Fan Noise

In the past years users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays this has changed with people being more aware of the fan noise and power consumption of their graphic cards.
In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits we are using a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.


The tested graphics card is installed in a system that is completely passively cooled. That is passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard and Solid-State HDD.
This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified) the measurement is conducted at 100 cm distance and 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room is well below 20 dbA for all measurements. Please note that the dbA scale is not linear, it is logarithmic. 40 dbA is not twice as loud as 20 dbA. A 3 dbA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dbA increase doubles the perceived sound level.

When I first saw "quieter!" on the front of MSI's package I was worried that this card might be as "quiet" as other GTX 400 cards. To my complete amazement, MSI has pulled off the seemingly imposible. Their GTX 465 Twin Frozr II is the quietest card I tested for a long time. The card is even a little bit quieter as PowerColor's famed HD 5870 PCS+ which is known to enthusiasts as the best choice if you want a high-performance silent card. Finally, there is a similar option for NVIDIA lovers too. I'd never expect that I would recommend an NVIDIA GF100 based card for a media PC, but the MSI GTX 465 Twin Frozr II seems to be a viable choice for a quiet media PC system that sits in your living room, playing back HD content and enabling maximum-details 1080p gaming on your big TV screen - with almost no noise.