Silent AMD replacement for GT1030

[djx8605]

About to upgrade my DAW, thinking of upgrading to Mojave. Given the current NVIDIA web drivers situation for Mojave, can anyone recommend an AMD card to replace an NVIDIA GT1030? Of course I'd want something of equal or better performance. Here's the catch though, I'd like a silent (passive cooled) card, and I've not been able to find much AMD offerings that are passively cooled. Do you guys know of any AMD cards that are passively cooled or have a 0 fan feature, where the fans stay off and the card is passively cooled as long as the card is not under heavy load/high temps? Since the system is used for recording I'd like to keep noise at a minimum. My GT970 has this feature, where the fans don't turn on unless the card goes past a certain temp. Do any AMD cards have such a feature? If so, please recommend.

 

[trs96]

There are many AMD cards that will not spin up the fans until the GPU reaches a certain temperature. Do some research into that. An RX60 would probably be powerful enough if your 1030 got the job done.

My RX570 from Gigabyte has this feature. I think their 560 should too.

 

[e-troc]

I am using a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 570 4GB specifically for this reason. Won't spin unless in high load situations (which never occur in my audio workstation). It has a hardware switch to enable silent BIOS, which clocks the chip more slowly to further reduce the need for cooling.

 

[miquedique]

I have Sapphire rx 580. Can't hear it.

 

[djx8605]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I've found both Gigabyte and Sapphire 570 for good prices on Newegg. Are there any guides for these cards, or anything to look out for? Or is it a streight-forward procedure with whatevergreen and lilu? Any DSDT/SSDT edits required or anything like that? Thanks again!

 

[e-troc]

My Sapphire Nitro+ RX 570 4GB worked OOB with 10.14.2.

 

[djx8605]

Awesome! I'll be looking forward to getting one of these!
Both cards look very similar (Sapphire and Gigabyte RX570), the Gigabyte is 10 dollars cheaper, so will probably get that one, and it matches my Gigabyte board... I do like the idea of the switch to keep the clocks down and fan off on the Sapphire, but Gigabyte seems to let you customize this with software, so it should be fine.

Thanks again for your help guys

 

[e-troc]

Gigabyte fan control is Windows-only, in case you didn't know.
If quiet operation is important, go Sapphire or Asus Strix.

 

[djx8605]

O wow, didn't know that one, as I've never really had a need to use it. Thanks for the heads up! Do you mean the software to set it up is Windows only? Since my system will be a dualboot rig, could I set things up in Windows and still have the hardware work as expected under macOS? @trs96, if you're still reading, have you any experience with the Gigabyte software and if the card can still work without it?

Thanks!

 

[trs96]

O wow, didn't know that one, as I've never really had a need to use it. Thanks for the heads up! Do you mean the software to set it up is Windows only? Since my system will be a dualboot rig, could I set things up in Windows and still have the hardware work as expected under macOS? @trs96, if you're still reading, have you any experience with the Gigabyte software and if the card can still work without it?

Thanks!

If you mean the "fan stop" feature, yes, that works without any need to control it in Windows. If you want to control or change the RGB features of the card you'll need the Gigabyte Windows app for that. It does hold what you set in Windows when you switch back to macOS.