Am I limited to a Nvidia 1060 for a new quiet game ready card? [Update: 1050 GTX]

[Steven P. Administrators]

I want to upgrade my ageing  Nvidia 560 GTX from 2011, as it makes a lot of noise, even on idle (I have cleaned out as much dust possible about three weeks ago).

 

I found the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING 6GB online for around €270, I don't game much, but I do want the capability in-case I get back into it

 

I would also be open to suggestions of a cheaper, but quieter card that still lets me game on lower settings. I have a dual 4K monitor setup too (hdmi/dvi/vga connection possible).

 

Appreciate any suggestions, I am purchasing from The Netherlands.

 

Update: Lookie here https://www.neowin.net/news/details-leak-of-a-new-entry-level-pascal-card-nvidia-gtx-1050

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

I have a EVGA 1060 and it suits all of my Gaming needs. It cost me $249 but they are hard to come buy. They are selling as fast as pancakes. I got the single fan unit, and it is quiet and I can play any game with it. It will not do what a GTX 1080 will but it is worth the price.

[jnelsoninjax]

The 1060, 1070 or the 1080 would be what you would have to have to run your monitor setup or you could buy the 960 Ti, but you can save some money and buy the 1070 or 1080 for allot less the Titan line is selling for.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Just now, Gary7 said:

I have a EVGA 1060 and it suits all of my Gaming needs. It cost me $249 but they are hard to come buy. They are selling as fast as pancakes. I got the single fan unit, and it is quiet and I can play any game with it. It will not do what a GTX 1080 will but it is worth the price.

Yeah that link I have is for the single fan version too.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Just now, Steven P. said:

Yeah that link I have is for the single fan version too.

I heard that it performs as well as the GTX 980 but ??

[Steven P. Administrators]

4 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

The 1060, 1070 or the 1080 would be what you would have to have to run your monitor setup or you could buy the 960 Ti, but you can save some money and buy the 1070 or 1080 for allot less the Titan line is selling for.

I'm not sure what you mean, the 1080 is selling for over €500 here, and I am looking in the €200 - €300 range. I prefer it to be quiet too

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

The 1060 is quiet and you can set the fan speed using Afterburner or The one from EVGA but I prefer Afterburner and the 1060 fits your budge.

[jnelsoninjax]

Just now, Steven P. said:

I'm not ure what you mean, the 1080 is selling for over €500 here, and I am looking in the €250 - €300 range. I prefer it to be quiet too

All I was suggesting was with your dual 4K monitors you would need something like the 1060 or above just to handle the 4K res. I've got a 1080 and it's really quiet, but I can understand your not wanting to shell out €500+ for a new card! 

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

I do not use a 4k with dual monitors so I do not know , I just use a 23 ' LG. I believe the 1060 will handle the 4k just not sure about two of them. Below are the specs from EVGA

 

http://www.evga.com/products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=f1aefe7f-3b97-444d-9859-ceb772861f3f

 

Resolution & Refresh

Max Monitors Supported: 4

240Hz Max Refresh Rate

Max Digital: 7680x4320

 

I guess it will@Steven P.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Just now, jnelsoninjax said:

All I was suggesting was with your dual 4K monitors you would need something like the 1060 or above just to handle the 4K res. I've got a 1080 and it's really quiet, but I can understand your not wanting to shell out €500+ for a new card! 

Thanks for the clarification. My mobo is a Asus H87-Plus with Intel HD Graphics 4600 onboard, I could not get it to run both screens at 1440p, but the older NVidia 560 GTX supports one screen at 4K and the second with custom setting to 1440p, so they both run at 4K on a card from 2011.. Is it not normal for cards to support dual 4K yet?

btw it's the only reason I installed the 560 again, so that both screens had the same 1440p resolution lol

[jnelsoninjax]

The 980 Ti and the 1080 support dual 4K as far I as remember from my research, but nothing else does. 4K for a monitor is fairly new, technologically speaking, so not allot of support for it (from hardware) yet!

[Steven P. Administrators]

Ehh it isn't 4K after all, it is quad HD (2K)?

 

 

So 2x 2560x1440, my Intel HD 4600 doesn't support both at that screen resolution, but my GeForce 560 GTX (with a little tweaking of custom settings for the second screen) does.

 

 

The other annoying problem I had with onboard Intel GPU is that it detected one of the screens as a TV, so "unplugged" it when I locked the workstation or turned off the screen, resetting all window positions, every time  

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

My 970 happily runs 1440p on my dual ASUS 1440p monitors. That said, I can game in medium-high at 40-60fps depending on the game on the main monitor, and keep Neowin or whatever im browsing on the 2nd monitor.
Fast games like FPS's a 1060 would do the job easy since the graphics are set for face pace anyway (always 60fps and above) - even Battlefield 1 can handle it.
More graphical games like GTAV, Witcher 3 etc in QHD require a 1070 at least for a good frame rate. 
Anyway point is to decide what you want, you need to decide on the games you want to play. Open world - 1080, FPS - 1060 or even a 9xx series.

[Bryan R.]

15 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said:

All I was suggesting was with your dual 4K monitors you would need something like the 1060 or above just to handle the 4K res. I've got a 1080 and it's really quiet, but I can understand your not wanting to shell out €500+ for a new card! 

I'm just saying, the previous generation does 4k just fine. I don't have two 4k monitors, just one 4k and a 1080 running off one GTX 970. Unless there is some limitation I'm not aware of.

[Steven P. Administrators]

1 minute ago, Anarkii said:

My 970 happily runs 1440p on my dual ASUS 1440p monitors. That said, I can game in medium-high at 40-60fps depending on the game on the main monitor, and keep Neowin or whatever im browsing on the 2nd monitor.
Fast games like FPS's a 1060 would do the job easy since the graphics are set for face pace anyway (always 60fps and above) - even Battlefield 1 can handle it.
More graphical games like GTAV, Witcher 3 etc in QHD require a 1070 at least for a good frame rate. 
Anyway point is to decide what you want, you need to decide on the games you want to play. Open world - 1080, FPS - 1060 or even a 9xx series.

Thanks for the reply  although the 970 looks a bit pricey for my needs, I think it would make sense going for the newer 1060 card, they have the 6GB and 2GB offerings, but really and truly I need it to be quiet when it is just idle/desktop mode.. The 560 GTX is anything but, although it is better since I cleaned it out. 

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

If you want a real noisy card try The GTX 460. Man I almost had to get ear plugs.

[Steven P. Administrators]

The 8800 GTS was like a vacuum cleaner  

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

6 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

Thanks for the reply  although the 970 looks a bit pricey for my needs, I think it would make sense going for the newer 1060 card, they have the 6GB and 2GB offerings, but really and truly I need it to be quiet when it is just idle/desktop mode.. The 560 GTX is anything but, although it is better since I cleaned it out. 

No worries mate, the 1060 would be best then since thats what your heart is set on anyway lol. 
ASUS Strix make cards that have fans that only spin up when the card is under load or hits a certain temperature, might be other cards that do it, but I know the Strix line has it. 

[Steven P. Administrators]

3 minutes ago, Anarkii said:

No worries mate, the 1060 would be best then since thats what your heart is set on anyway lol. 
ASUS Strix make cards that have fans that only spin up when the card is under load or hits a certain temperature, might be other cards that do it, but I know the Strix line has it. 

Seems to add another €100 to the price for that tech in the 1060

[Brandon H Supervisor]

hey @Steven P., if you're too worried about fan sound you could always just swap out the fan on the card for a liquid cooling setup

[Andre S. Veteran]

Many GPU coolers nowadays have a semi-passive design where the fans simply stop when possible. Can't really do better than 0dB.

 

The 1060 is a great card but look into the RX 470 and RX 480 as well. So far AMD seems to have the more future-proof architecture (based on early DX12, Vulkan results).

[Draconian Guppy]

relevant:

 

8 minutes ago, Andre S. said:

Many GPU coolers nowadays have a semi-passive design where the fans simply stop when possible. Can't really do better than 0dB.

 

The 1060 is a great card but look into the RX 470 and RX 480 as well. So far AMD seems to have the more future-proof architecture (based on early DX12, Vulkan results).

from that link:

 

http://mutepc.com/2016/07/nvidia-gtx-1080-1070-1060-best-for-silent-pc-gaming/

[Andre S. Veteran]

Sure, with a lower TDP the GTX 10 series should be quieter in general, but the RX 400s aren't bad at all on that front either; nowhere near as problematic as past generations. So they're still worth considering even for a build where quietness matters IMO.

[sinetheo]

3 hours ago, Steven P. said:

I want to upgrade my ageing  Nvidia 560 GTX from 2011, as it makes a lot of noise, even on idle (I have cleaned out as much dust possible about three weeks ago).

 

I found the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING 6GB online for around €270, I don't game much, but I do want the capability in-case I get back into it

 

I would also be open to suggestions of a cheaper, but quieter card that still lets me game on lower settings. I have a dual 4K monitor setup too (hdmi/dvi/vga connection possible).

 

Appreciate any suggestions, I am purchasing from The Netherlands.

I would recommend to switch to an AMD 480. Reason being it is slightly cheaper and performs better with newer titles with Vulcan and DirectX12 like Doom 2016, Hitman absolute, and Dues Ex etc. The 1060 tends to do better with direct x 11 titles.

 

But also I recommend AMD because you mentioned 4k. WIth AMD you can crossfire it if you want better performance later on for 4k gaming that rivals a 1080. Nvidia gimped the 1060 so it can't do SLI

 

I bought the XFX 470. This one is $25 more than the stock AMD cards but they have quieter higher quality fans and a more efficient copper cooler than the other stock cards. Mine is quiet and I can't hear it 

[Steven P. Administrators]

1 minute ago, sinetheo said:

I would recommend to switch to an AMD 480. Reason being it is slightly cheaper and performs better with newer titles with Vulcan and DirectX12 like Doom 2016, Hitman absolute, and Dues Ex etc. The 1060 tends to do better with direct x 11 titles.

 

But also I recommend AMD because you mentioned 4k. WIth AMD you can crossfire it if you want better performance later on for 4k gaming that rivals a 1080. Nvidia gimped the 1060 so it can't do SLI

Yeah sorry, I got confused, my screens are native 2560 x 1440p (2K)? not 4K