i wouldnt really recommend gigabyte cards. had a few gtx700/900/1000 (myself/used in builds) and the heatsink is lighter and cheaper than what is used by many other brands or even the extreme edition. others like to use the same heatsink for all cards (maybe drop a heat pipe or two depending on chip) and use different fans etc to have a lower priced card. no matter the fan size, so far not one of them was "silent" or at least on the lvl of other brands i used (in same price range). the windforce cooler seems to be identical with some of the pny/palit/inno cards.