Summary of noise levels
This is a recap of all graphic cards measurements, in which we used a sonometer 10 cm from the graphic card.
Except for the Gigabyte, which is fanless, the best cards are the Leadtek and MSI in PCI Express. Others are quite noisy, but it’s important to note that this noise level can be reduced.
For all graphic cards with temperature monitoring the utility
EXPERTool of Gainward permits changing the fan rotation speed by reducing it in 2D and 3D. It adds a resident program in memory and a new icon to the task bar, but until NVIDIA integrates this into drivers it’s something we will have to put up with.
Of course, it’s always better to directly choose a silent graphic card such as the Gigabyte.
Summary of temperature results
Two graphic cards weren’’t compatible with the temperature monitoring, the MSI and PNY AGP version. Initially, we thought they simply lacked a probe, but they actually have one. It’s just a choice by manufacturer (why, we don’t know) and you just will have to change the bios and follow the method explained here
to this address (in French) at your own risk, to activate the monitoring.
We obtained the following results where the reported temperature was the maximum measured in 10 consecutive 3DMark05 tests via
RivaTuner. RivaTuner provided the temperature graph.
Logically, the warmest graphic card is the fanless Gigabyte. Even if it is still below the protection limit (127°C), we feel this value is quite high. For a long life we advise you to use this graphic card in a well ventilated tower, or even with a fan gently blowing air on the graphic card.
