Dependence of the noise characteristics of high concentration erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA's) on different pumping configurations have been numerically simulated for pump wavelengths of 514.5nm, 532nm, 800nm, 980nm and 1480nm and experimentally studied for the 514.5nm pump wavelength. Our studies show that for highly doped EDFA's with significant upconversion losses, contradirectional pumping scheme offers lower noise figures at high pump powers. When excited state absorption at the pump wavelength dominates over upconversion losses, codirectional pumping gives lower noise figures. ©2004 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.