Cooling

[allenj3]

So I have this build that I've been working on slowly since Christmas and I finally added the graphics card and got a better PSU-

Antec Earthwatts 650W Micro Center - Antec EarthWatts Green Series 650 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply 27654

XFX Radeon HD 6870 XFX Radeon HD 6870 Standard Graphics card - 1 GB - GDDR5 SDRAM

The card works great, I can run shogun 2 total war at ultra without a hiccup. The only problem is that its really loud: Almost hairdryer loud. I was wondering- would it be worth it to get an aftermarket GPU cooler to help this thing out, or should I exchange it for the gigabyte card that has 3 fans, or should I just tough it out? This is my first moderately good Graphics card and I'm not sure how loud they should be...

Thanks,
allenj3

[wade7575]

You could look into a GPU cooler for that card,but if you game alot I would go out and get the best EVGA card you can afford as I have not had any problems with them running loud and if you get an EVGA Lifetime Warranty Card they are OverClocked already and my 570 Card can handle everything I'm throwing at it here is the model number for my card 012-P3-1572-AR


I would get a EVGA Card for many reason's if your sick of the noise first they really look after if there's a problem second right now all the 500 series cards are dropping in price because they just brought out there 600 series.

Also I don't it's wise to buy a current Gen Card for what you pay because it takes the Game developer's a while to take full advantage of the new chipset's when they come plus if you do like I do and buy the best of last year's cards you can buy them at half the price or less and even if you replace your card every 2 year's your still saving money.

Also ATI has gotten better with there Driver support for games but the problem is Nvidia still has a bit better support in my opinion.

[glc]

You should be able to control the fan with the ATI Catalyst software. The 6870 is still an excellent card.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by glc You should be able to control the fan with the ATI Catalyst software. The 6870 is still an excellent card.

I agree and would add that XFX is notorious for this. Sappire and HIS are usually a lot quieter in my experience.

[glc]

If you can return the card without penalty, I would - and get a Sapphire, HIS, or Asus replacement. We do not recommend XFX here, and I guess this is just one more reason to add to the list.

[David M]

A "quiet case" would help as well.

[allenj3]

I'll definitely check to see if I can return it- How do you guys feel about after market coolers? Do you know of any good ones that are relatively inexpensive or are they a bad idea?

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by allenj3 I'll definitely check to see if I can return it- How do you guys feel about after market coolers? Do you know of any good ones that are relatively inexpensive or are they a bad idea?

Not much and they may void the warranty.

[David M]

The sense I get about the oversized aftermarket graphics card coolers is that they are for people who want to overclock their graphics cards, which does not necessarily mean that they are going to be quieter. I would return the card for a know quieter version. This means you want a version that is not being overclocked at all.

[allenj3]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll trade it in