In contrast, my fanless ECS 9600GT (95w, preinstalled Accelero cooler) idles at 50C in the same case and doesn't go much above 60C under load. Even at the lowest speed 25%, it's audible above my 3 WD Green drives and 3 120mm case and CPU fans in my Antec P182 case (PSU is Seasonic X650). The Sapphire HD6850 is not even remotely quiet. Pitty that the PCS+ 6850 probably won't be available in local shops. That should provide some decent performance for fairly low dB. I am even considering to buy another 6850 for CF, both maybe 10-15% underclocked hoping that they would stay below 85-90 C with 45% fan speed. Sapphire 6850 + FurMark + quiet is near impossible. I consider temps in 80 - 85 C a good compromise for the quietness.
SAPPHIRE TRIXX VS. MSI AFTERBURNER FULL
Using this profile having the 6850 fan set to 45% the temperatures never stepped above 85C even at full load (during gameplay). However with added 120mm low rpm fan blowing in front of the card (for better airflow in p182) I was able to set what I would call "quiet 6850 fan profile" using Afterburner. Note that default fan control will spin the fan somewhere between 50%-55% during normal gameplay (depending on the case airflow). So 45% is probably the limit I would (again subjectively) call as "quiet". Here is a little (subjective) comparison of my PSU, Nexus reference fan and HD 6850 < < < Nexus 120mm 1060rpm(12V) < 50% the Sapphire fan is clearly dominating over the Nexus fan loudness. As far as silent load goes - it is not silent with default fan control. So this is definitely a "hardwired" limitation of the fan but I guess 25% should be good enough for almost everyone even here on SPCR if silent idle is what they are looking for. Most fans are PWM controlled anyway though, so even if you set 0%, the fan will still likely be spinning.Įven when set to 0% or any other value below 25%, gpu-z still reports it as if 25% was set (and the fan is indeed spinning even at 0%). KayDat wrote:You can set fanspeed down to 0% in Afterburner, but you have to set your own fan speed curves under settings. It could be that my (1.5 year old) Enermax PSU sample is slightly louder than usual but it's still the quietest PSU I've heard so far. I should be probably getting quieter PSU to fully appreciate how quiet the Sapphire card is at idle. I will probably check at which % / rpm the VGA compares to Nexus 1000 rpm just to give you an impression what levels of noise you can expect during intense gaming. At 45% and 1890rpm the VGA fan still feels quieter than Nexus 120mm 1000rpm (compared from memory). Only at 45% the VGA fan has clearly taken over. Even with VGA fan = 40% 1555rpm and closed case the PSU fan still feels slightly louder.
![sapphire trixx vs. msi afterburner sapphire trixx vs. msi afterburner](https://www.techpowerup.com/img/16-08-25/114a.jpg)
With the p182 case closed the VGA at idle would be probably hardly audible even with passive PSU. the HD68 rpm, here the PSU fan sounds considerably louder. When I disconnected all mechanical hardrives and fans keeping just fan in PSU Enermax MODU 82+ 525W 530 rpm vs. I can second that the noise level with fan at 25% is really low.
SAPPHIRE TRIXX VS. MSI AFTERBURNER DRIVERS
Setting it lower in ATI drivers won't change rmp, MSI afterburner does not allow lower value than 25% According to gpu-z the minimal rpm of the fan = 25% rpm. My first impressions are very good so far. Hi everyone, this is quite helpful thread - I decided to buy my own Sapphire 6850 based on this info. Hopefully, this can/will be resolved quickly in a new driver. If while gaming a youtube video (I'm assuming all flash or other similar h/w acceleration) is open, even if paused, the card will clock to 300mhz. There is an issue with the card clocking while gaming. I don't know what the max safe temp is for these cards. On the other hand, it might be possible to get lower load noise if one is willing to go to higher temperatures. During gaming, the noise increase is small enough that I don't notice it unless I'm specifically listening for it. I'm running 3x 1150RPM Gentle Typhoons in a P183 (2 intake + 1 CPU.) At idle, it's not audible over the case fans. There's too many variables with my system setup, etc.
![sapphire trixx vs. msi afterburner sapphire trixx vs. msi afterburner](https://i0.wp.com/www.babeltechreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/trixx.jpg)
I can probably go slightly higher, but I have no need to currently. I hit 950 core / 1200 memory on stock voltage. These programs are still in development, but as is, I find Trixx to be functionally feature complete. Thankfully, Trixx worked out of the box for both of those issues. It also didn't restore my OC speeds correctly on reboot (unless I did it incorrectly.) Regardless, not downclocking is a dealbreaker. MSI's was not usable for me, as once I set my core speed, it would no longer properly downclock to idle at 100mhz. Reporting in on a Gigabyte 6850.Overall, I'm very happy with the performance increase and noise decrease compared to my reference 8800GTS 320MB.įor overclocking purposes, I found that I preferred Trixx.