Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB, this one any good?

Is this card REALLY quiet in 2d/idle?
Few months back I was buying HD5850 - I decided to buy Gigabyte HD5850 OC which sported a similar dual fan cooling solution: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354#ov
I was happy with the purchase right until I turned on the computer - it was loud.
Apparently, the default fanspeed for 2D/idle was 55% (or some similarly high number) - the temps were very low, but the card was really loud (I have a very quiet PC). It was imposible to set the fan to lower speed using software methods (Afterburner). Supposedly Gigabyte was aware of that and they were working on a bios update, but I did not hold my breath so I
returned the card and took Sapphire HD5850 instead which turned out to be quiet in both idle and load (fanspeed under 3dmark vantage did not exceed 30%, and the temp never exceeded 70 degrees Celsius).

So that's why I am asking - did gigabyte made the same mistake twice? I know that "noise" is extremely subjective issue, so perhaps I can ask a different question - what fanspeed is the afterburner/gpu-z showing in 2d/idle and what is the temp then? (Same for load).
 
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Different fan and design. Default idle is 40% -- can't hear the fan at all over case fans. At 70, which is what I have it forced at full time, and still can't hear it. I tested it at 100, it's audible, not not "loud" at all. It's a very, very quiet fan design overall. It isn't silent, but I would bet it is the quiestest of all the 460 offerings that currently exist.

Idle temp with fan @ 40 was in the mid 30s, I can't remember exactly, but same as with 70% fan. It's a cold, quiet card. Love it.
 
And yes I still have the problem with controlling the fan speed, it works intermittently and sometimes doesn't seem to be working at all, but fortunately the default card profile is very slow at ramping up the speed -- @ 71C the fan has just passed 55%.
 
Even at 90% fan on my Gigabyte 1GB GTX 460, I can only hear air whoosh noise, not the fans (which is about the same loudness overall as my entire computer :eek: and isn't really audible over the rest of anything)... at 50% it's dead-silent, and 30%-40% which is all that's really required at stock to keep it cool, it's not audible to me even putting my head a foot from the case.
 
Thanks a lot for your feedback, guys! I'm inclined to buy this card, but in the store where I plan to buy it it is currently on backorder, but they have Gainward GS card available immediately. Any noise-related feedback on this? :)

From what I read on fudzilla and Xbitlabs, Gainward card is supposed to be quiet.

Just to let you know about my (very low ;) ) noise tolerance - I currently have GTX460 1GB Palit Sonic (not Platinum) card and it is audible for me on anything above 45% and really loud (relatively) on anything above 50%.
 
From the sound of your noise tolerance, you may not like the Gigabyte card at the fan speeds I do :)... the Gainward cards are identical to the Palit ones, as far as I know they are made by the same people. This includes the fan.
 
Yeah, I know about the palit/gainward thing, but from what I know both Gainward GS and GS GLH have the same cooling solution which includes heatpipes, while Palit Sonic and Sonic Platinums do not (Sonic does not have heatpipes). Also, the cooling cases look a bit different on Sonic and on Gainward, but I do not know about the fan, I would not be surprised if it was the same.

As for the gigabyte fans speeds - I understand that it has to be loud at high speeds, but what I am looking for is a card that is quiet in 2d/idle and also can be quiet under load.

To give an example, I had Sapphire 5850 card (non toxic, but with a non-reference cooler similar to the one on toxic model) and this card would maintain 20% fan speed in 2d/idle (with a temp below 40 degrees celsius) and which also did not exceed 70 degrees under load whlie at the same time maintainin fanspeed under 50%, which meant that it was super-silent in both load and idle. I am hoping that I can find a similar card among the GTX460 family.
 
Only one way to find out ;) I will be shortlisting the cards to Gainward GS and Gigabyte OC, both 1GB. Hopefully if one of the cards turns out to be too loud, the store will let me swap.

BTW. What is the lowest 2d/idle fanspeed in automatic mode - is it 40%? And does it go up when you start a movie playback (palit sonic with the unpatched bios would do that).
 
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Simplex said:
but I do not know about the fan, I would not be surprised if it was the same.
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It wouldn't surprise me if they were the same fan, they've even got the same paintjob but with different colors (one fades red to black the other fades yellow to red, but the style is identical). But they are mounted differently.
 
Simplex said:
Yeah, I know about the palit/gainward thing, but from what I know both Gainward GS and GS GLH have the same cooling solution which includes heatpipes, while Palit Sonic and Sonic Platinums do not (Sonic does not have heatpipes). Also, the cooling cases look a bit different on Sonic and on Gainward, but I do not know about the fan, I would not be surprised if it was the same.

As for the gigabyte fans speeds - I understand that it has to be loud at high speeds, but what I am looking for is a card that is quiet in 2d/idle and also can be quiet under load.

To give an example, I had Sapphire 5850 card (non toxic, but with a non-reference cooler similar to the one on toxic model) and this card would maintain 20% fan speed in 2d/idle (with a temp below 40 degrees celsius) and which also did not exceed 70 degrees under load whlie at the same time maintainin fanspeed under 50%, which meant that it was super-silent in both load and idle. I am hoping that I can find a similar card among the GTX460 family.
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I'm not so sure. From the initial round of cards, it seems like all the GTX 460 have a minimum fan speed of 40%...so if you want slower, you're going to have to provide the hsf.

But let's put this in-perspective: my stock cooler is VERY quiet at 40% fan speed - so quiet that it gets drowned-out by my Intel retail cooler. And the fan remains at 40% even at load, making this one of the quietest stock video cards I've ever owned.
 
defaultluser said:
I'm not so sure. From the initial round of cards, it seems like all the GTX 460 have a minimum fan speed of 40%...so if you want slower, you're going to have to provide the hsf.

But let's put this in-perspective: my stock cooler is VERY quiet at 40% fan speed - so quiet that it gets drowned-out by my Intel retail cooler. And the fan remains at 40% even at load, making this one of the quietest stock video cards I've ever owned.
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Yeah but the stock Intel cooler is a noisy piece of junk :p At least it has been on the past 3 I've owned (and replaced soon after).
 
I found another review that praises Gigabyte cooling solution as both quiet, and efficient:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/13
This refers to the 768MB version, but i think the same cooler is on 1GB version. In their review Guru3d also experiences high temps and is a bit louder than the rest - it is even more pronounced with the non-Platinum model which has no heatsinks and no copper.

defaultluser said:
I'm not so sure. From the initial round of cards, it seems like all the GTX 460 have a minimum fan speed of 40%...so if you want slower, you're going to have to provide the hsf.
Click to expand...
No, 40% is fine for me - the problem starts when the speed goes up under load - that was happening with Palit Sonic model - fanspeed would quickly go up above 50% (temps above 70 Celsius) and the card was loud.

But let's put this in-perspective: my stock cooler is VERY quiet at 40% fan speed - so quiet that it gets drowned-out by my Intel retail cooler. And the fan remains at 40% even at load, making this one of the quietest stock video cards I've ever owned.
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If the fanspeed does not increase over 40% even at load, then it is a remarkable achievement indeed!
That's actually a great question to ask to Gigabyte owners - Under load, how much the fanspeed increases from the default 40%? (and what is the temperature).

Tudz said:
Yeah but the stock Intel cooler is a noisy piece of junk :p At least it has been on the past 3 I've owned (and replaced soon after).
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Intel stock coolers are quite decent (and quiet) on two conditions:
1) you don't OC (yeah, right ;) )
2) you enable PMW speed control

I had 2 or 3 intel coolers which I was using for the short time before I ordered "proper" cooling solutions, and they worked surprisingly well, even the "30mm tall" ;) cooler from i5-750
 
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If I leave my Gigabyte 1gb under auto fan control it ramps up very, VERY slowly and only reaches around 55% speed under full load even for long periods of time (72C max with Kombustor).

Edit: let me run the test again with my new overclocks, my old results were with 800/1600/2000. 10 minutes.

Edit2:

autofan82516502000.jpg
 
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Simplex said:
Intel stock coolers are quite decent (and quiet) on two conditions:
1) you don't OC (yeah, right ;) )
2) you enable PMW speed control

I had 2 or 3 intel coolers which I was using for the short time before I ordered "proper" cooling solutions, and they worked surprisingly well, even the "30mm tall" ;) cooler from i5-750
Click to expand...

I can't stand the intel stock coolers. In recent history a pentium 4, E6600 and an i5 750. They aren't too bad with PWM enabled assuming your room temperature is, like, below 20C and you dont put them under any load, lol. The E6600 couldn't keep below 60C in the summer (which was the default warning temperature) even at stock clocks. The i5 was just whiny and annoying pitch.

Yeah I'm fussy about noise :p But my computer sits in the room I sleep in and is often on all night, as well as I study long hours on my computer and the drone is distracting, especially if its at an annoying pitch.

With great coolers out there like the Megahalems and Xigmatek S1283 going so cheap, I dont know why you wouldn't swap it out. A few bucks for the gain of silence and 40% overclock, yes please. ;)
 
I am all for non reference CPU coolers, I ditched my boxed ones long ago, I just think they weren't that horrible for an Average Joe.
I am also fussy about noise and my PC is so silent that you can sleep in the same room with it. And because of my fussiness I am asking all that annoying questions about fan noise of GT460 ;)

Requiem99, thanks a lot for the screens! This looks very promising silence-wise.
May I ask what is the fan behavior (and temp) when you fire up 3dmark vantage? I am asking about vantage because I have comparison with behavior of Palit Sonic under vantage - the temperature would immediately rise and loudness too. If that was Palit Sonic on your screen, the temperature would probably be over 80, and fanspeed over 60. When I tried manually throttling Palit's fan at 50% at all times, the temperature exceeded 90 in 3dmark vantage (and I have a large and well ventilated case).

I will most probably pick up the Gigabyte model tomorrow, I'm hoping that I would be ableset a max fanspeed in Afteburner fan profiles for around 50% and just forget about it :)
 
Ran game test 1 only due to heat dissipation between tests rending results inaccurate for our purposes, if you want a full run I can do that too.

Max fan: 45%
Max heat: 63C
 
And normally I also run fan forced (for me @ 70 usually) but this card doesn't need it at all, I'm leaving it on auto. The auto settings are so conservative forced is totally unnecessary. The fan does not go up past 60% while on auto in ANY situation at my quite respectable overclock, and the temp never exceeds the low 70s. That is amazing.
 
Did I mention all of these tests are with the Storm Sniper 3x120mm case fans on the lowest setting?

:eek:
 
Test 1 is cool, I when I was testing my palit I was also using only test 1.
Thanks for performing the test, I appreciate it :) These results are awesome, especially compared to Palit Sonic.
I am hopefully assuming that fanspeed of 40-45% is as quiet as it gets? :) (Because even the palit fan was quiet on 40-45%).

I remember that the dual fan Gigabyte HD5850 OC model had a quirk when the fanspeed would not go lower than 55%, making the card loud in idle - looks like it is not the case with this model. fortunately.

EDIT: I was just about to ask you I the rest of your fans was quiet :) I know that Freezer is quiet because I used it for a long time.

EDIT2: Just read your last post on previous page - I previously missed it.
The automatic fanspeed vs temp under load is so amazing, that only two hypothetical explanations are possible:
1) The two fans are so powerful (and loud ;) ) that even on 40% the temp is low (but the noise is high) ;)
2) Gigabyte created a great cooling solution which is very efficient at low fanspeed (and quiet as a result)
 
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Simplex said:
No, Test 1 is cool, I when I was testing my palit I was also using only test 1.
Thanks for performing the test, I appreciate it :) These results are awesome, especially compared to Palit Sonic.
I am hopefully assuming that fanspeed of 40-45% is as quiet as it gets? :) (Because even the palit fan was quiet on 40-45%).

I remember that the dual fan Gigabyte HD5850 OC model had a quirk when the fanspeed would not go lower than 55%, making the card loud in idle - looks like it is not the case with this model. fortunately.
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40% appears to be the lowest, however you cannot tell the difference externally between 40 and 70. At 70 it is still near silent. It is by far the quietest enthusiast card I've ever seen (that I can remember), and I've been here since the start (Voodoo, Riva/TNT, etc).
 
Yes, all my fans are very quiet. If I can get Rivatuner to force the 460 fans properly (Afterburner won't) I'll try to post some mp3s of the different fan speeds for comparison.
 
Bleh Rivatuner won't even detect the card properly (figured, but had to test). Any other programs for forcing fan speed? RT and Afterburner are the only two I use.
 
requiem99 said:
Yes, all my fans are very quiet. If I can get Rivatuner to force the 460 fans properly
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I think RivaTuner is not compatible with the latest graphics cards and drivers, Unwinder is focusing on development of MSI Afterburner now (which I fully understand, because he gets paid for that, as opposed to free work on RT)

(Afterburner won't)
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Am I reading it wrong, or does that mean that Afterburner has problem with fanspeed control of Gigabyte 460GTX card?

EDIT:
requiem99 said:
Bleh Rivatuner won't even detect the card properly (figured, but had to test). Any other programs for forcing fan speed? RT and Afterburner are the only two I use.
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There's also EVGA precision but it's bascially the same thing as Afterburner. I thought afterburner works well with fan control - I currently have GTX460 palit sonic and I was able to control the fan as much as I wanted (with the know restriction of not being able to lower it under 40%).
 
Simplex said:
EDIT2: Just read your last post on previous page - I previously missed it.
The automatic fanspeed vs temp under load is so amazing, that only two hypothetical explanations are possible:
1) The two fans are so powerful (and loud ;) ) that even on 40% the temp is low (but the noise is high) ;)
2) Gigabyte created a great cooling solution which is very efficient at low fanspeed (and quiet as a result)
Click to expand...

It is amazing. Totally fucking amazing. It's #2 all the way.
 
Simplex said:
I think RivaTuner is not compatible with the latest graphics cards and drivers, Unwinder is focusing on development of MSI Afterburner now (which I fully understand, because he gets paid for that, as opposed to free work on RT)


Am I reading it wrong, or does that mean that Afterburner has problem with fanspeed control of Gigabyte 460GTX card?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am aware of Unwinder's relation to RT and AB but I had to test RT anyway since I've used it for so long and hate to give it up. Afterburner is nice, but you are reading me correct -- I do have problems forcing fanspeed for GTX 460 by Gigabyte. I can force any setting 40-70, but nothing else seems to work. 39 or less, and 71 or more, and it instantly reverts back to the previous setting.

Only 3 possibilities here, as I see it:

AB reads fan speed incorrectly, so 40-70 is actually 40-100. 70 is still near silent though, so this seems unlikely.

or

AB reads and sets speed properly, but cannot go past 70 because of some incompatibility or bug in either AB or Gigabyte BIOS.

or

Gigabyte's card has no fan speed setting higher than 70. A possibility, but probably remote.
 
It is a curiosity, but hardly a problem. I can't overheat the card even with the fan at 70, even in a hot room with case fans on low, even during stress testing, so it is a strange and irritating bug, but moot.
 
EVGA precision tool reads 40-70 as being the only possible settings, so it must be the card. You are apparently stuck with a silent card, like it or not! :)

Damn that is some quality engineering! I love you Gigabyte!!
 
Incidentally I also have fan tach results in EVGA's tool

40% = 1560
70% = 2730

2730 RPM is 100% it is just labeled/reported wrong. I'd bet money on it.
 
Oh no, a silent card, Not what I was expecting! ;)

It may be some kind of a bug, I remember reading about this 70% issue in one of the numerous GTX460 reviews but I do not rememer neiter which site was doing the review nor which card was reviewed. If I find it, I will post it here.

EDIT: Pity that Afterburner does not display tach speed. I must admit that 1500rpm seems relatively high to me (I would expect some audible noise at that RPM) but perhaps the fans are simply well designed. Or perhaps you should divide the number in half because there are two fans ;)
 
I'm trying to record with a microphone but I can't get a good comparison. My voice in the mic (whispering) is louder than the fan at 2730 RPM. Safe to say that, even at full power, this is a whisper quiet cooling solution. I'll post an mp3 anyway so you can get some idea. Hold on.
 
http://www.mediafire.com/?8v0c9u1ped0csg5

Sorry for length and bad quality, I'm not currently setup for this type of thing (even had to use the built in Windows 7 sound recorder which totally sucks ass).

Edit: And I actually put the mic about 2 inches from the 460 fan, not 8. You just couldn't hear it over the case fans 8 inches away.

Edit2: Heh I accidentally said GTX 260 at the end. Should have said 460.
 
Let me also throw in a quote from Guru3D review of this card (but the 768mb model, same cooler):
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 768MB - The cooling design is excellent. It allows the card to come pre-overclocked yet keeps the card incredibly silent yet within very lovely noise levels, as you cannot hear this card whatsoever. Even overclocked this card will amaze you in both cooling performance and noise levels (in a positive fashion of course).
Click to expand...

I would also like to add it was the quietest card reviewed (tied with 2 others) and the second coolest running.
 
However I don't think their sound test is accurate, it lists the Gigabyte GTX 285 as quieter, when I have personally used that card and know this is factually incorrect. In another thread someone also mentioned that the delta shows the ambient noise during testing was much too high.
 
Summary though is the same. It's quiet, "silent" to some, just "quiet" to others, but far below average in noise output no matter what measurement you use. The MSI 460 boasts the same properties and is also an excellent buy, but I prefer the cooling solution and the brand of Gigabyte. Either one is a great choice.

Edit: Just doing a little more noise comparison since I have a GTX 260 in another rig I'm testing here, there is no comparison. The GTX 260 (reference) is literally 8-10x louder at 100% than the Gigabyte 460. Even 50% on the 260 is louder than the Gigabyte at full power (2700-2800 RPM), you can clearly make out the turbine whine outside the case starting around 50-60% but you can -barely- hear the 460 even at max.

Gigabyte has created something really special here.
 
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