Looking for a silent good gpu for C14 (4 monitors)

Hello, I am currently using an nvidia GT730, with 3 monitors and a heavy template and that is not a great experience. The rest of setup is top notch, the only bottleneck I have is this mediocre gpu with outdated drivers.

Can you please recommend me a good gpu, not too expensive, and that is silent ?
I don’t play games, or very sparingly from time to time but nothing like before so I don’t care about ultra top graphics on video games

looking at this : # MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ventus 2X Black 8G OC
Can I get cheaper than this or it is a good value ?

Your “silent” may be different than my “silent” – but a TRULY silent GPU is fanless IMO, and I can’t think of a 4-monitor GPU that is fanless. HOWEVER, if you are willing to have fans, go with a graphics card that has a semi-passive mode, where the fans don’t spin up unless under heavier load. There are a few GTX and RTX cards out there that do this, I can’t recall models… but I believe Gigabyte and Zotac have some models. I looked into this a few years ago, and this looked like a decent solution.

The one you list – MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ventus 2X Black 8G OC – might be okay, but I’m not sure it is semi-passive. Still, it might be okay. Only way to find out is to test it yourself TBH.

I personally have been using AMD Radeon Pro cards more often in recent years, and they have not been loud at all, however my DAW machines are in “sound dampening” cases using all Noctua fans, and I also usually isolate them in another room, so I get total silence anyway.

Good luck!

thanks, how do you isolate your main machine in another room ?

I run cables through the walls. I have a computer room with various DAWs, backup systems, servers, etc., and all you have to do is drill an appropriate hole in the wall (do this safely, be careful you don’t hit anything important! Do NOT screw that up!), then I run the needed HDMI, DisplayPort, USB, etc. cables into the main studio. Just make sure to buy very high quality cables to get reasonable lengths. YMMV.

I over-spec all the cables and keep them as short as possible. I’ve bought tons of cables, quality varies significantly, even from the same company. You can use tricks to get longer runs if needed, for example with powered hubs, run lower resolutions or refresh rates on over-spec’d cables, etc… (4K 120Hz will require shorter cable runs in my experience than, say, 1440p 60Hz, and so forth.)

Has worked great for many years. The only time I bother to put computers in the control room is when I’m building the machine, troubleshooting, or doing something non-critical. I use sound dampening cases, Noctua fans in everything, including the CPU coolers, so they are still pretty quiet, but to get that truly quiet, you have to move the machine to another room.

The one exception to this is Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, etc.) machines, which are ultra quiet. I have recently decided to phase all those out, though, but my Apple Silicon machines can easily be installed in the studio with no issues for noise. I have recently decided to dump all Apple products though (for various reasons), so my Windows and Linux machines are in other rooms.

Again, YMMV, you need to be very careful if you’re drilling holes. If you cannot drill holes for some reason, then you might still be able to run cables around the corner under a doorway if there is clearance. If you are nervous about drilling, maybe hire a contractor to do it safely. PLEASE do it safely. Then just do the math on the cable runs, buy the best cables you can, and your noise levels will be completely solved.

IMPORTANT: you may need to reduce resolution/refresh rate to achieve cable length. And please be aware some devices, computer monitors, etc., are more sensitive to signal degradation (i.e. cable length) than others. You will need to do some serious testing to make sure everything works correctly to find the maximum length that device will work at, then err on the shorter side for safety. High bandwidth devices like hard drives CANNOT reliably be placed on long cable runs, for example. Keep those close to or attached to your computer. Again, test everything, one by one. I’ve found some devices work fine up to around 20 feet (6 meters), but others are very sensitive at 6-10 feet (2-3 meters). I have one Acer monitor that works at 25 feet no problem. Another, different brand (Samsung), did not like 25 feet, and I had to settle with 15 feet for it.

And again, there are workarounds, like HDMI repeaters, powered hubs, etc., so you can actually go farther than that if needed. Just test, test, test, test. Be prepared to buy lots of cables.

And with some strategic layout of your studio, you can configure your spaces for shorter cable runs… It took me years to get my space(s) set up properly, but it’s totally possible. Lots of trial and error though.

Also be aware that your machines still need proper airflow, so don’t put them in a small enclosed closet! So the “room” where you put them needs to be appropriate!

Cheers and good luck! And again, YMMV.

Search for the word “fanless” on this forum and you will find people having success with fanless GPUs.
For ex. @MrSoundman reported using this card:
https://videocardz.net/palit-geforce-rtx-3050-6gb-kalmx

It drives 3 monitors, but not sure if it has the connectors you need.
Note it is simpler to drive a large 4k monitor (ex. 42") than driving multiple smaller 1080p monitors.

I have an RTX 4060 driving 2 4k monitors and it’s absolutely silent because it has fans but they have never come on. If you are just using regular desktop applications, including Cubase, then that’s quite a light load on the GPU so it doesn’t need to cool it.

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Because of the video playback issue I have using Cubase with my AMD 7900 XTX, I have used the Windows->Settings->Display->Graphics Settings to force Cubase to use the Intel Graphics built into the i9 12900 I use. My monitor resolution is 5120x1440 @60Hz. No issues.
Make of that what you will.