like a vacuum cleaner.

 

Simply put, for a single-fan (not blower, it's the normal fan) GPU, at what RPM would you consider it to be loud?

[App4that]

You're looking for a quantitative answer but asking a qualitative question. It's completely up to you.

[swordsm3n]

1 hour ago, HPWebcamAble said:

I'm guessing he didn't get the Twin Frozr

All I have bought for the past few years are msi twin frozr cards, currently have the msi 980 ti 6g, and I can assure you they are not silent. If they are silent, you are not putting them under a decent load. I guess if all you play is minecraft, then sure, they would be silent.

 

To answer your question OP, cards can get fairly loud, and it isnt anything to worry about.

[GtaSeriesFan]

1 hour ago, DioOmicida said:

As I game with headphones on, there really is no too loud for me.
As long as it's never picked up by the mic, it can get as loud as it wants.
So that's really a personal preference question.

Other things are loud  the music i play when gaming.

[s3ns3]

leave it on auto

[Arct1c0n]

1 hour ago, swordsm3n said:

All I have bought for the past few years are msi twin frozr cards, currently have the msi 980 ti 6g, and I can assure you they are not silent. If they are silent, you are not putting them under a decent load. I guess if all you play is minecraft, then sure, they would be silent.

 

To answer your question OP, cards can get fairly loud, and it isnt anything to worry about.

Bullshit. I had a 980Ti Twin Frozen and it ran pretty quiet even with the fan near 80%

[MegaDave91]

I consider Nvidia's reference cooler relatively loud at >60% RPM.

[HPWebcamAble]

4 hours ago, swordsm3n said:

All I have bought for the past few years are msi twin frozr cards, currently have the msi 980 ti 6g, and I can assure you they are not silent. If they are silent, you are not putting them under a decent load. I guess if all you play is minecraft, then sure, they would be silent.

I could see where a 980 ti would push the cooler more, but I'm not playing minecraft, I'm playing Rainbow 6 Siege in max settings. 100 FPS average too.

Though I have a fractal design R4, which has great sound proofing, and a Hyper T2 which drowns out all my other fans under load.

[swordsm3n]

9 hours ago, Arct1c0n said:

Bullshit. I had a 980Ti Twin Frozen and it ran pretty quiet even with the fan near 80%

Bullshit. I HAVE a 980 ti twin FROZR as does my buddy. They are not "pretty quiet" under load. This is 80%. Does this sound pretty quiet?

 

Kind of funny, my GF walked in while I was recording this and even said, "That's loud." LOL

 

[swordsm3n]

6 hours ago, HPWebcamAble said:

I could see where a 980 ti would push the cooler more, but I'm not playing minecraft, I'm playing Rainbow 6 Siege in max settings. 100 FPS average too.

Though I have a fractal design R4, which has great sound proofing, and a Hyper T2 which drowns out all my other fans under load.

You're talking about how quiet a card is in your sound dampened case, pretty sure that isn't what OP is using or he probably wouldn't be here asking what he is.

[HPWebcamAble]

25 minutes ago, swordsm3n said:

Bullshit. I HAVE a 980 ti twin FROZR as does my buddy. They are not "pretty quiet" under load. This is 80%. Does this sound pretty quiet?

This site rated it at 39 decibels under load

"Once the card is in a fully stressed status (in-game) it reaches roughly 38~39 dBA. This is at a silent level, not very audible whatsoever."

 

29 minutes ago, swordsm3n said:

Kind of funny, my GF walked in while I was recording this and even said, "That's loud." LOL

That actually is pretty impeccable timing lol

Isn't it quieter with your side panel on?

 

10 minutes ago, swordsm3n said:

You're talking about how quiet a card is in your sound dampened case, pretty sure that isn't what OP is using

True, though OP asked for our experiences

[swordsm3n]

26 minutes ago, HPWebcamAble said:

This site rated it at 39 decibels under load

"Once the card is in a fully stressed status (in-game) it reaches roughly 38~39 dBA. This is at a silent level, not very audible whatsoever."

 

That actually is pretty impeccable timing lol

Isn't it quieter with your side panel on?

 

True, though OP asked for our experiences

It is quieter, but I dont have a case made to dampen noise. However, it isnt near silent as the video I posted obviously shows. A side panel wont dampen that much noise significantly. Argue all you want, and post what is definitely a paid review all you want, twin frozr is not near silent. I posted my proof.

[hsjj3]

Thanks for the input guys! Guess I just gotta get used to something louder. 

 

What RPM is your 980Ti twin frozr running at?

[leroy94]

i've never had a 980ti but i have owned an R9 290x gigabyte windforce 3x and this thing is loud as all hell, it hits 80c after just a few minutes of gaming, if you want to get rid of the noise then just water cool the card (if the cpu fan isn't giving you any trouble then leave it alone it will cost less), if you can get used to it though that's even better cause it won't cost you a penny.