Well, I just received a GTX570 from MSI which has a GTX470 pcb and cooler, at least thats what it looks like. This card seems to have replaced the normal GTX570 that everyone else sells, the model number didn't even change (thats the shady part to me). The difference in noise is night and day between this card and the normal reference GTX570. Its just not tolerable.
 
Is this just an MSI thing? Is this Nvidia's new reference design? Should we expect this from EVGA at some point?
 
Newtekie at techpowerup pointed out that this was listed in the most recent change log of MSI Afterburner.
 

Added core voltage control for alternate revision of reference design NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 series graphics cards

 
Here are a couple of quick pics.
  

Yeah, there is no excuse for it to not have a different part number. I couldn't see EVGA doing that but either way I really hope that this doesn't become the norm. This cooler is a major step backwards.

No, I'll be returning this card. Its obnoxiously loud.

kram36

I absolutely hated the GTX 470 I had as with that cooling solution the card was hot and loud. I was so glad EVGA rolled out the GTX 580 before my step up was over. I can't imagine a 570 with this cooling solution. I'd send that thing back too.

I did have two GTX 465's with the same cooling solution, but they didn't run near as hot as the 470 I had and I liked those cards as the fan didn't have to work as hard to keep them cool.

 
I actually enjoyed the GTX 465's. The pair i had overclocked to 800c with a baby voltage bump but did run loud and hot 

BababooeyHTJ

No, I'll be returning this card. Its obnoxiously loud.

 
Why didn't you get the MSI "Power" 570?
 

Hey Zeus

BababooeyHTJ

No, I'll be returning this card. Its obnoxiously loud.

Why didn't you get the MSI "Power" 570?

 
I saw this thread over at OCN, I believe he got this to SLI with his other reference 570 you see in the pic.  

I actually prefer that PCB design. With it, the fan can draw air in from both the top and bottom and is able to better cool the GPU.

CraptacularOne

I actually prefer that PCB design. With it, the fan can draw air in from both the top and bottom and is able to better cool the GPU.

doesn't that increase noise

SirWaWa

CraptacularOne

I actually prefer that PCB design. With it, the fan can draw air in from both the top and bottom and is able to better cool the GPU.

doesn't that increase noise

Having more ventilation points won't increase noise.
 
On a side note, those of you that are concerned about fan noise crack me up really. If you can hear your fan over the gun shots, explosions, screeching tires, or what have you from the game you're playing, you're doing it wrong. At desktop speeds the fan is virtually silent unless you force it to run real high and in game who cares if gets louder? You'll never hear it anyway over the in game action...

CraptacularOne

SirWaWa

CraptacularOne

I actually prefer that PCB design. With it, the fan can draw air in from both the top and bottom and is able to better cool the GPU.

doesn't that increase noise

Having more ventilation points won't increase noise.

On a side note, those of you that are concerned about fan noise crack me up really. If you can hear your fan over the gun shots, explosions, screeching tires, or what have you from the game you're playing, you're doing it wrong. At desktop speeds the fan is virtually silent unless you force it to run real high and in game who cares if gets louder? You'll never hear it anyway over the in game action...

Fan noise drives me up a wall, hence why I water cool. I also don't like to blast my speakers so high they can actually drowned out the sound of that cooler, that's way too much.
 
I also fold with my video cards, so that another factor. Should I turn on the home stereo to blast above the video card fans? I actually had my 470 in the basement of my house and could still have that thing when I went to bed at night.
 
I will worry about fan noise and the 470 was hideous.

I don't want to hear the fans from my poorly designed video card coolers over the dialogue in an rpg. Hearing it while sneaking around can be pretty immersion breaking as well. There are other games than Crysis and BFBC2.
 
I'm also not about to use headphones at all times or even some of the time for that matter.
 
  There is no excused for such a poor cooler on a $300+ video card. I do have to admit that I'm debating throwing my Spitfire onto the card, I just need a GT-100 bracket. Can you get away with using the stock vrm-memory plate on a GTX470 with one of these coolers?

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Evga is pretty open with their customers. I haven't seen one report from another person on the forums that has gotten one of these lemons.

I had a 9800gtx, the 65nm version and that wasn't bad. I highly doubt that the same card on a die shrink would be louder than one of the most notoriously loud cards in recent years.