I'm looking for a GTX 970 to replace my aging 570 in a new mini-ITX Inwin 901 build (which I'll add to the build log forum when I get a chance). One of my primary concerns is noise (and keeping said noise low). Unfortunately I'm fairly sure that the Asus Strix 970 and MSI 970 Gaming cards with semi-passive cooling are too high for my case, so my question is: which is the next quietest card in the 970 range (especially at idle)? I'm currently considering the Asus 970 Direct CU mini and Gigabyte 970 Gaming G1 as I know both of those will fit - does anyone know which of these is quietest, or can anyone suggest any others I should be considering? Many thanks!
This one from MSI is generally considered the quietest. The fans are switched off up to 65°C, and even when they activate they remain next to silent.
As I mentioned, unfortunately the MSI Gaming 4G is too high for my Inwin 901 case (the heatpipes extend too far above the card)
My bad, I didn't read your post properly when I was approving it Any reason why you wouldn't consider the stock cooler? It's quiet and ideal for a small case what with the dumping of hot exhaust.
This one. Basically Gibbo at OCUK approached a Chinese OEM and asked them to make a 970 to Nvidia's exact stock specification. It's a lovely cooler, I have one on the 980 and its amazingly unintrusive.
I have Palit Jetstream (780) and have to say this is the quietest card I had in my live. It says Jet - but never heard it go loud. Of course I don't know how would it act in small closed case, but from what I have experienced it is quiet for me.
Would you entertain / have you got room for a closed loop liquid cooler? That would definitely be quiet!
I've not really thought about that, and not something I know much about. My case only has 2x 120mm fan mounts, one of which is already taken up with an AIO Corsair cooler as exhaust. Is a closed loop GPU cooler the same principle? If so unlikely to be able to fit another radiator as an intake...
Having just revisited the reviews of the In-Win 901, it's only reinforced my opinion that the stock cooler I linked above is your best choice. Without a blower cooler exhausting your heat out of that case it's going to be a little oven during gaming, with all of the heat passing through your Corsair rad. In turn your CPU temps will go up. Also the stock cooler has green backlit writing on the side, which will look nice though your tempered glass. Out of interest, what 570 are/were you using before? I note that the TDP on the 570 is 219W versus just 145 on the 970, so it will dump out nearly a third less heat whatever you choose.
Upon reflection I am going to side with shirty on this one. The LEad logo does look awesome, I will miss that about the 690...
Thanks for the advice guys. My 570 is a Gainward Phantom, but not installed yet (this is a new build) so no idea of temps etc. Blower style sounds like it makes sense (although apparently people have mounted Gigabyte Gaming G1 cards without any major temp issues). My only issue with the 970 that you have suggested is the glowing green LED - do you know if it is possible to turn this off!? Won't go so nicely with my black/red scheme (Maximus Impact and Corsair AX PSU) I think!
You can switch it off in the driver iirc. Would be worth installing the 570 in there and doing a bit of stress testing to get an idea of temps.
I 100% would have picked that 970 if it was available when I bought mine (just got the stock EVGA one)
In fairness I've heard that the EVGA blower is also very quiet, I think the biggest advantage of the Nvidia version is the look of it. Utterly wasted in my Node but I know it's in there At least EVGA still offer a blower option of their own, not many Nvidia partners do these days unless a stock version is readily available.
Yes, the GEFORCE GTX on the spine of the card can be turned off on all cards that have the lighting. You need to install the GeForce Experience software though.
The Logo can be disabled, dimmed, or any number of things, from within the Geforce Experience control panel (so if you do not have that installed, it will default to constant 50% brightness). If it doesn't match your colour scheme, it's not that hard to change the logo colour.
