GPU; active vs. passive cooling

[RhynoCZ]

Hello,

The Christmass is comming and my old GPU died (currently replaced with an ancient HD4850 that idles at 80°C, goes to 100+°C at load and makes so much noise I don't even like to watch films on the PC anymore, let alone gaming - not much runs).

So, I was thinking of getting a mid/low range/cheap card to replace that dated noise maker. That would be adequate, in comparison with my recently deceased HD6790, which could handle a lot of modern games.

Now for the question, I found
XFX Radeon RX 460 CORE Silent = no fan
XFX Radeon RX 460 = single fan

Specs are the same for both cards, even the clock speeds, both cards having 75W TDP. And the price is pretty much the same. Looking at the GPU-z specs, the RX 460 performes better than the HD6790 did, on paper at least.

128bit bus = Alright these days? It used to be 256bit or GTFO, but the video memory chips got way faster since the last time I looked at some HW.
Thermal throttling = Could this be an issue with the passively cooled card? Meaning the active cooling version performing better under heavy load (gaming).

Specs of the rest
Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz (could do 3.0Ghz, but the modern games don't benefit from it, for some reason)
8Gb DDR II @ 800Mhz (could do about 1Ghz, but it's quite the same story as above)
Asus P5K/EPU MB (nothing fancy, mid range about 9 years ago)
SSD+HDD (System/modern games + storage)
600W PSU (way more than I need for the card/s in question)
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[colink98]

the silent card is going to rely on a larger heatsink for a greater surface area to exchange heat, along with the current airflow in your case.

do you have sufficient air flow from other fans etc ?

don't fret about the 128 bit bus.
that normally refers to the mobo interface (AGP/PCI-E).
the thing you thinking of is memory bandwidth which is between the memory and the GPU.
the RX460 has a memory bandwidth of 112 GB/s
which strikes me as stink loads.
____________________
PCX125 (stolen) - CBF600 (current)
Ride it like you stole it.
ride sensible and not like an idiot and you wont get 6 points in one week.

[Loui5D]

The main problem you'll have is keeping the VRM's on the card cool, you should be able to get a few mini heat sinks for them.

If you do decide to go that way don't forget you'll need some decent anti-ESD tape to stop the modules from shorting out.

Airflow is now going to be crucial as you'll be relying on just the air coming through and picking the heat up, you may need to beef up your cases fans to compensate. Some Noctua's should do the trick.

If i may make a suggestion,

Just setup a full blown watercooled loop, it'll be just as quiet as passive & the temps will be much lower.

[RhynoCZ]

Liquid cooling is out of question. It's a 9 years old intel q6600 PC. I just wanted to finish some games that I played before my hd6790 died. If I was to invest more money, I'd build a completely new PC. An i5-6600 with some ram, MB, PSU and mid range GPU is about £500. I already have some HDDs and a 256GB SSD, so I'd use them. I would definitely use the SSD.

The airflow in the case should not be a problem. It's a pretty modern design case, despite its age (10 y.o.). 120x120 fans only, front intake + rear exhaust + the PSU sucking air out of the case. The front panel can house up to 3 120x120 fans, if needed. I also fitted a modern tower CPU cooler with a 120x120 fan (those were my ''overclocking'' years). All fans are low rpm.
____________________
'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[RhynoCZ]

UPDATE

After some research and consideration, I decided to go for a GTX 1050Ti. I never had a Nvidia chip before, so decided to give it a go. The GTX seems to be a tad more powerful and quicker in most of the games than the RX460, yet being sold for quite the same money. I ordered the Gigabyte version with a 90mm fan, from which I expect quite operation. Both cards, the RX and GTX, have the same power input requirements and quite the same TDP.

I even found some tests of the GTX 1050Ti on youbook, with my q6600. If the testers were at least a bit honest, than I can expect some 1080p fun in modern games at high and even ultra settings.
List of the tested games:
Fallout 4, ultra preset, 1080p - 44fps (48fps with the Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz)
GTA V, high settings, 1080p - 47fps (50fps with the Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz)
Battlefield 1, ultra preset, 1080p - 37fps (41fps with the Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz)
Return of the Tomb raider, medium preset, 1080p - 35fps (39fps with the Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz)

TL; DR: I expect great things from that £140 gfx card. It still amazes me, how efficient the modern HW actually got. Definitely better performance, than from my current solution, HD4850, that is quite good at turning electricity into heat and noise, but other than that, that card was obsolete 5 years ago, when I swapped it for the HD6790.

UPDATE II
The gfx card is here and it's awesome! Not only I can now finish all the games I played before the hd6790 died, but the card is also very quite, not audible at all. Idle: 32°C, fan OFF; 100% load: 64°C, fan 1294rpm (42%). The fan starts to spin at about 55°C. It's cool to be able to pop the graphics settings in videogames up a bit again.

Now it is time to try some games with PhysX.
____________________
'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor