How loud is the Radeon 5870?

Taipan · Nov 6, 2011, 07:48 AM

Hi!

I'm thinking about replacing the Radeon 4870 in my Mac Pro 4,1 with a Radeon 5870. Can anybody tell me about the 5870's fan noise compared to the 4870? What bothers me a bit with the 4870 is that while it's not particularly loud, it catches your attention by always spinning up for a moment with every little action you take, like scrolling in Safari. How is the 5870 in comparison?
Thanks for your input!

satcomer · Nov 6, 2011, 10:43 AM

In my 2008 Mac Pro it has been just as quiet as the original card, whisper quiet.

DanielCoffey · Nov 6, 2011, 11:08 AM

My 5870 did not adjust its fan speed from near-silent until I started putting it to work by playing games. The fan noise when at full tilt was audible of course but gradually span down when the game was closed.

I decided to take the plunge and replace the stock cooler with a more efficient and quieter one - the Arctic Cooler Accelero XTREME Plus.

As you will see, I have given fitting pics of it in my MP 2010 as it is a close squeeze.

The new cooler is quieter at idle (though the stock cooler is fairly well behaved too) but this new one is significantly quieter at load and cools down much faster once the load is removed.

derbothaus · Nov 6, 2011, 01:12 PM

I can't really hear mine unless I am booting up or playing a Video game but even then it never goes farther than 1900 RPM on the fan so still super quiet compared to all the other cards I've owned. Mac and PC.

goMac · Nov 6, 2011, 03:29 PM

Not loud at all. If you listen close, you can hear a fan, but I already have 4 hard drives in there anyway, so it's not at all noticeable compared to that.

Kimmo · Nov 6, 2011, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goMac

Not loud at all. If you listen close, you can hear a fan, but I already have 4 hard drives in there anyway, so it's not at all noticeable compared to that.

Same here. Four HD's and the 5870 sitting on my office desk. Not loud.

gpzjock · Nov 7, 2011, 01:41 AM

I used a Sapphire 4870 Vapor-X card before replacing it with a Sapphire Vapor-X HD5870. The 4870 was louder than the 5870 but both were extremely quiet. The Vapor-X cooler is amazing in it's performance I can't recommend them enough. Even when caning either one with WoW on high settings they were hardly audible.

chaosbunny · Nov 7, 2011, 02:29 AM

I can barely hear mine, and my Mac Pro is sitting on the desk. Even when playing games I don't notice it, the fans spin up a little but when listening to the game I don't hear them.

Taipan · Nov 7, 2011, 10:35 AM

Do they also rev up noticably under light load like scrolling in Safari?

donw35 · Nov 7, 2011, 11:12 AM

I only hear mine when playing games and even then it's not noticeable

Kimmo · Nov 7, 2011, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taipan

Do they also rev up noticably under light load like scrolling in Safari?

Not to my ears.

Taipan · 11:58 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Thanks for your many answers!

Nov 6, 2011, 07:48 AM	#1
Taipan macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2003	How loud is the Radeon 5870? Hi! I'm thinking about replacing the Radeon 4870 in my Mac Pro 4,1 with a Radeon 5870. Can anybody tell me about the 5870's fan noise compared to the 4870? What bothers me a bit with the 4870 is that while it's not particularly loud, it catches your attention by always spinning up for a moment with every little action you take, like scrolling in Safari. How is the 5870 in comparison? Thanks for your input!
	0

Nov 6, 2011, 10:43 AM	#2
satcomer macrumors 68020 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Virginia	In my 2008 Mac Pro it has been just as quiet as the original card, whisper quiet. __________________ Mac Book Pro Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz, SuperDrive, 2G RAM, OS X 10.7.4 Mac Pro Dual 2.8 Quad(Rev B.), 14 G RAM, OS X 10.8.2, 23'' LCD iPad 3G, 32 black
	0

Nov 6, 2011, 11:08 AM	#3
DanielCoffey macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Edinburgh, UK	My 5870 did not adjust its fan speed from near-silent until I started putting it to work by playing games. The fan noise when at full tilt was audible of course but gradually span down when the game was closed. I decided to take the plunge and replace the stock cooler with a more efficient and quieter one - the Arctic Cooler Accelero XTREME Plus. As you will see, I have given fitting pics of it in my MP 2010 as it is a close squeeze. The new cooler is quieter at idle (though the stock cooler is fairly well behaved too) but this new one is significantly quieter at load and cools down much faster once the load is removed. __________________ MacPro 5,1: 6 x 3.33 GHz / 12 GB RAM / AMD 7950 3Gb / 120Gb SSD, 240Gb SSD, 500Gb HDD / ACD 27" / APC SMT1000I iPhone 5: 32Gb White / O2 3G / TwigCase Bamboo / BodyGuardz Pure
	0

Nov 6, 2011, 01:12 PM	#4
derbothaus macrumors 68040 Join Date: Jul 2010	I can't really hear mine unless I am booting up or playing a Video game but even then it never goes farther than 1900 RPM on the fan so still super quiet compared to all the other cards I've owned. Mac and PC. __________________ Mac Pro W3680, GTX 680 2GB, 12GB DDR3, SSD; MBP Mid 2012, 2.6GHz Core i7, 16GB DDR3, SSD
	0

Nov 7, 2011, 01:41 AM	#7
gpzjock macrumors 6502a Join Date: May 2009	Flashed ones are good too. I used a Sapphire 4870 Vapor-X card before replacing it with a Sapphire Vapor-X HD5870. The 4870 was louder than the 5870 but both were extremely quiet. The Vapor-X cooler is amazing in it's performance I can't recommend them enough. Even when caning either one with WoW on high settings they were hardly audible.
	0

Nov 6, 2011, 03:29 PM	#5
goMac macrumors 601 Join Date: Apr 2004	Not loud at all. If you listen close, you can hear a fan, but I already have 4 hard drives in there anyway, so it's not at all noticeable compared to that.
	0

Nov 7, 2011, 02:29 AM	#8
chaosbunny macrumors 68000 Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: down to earth, far away from any clouds	I can barely hear mine, and my Mac Pro is sitting on the desk. Even when playing games I don't notice it, the fans spin up a little but when listening to the game I don't hear them. __________________ >> Mac Pro 2010, 2.8 ghz, GTX 670, 16gb, 6tb \| 15" MacBook Pro 2008, 2.5 ghz, 8600m, 4gb, 250gb <<
	0

Nov 7, 2011, 10:35 AM	#9
Taipan Thread Starter macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2003	Do they also rev up noticably under light load like scrolling in Safari?
	0

Nov 7, 2011, 11:12 AM	#10
donw35 macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Los Angeles	I only hear mine when playing games and even then it's not noticeable __________________ 08 Mac Book Pro, 11 Mac mini 8GB 120SSD, Hack Pro i7 3.2Ghz 5870HD 24GB 120GB SSD, New iPad 4G 64GB, iPhone 4s
	0

Nov 7, 2011, 03:18 PM	#12
Taipan Thread Starter macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2003	Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3) Thanks for your many answers! Last edited by Taipan; Nov 7, 2011 at 11:58 PM.
	0

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