News - ASUS demonstrates its 0dB Strix GPU fan technology (video)

[HEXUS]

This cooling tech is available on Nvidia GTX 780 and AMD R9 280 cards from ASUS.

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[krazy_olie]

This looks more like a fan profile than anything else, but seems like it's the new PWM abilities that allow for this.

Silent at idle is a real boon, especially for video.
You do have to take in to account effect on overall system temps, over a long period of use.

[Tabbykatze]

So it's not 0db, it's just doing nothing until the GPU gets hot and relying on passive cooling. It would be nice to know the db levels once it kicks in to cool the card down. And who would indulge in "light gaming" with a 780 or a 280 unless these cards are being targeted at video/image editors.

[Jowsey]

Can't watch video at the moment but the idea of this just seems...wow...

I may be in the minority here but I would pay top bucks for one of these on a lower end card, meaning that there is even more silence potential as the lower end gpu would produce less heat.

I don't think we will be seeing these on the R9-290/X cards though...

[LeetyMcLeet]

You can do the same thing for any other card using MSI's Afterburner?

[Smikis]

You can do the same thing for any other card using MSI's Afterburner?

yep, pretty sure all of that is done via some asus software anyway, because i doubt nvidia and amd would release different drivers for asus ( or you would be forced to use asus modified drivers , which is hassle on its own, so its probably asus afterburner alike)

[krazy_olie]

You can do the same thing for any other card using MSI's Afterburner?

No, not completely off. You could probably change the profile so that it was inaudible over cpu/system fans, though.

[Corky34]

I may be in the minority here but I would pay top bucks for one of these on a lower end card, meaning that there is even more silence potential as the lower end gpu would produce less heat.

Isn't that dependent on work load, wouldn't a lower end card running at 90%-%100 load produce more heat than a higher end card doing the same job at 40%-60%
Isn't it the same theory that says higher end CPU's can save energy, and in turn produce less heat, because they get the job done quicker and enter into a lower power state quicker.

[OilSheikh]

The difference between MSI Afterburner and this is that the fans do not spin at all until 65C.
As long as the heatsinks are decent and temps don't ramp up to 65C within 5 mins, I am interested to get ones of these.

[krazy_olie]

It's called the race to idle, i.e do something faster and you will be working for less time, producing less heat overall.
It doesn't really work in gaming in practice because generally with a higher card you would aim for higher settings and framerate.

[Jowsey]

Isn't that dependent on work load, wouldn't a lower end card running at 90%-%100 load produce more heat than a higher end card doing the same job at 40%-60%
Isn't it the same theory that says higher end CPU's can save energy, and in turn produce less heat, because they get the job done quicker and enter into a lower power state quicker.

Sorry, I should have prefaced this with I don't do much high end gaming in my living room (which is where said GPU would go, in a little box) so it would be just the fact I wouldn't need a gtx780 to play Binding of Isaac XD.

[Corky34]

yea i agree it would be nice to see it on lower end cards, for HPTC and light gaming.
When i mentioned it depending on load, it was more my mind being quizzical if the race to idle that krazy_olie explained, also applies to the load on a CPU/GPU.
In other words does a GPU/CPU loaded to 50% draw the same power, and produce the same heat as one at 100% load.

[KrisWragg]

Even at idle with no fans running it wont be 0dB as they claim, if you measured it in an anechoic chamber the electrical hum of it would easily be 15+dB.

Plus all they have done really is just alter the fan settings, something that is easily done with any number of tools such as afterburner or SpeedFan.

[scaryjim]

... does a GPU/CPU loaded to 50% draw the same power, and produce the same heat as one at 100% load.

No; otherwise programs like Furmark wouldn't be able to heat GPUs up well beyond the levels you'd normally see by running games.

However, the thermal design of low and mid range GPUs is significantly below that of high end ones, so a mid-range GPU at high loads is still unlikely to produce as much heat as a high end GPU at mid loads. I'd guess when ASUS talk about silent casual gaming they're thinking of things like Peggle and facebook games - ones that aren't graphically intensive so won't tax the GPU at all. Those kinds of games won't even moderately load a mid-range GPU, so the tech would still work nicely.

[Denis_iii]

ROG m/b's need to follow that design philosophy.
I'd love a Strix R9-290 gpu and Strix Z97 Gene m/b...

[wasabi]

interesting alternative to mahoosive passive coolers. I go all-passive simply because I don't want ANY noise most of the time. Prepared to live with it during gaming though.