Card for Light Gaming

A

Aiwin

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
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I'm building a home studio rig and I want to put a video card in it that will be good for just light gaming. It's NOT a focus of my machine, so what I really need is something that keeps the heat/noise to a minimum. I'm thinking about something like NVIDIA 8600GT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150247

Thoughts? Advice? Again, I realize this is a far cry from your balls-to-the-wall gaming card, but that's not what I'm after. Heat and noise are the main considerations.
 
I have 3 questions for you.

I'll start with the 2nd question first.

2) You plan on playing far cry with that thing?

1) what size monitor do you have there?

3) how much does a home studio rig cost these days?
 
I have a question to add: what is light gaming, and how much are you looking to spend? If you can give me a price limit, I can point you to the video card to buy.
 
that's what I was thinking as well and that is why I asked him how much the home studio rig is going to cost him. If its expensive it means he's got some $$$ just sitting around for a GTX 260.
 
Aiwin said:
I'm building a home studio rig and I want to put a video card in it that will be good for just light gaming. It's NOT a focus of my machine, so what I really need is something that keeps the heat/noise to a minimum. I'm thinking about something like NVIDIA 8600GT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150247

Thoughts? Advice? Again, I realize this is a far cry from your balls-to-the-wall gaming card, but that's not what I'm after. Heat and noise are the main considerations.
Click to expand...

not a 8600GT. you need to provide the info asked above but an 8600GT is not the card I would get in any case
 
What size monitor are you running? If its 19" or bigger I'd recommend something with a little more juice, mainly 512mb of GDDR3. The Radeon 4650 looks like a pretty good value for what you want to use it for especially at $70. Can't comment on how loud it is though, also the 9600GT 512mb would probably be a good choice its a bit more expensive.
 
I updated the link by the way, I'd copied the wrong one in.

1) "Far Cry" was just a confusing wording choice. Though it'd be nice to be able to handle that.

2)My monitor is a 22" LCD.

3) All told my machine would probably cost about $1100 if I weren't using some pre-existing parts for it. I'm really only having to shell out about $600 to make it happen.
 
I can spend maybe $100 on a card for it. If you could point me to a great card that runs cool & quiet for a little more, by all means do!
 
The 4670 is a great choice for this, it uses very little power and is very quiet.
 
I just threw this list up in another thread, it may do you good too. I whipped this up for a friend a little bit ago. They're not the hottest deals, but all these cards will provide above average performance.

1) EVGA GeForce 9800 GT for $109.99 after MIR

2) ASUS TOP Radeon HD 4850 512Mb $129 after MIR

3) SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 1GB for $180

4) eVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB Core 192 for $219

5) GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB for $248

6) SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 for $210 after MIR

7) SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 for $250 after MIR

*edit* forgot the 4670 that was just mentioned. :D

8) BIOSTAR Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 for $77
 
Can't go wrong with a 4850 512 (if you can stretch your budget a bit)

Have you looked into the 8800GT?
 
Hm, that 4830 looks pretty great. I liked the 4670 suggestion but the 4830 looks like a good step up for just a bit more, plus I like that the reviews for the 4830 on Newegg lists the low heat right up-front.

When I say "light gaming" I'm thinking that something like Doom3 or Far Cry is the top. I'm planning on getting a board that I can do a bit of upgrading with later on, so I can always stick something more powerful in there after a year or so.
 
Aiwin said:
Hm, that 4830 looks pretty great. I liked the 4670 suggestion but the 4830 looks like a good step up for just a bit more, plus I like that the reviews for the 4830 on Newegg lists the low heat right up-front.
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a 4830 is a crippled 4850. just go with a 4850
 
Really? In the newegg reviews I see nothing but props for the low heat of the 4830, and a fair amount of complaining over the high heat of the 4850. The price of the 4830 is a bit lower too. My only real cooling measures will be a 120mm case fan and some arctic silver, nothing fancier than that probably.

Side question - my 500W PSU shouldn't be a limitation for the cards we're discussing, should it?
 
And the 4850 is a crippled 4870, and the GTX 260 is a crippled GTX 280, thats just how lower priced SKUs are made.
 
Light gaming and home studio to me means a passive cooled video card.
 
SpeedyVV: that's the same advice I've run into from home studio PC DIYers. Does passive cooling mean "no fan" then? Sorry, a bit ignorant there.
 
I would say
4670 < 9600GT < 4830/9800GT/8800GT < 4850.

Grab whichever you feel fits your budget best. I would recommend the 4670. Pretty good performance, minimal heat/power usage at a low cost. Would absolutely tear through Doom3 and Far Cry without blinking.
 
Aiwin said:
SpeedyVV: that's the same advice I've run into from home studio PC DIYers. Does passive cooling mean "no fan" then? Sorry, a bit ignorant there.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what it means. No fan, which means it has to run cool to start with, which means 0 decibels!!!

Just go to newegg.com and apply the filter for "Cooler" to "Fanless" and you'll get over 100 hits.

If you plan on keeping this card and machine for a while go with the best 4850. It is $179 AR. If that is too much go for something under $100 like this 9600 for $84.99.

If you can afford the 4850, go with it, it is an amazing card. You'll be able to play anything you want.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention, fanless also mean a bigger heat sink, so make sure it fits your case, or if you are buying a case that it can accomodate the card you choose.

EDIT 2: Aiwin, let me shed some light in recommending the 4850. You are spending the equiv of $1000.00 on this machine.

Spending an extra $100 on the best and fastest silent card that will let you play any game your hearts desires, and not just play it but play it with very high eye candy and really good frame rates, is a good balance. The question is do you care enough about that? Only you know that.

I never regreted buying a powerfull card. I certainly have regreted buying a less powerfull card.
 
4670 and 9600GT would be my recommendations. No need to overdo things.

Heck, look into getting a 9600GSO - they're oftentimes ~$50 here on the forums.
 
I've seen some 8800GTX's go for 120-140 in the used section. I really like mine and it has served me well. I see that a person is selling a couple of 9800GTX's for 125 right now. If light gaming is all you'll do, these cards will do great. Just watch the heat issues.
 
SpeedyVV said:
If you plan on keeping this card and machine for a while go with the best 4850. It is $179 AR. If that is too much go for something under $100 like this 9600 for $84.99.

If you can afford the 4850, go with it, it is an amazing card. You'll be able to play anything you want.
Click to expand...

If you don't want to go with the best 4850, go with this one. I just decided on it myself. It's not as nice as the one Speedy linked, but it's a good deal less expensive.
 
I'm with Speedy on this one. Home studio rig === As silent as possible, which means passive cooling all the way. Go with the 4850.
 
Here's a couple passive options

4650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131135

4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125237

9600gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125098

9800gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134055

In order of performance, 9600gt < HD4650 < 9800gt < HD4850

in some games that like nvidia drivers better it would swap to HD4650 < 9600gt < HD4850 < 9800gt

Also the HD4**0 series comes with full 7.1 audio over HDMI while the 9**0 will only do 5.1 with a spid/if connection.
 
UGH! Damn you people for waving this 4850 incessantly in my face. I may go for it. MAY. I'm looking to make my purchase shortly after the new year. The 4850 IS more than I need and it IS past my budget, but still, it'd be awesome. The 4650 would do very well for me, but maybe the price will on the 4850 will be a little more pleasing in 1st quarter '09 . . .
 
I don't know why you guys are recommending him a 4850 when he stated preferebly $100 for the VGA and its for games like Far Cry and Doom 3.

It seems like a 4670 ~ 9600GT would be perfect for him. Both are great cards for price/performance.
 
I would recommend the 4830. Its a much better card then the 4670. The only thing I would is replace the heatsink. Zalman VF-900 comes to mine. Easy to mount, very very quiet on low and should be fairly cheap. :)
 
ihira said:
I don't know why you guys are recommending him a 4850 when he stated preferebly $100 for the VGA and its for games like Far Cry and Doom 3.

It seems like a 4670 ~ 9600GT would be perfect for him. Both are great cards for price/performance.
Click to expand...

You are correct. It is just that this is [H] and we "always" go over the top :p

Hey, Aiwin, if you really want to stay on budget of under $100.00 buy all mean the 9600 GT that I provided a link for is a great card and is silent.

But get the 4850 :D
 
If you can afford a 4830 at around $120, you shouldn't even be looking past this.

4850 for $130 - case settled.
 
Omegas said:
Here's a couple passive options

9800gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134055
Click to expand...

FYI, that's the Accelero S1 on that card. You can buy it separately and put it on any 9800GT (and quite a few other cards). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016 is the S1 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186021 is the fan module for it (included with the ECS card). You can get a number of different 9800GT's for around $100 after rebate. Might be cheaper to buy one of those and the S1 separately, and you'd still end up with the same end result.

If the 9800GT and HD4850 are as close in performance as what I'm picking up here, the 9800GT seems like the better deal to me. Then again, I did just buy an XFX 9800GT...
 
If you can't afford the 4850, I'd say the next best option is the 4830. There is an HIS 4830 on for 89 bucks after MIR. Chances are deals like this will be found in one form or another. These 48xx series do run a bit hotter though. The HIS linked to does have an aftermarket cooler that should run fairly quiet through. So long as you have room for the dual slot cooler then it should do just fine. It's a good step cheaper than most 4850s out there, and doesn't give up all that much in performance.

There is of course the 9600GT/GSO, or the 9800GT as options from nvidia. You can probably also find a 9800GT with a decent cooler (quieter, and more efficient than the reference cooler) for about the same price as the 4830. Performance is close enough between the two that it will rarely matter. What's playability on a 22 inch for one often will be close enough on the other.

Choice is yours in the end. Most of them will satisfy though as things are pretty nice at the 100 dollar point right now.
 
Didn't realize a 4830 could be had so cheaply, however, EVGA > HIS. It's a hard call. I, personally, would go with EVGA, unless I felt the performance of the 4830 was more suited for my tastes.
 
I do like eVGAs support policy for things such as warranties. But most of the time it's only precautionary anyways (unless you are looking forward to the step up program). HIS has a warranty that does the job for people who don't procrastinate, or screw around with the hardware too much. :p

The problem I have with suggesting eVGA is that they tend to stick with the noisy reference cooler on many of their cards. On newegg right now I searched for a 9800GT and on the first page I don't see an eVGA with an upgraded cooler, or a quiter/passive one for that matter.
 
Honestly if Far Cry is the highest level of gaming you're going to do, totally forget about a 4850. Find the cheapest 4670 or 9600gt you can. I had an X1800XT like 3 or 4 years ago that maxed out Doom 3. Any of those cards is WAY more powerful than my old X1800XT. Don't bother with a 4850 unless you're playing today's games.
 
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