Looking for quiet and powerful

A

astyler

Gawd
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
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I'm running on an ATI x1800xt 256mb right now. This thing is loud as hell, even with the fan speeds turned lower with tray tool. I hate this card and I'm gonna sell it, it's nice but I want something else. I'm using air so noise comes with the game, but just wondering what my options are.

I don't want a card less powerful. Something either the same or stronger.

I've been looking at the 8800gts. Can anyone who has these comment on the noise compared to a loud ATI?

I understand the x1800xt is about equal in performance to an x1950PRO, which consumes less power. Are these therefore quieter cards?

Any other suggestions welcome. Thx for the help.
 
I have the same card by Sapphire and only recently changed out the stock cooling for an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2. The difference is night and day! The cooling performance is about the same, more or less, compared to the stock cooling with adjust fan schemes. However, the difference in noise is a world apart! Add to the fact that it's so cheap now (you can easily find it for about $20 anywhere online) and you may be able to tolerate your card for a little longer until the time is right to upgrade to DX10 cards.

If you're still intent on replacing the card in general, I've read a lot about the stock cooling on the GeForce 8 series cards as being very quiet. Often people have compared it to about the same quietness as the cooler found on the HIS IceQ3 cards, which don't make a lot of noise as is.

Hope that helps.
 
astyler said:
I'm running on an ATI x1800xt 256mb right now. This thing is loud as hell, even with the fan speeds turned lower with tray tool. I hate this card and I'm gonna sell it, it's nice but I want something else. I'm using air so noise comes with the game, but just wondering what my options are.

I don't want a card less powerful. Something either the same or stronger.

I've been looking at the 8800gts. Can anyone who has these comment on the noise compared to a loud ATI?

I understand the x1800xt is about equal in performance to an x1950PRO, which consumes less power. Are these therefore quieter cards?

Any other suggestions welcome. Thx for the help.
Click to expand...

Well, ATI's cards were usually the loudest of the bunch. Only with the introduction of the X1950, they started to be more "silent".
Still, NVIDIA's cards are usually quieter. The cooler on the 7900 GTX for example, is barely audible. NVIDIA also introduced an even quieter cooler, with the 8800's, so if you want the most powerful card and still quiet, get the 8800 GTX. If you think that's too much money, get one of the 8800 GTS (640 or 320, depending on the resolution you intend to play). You can't go wrong with a 8800 card.
 
I agree with covertash. Unless you are really looking to spend the money for a VC upgrade, spend a lot less and just get a better after market cooling colution.
 
Thanks guys, that's all I needed to hear. I'm gonna see what I can get for my card (over on the other forum), and I'll eat the difference to get either a 1950pro which should be a bit quieter, or an 8800 GTS.

After market cooling was a good idea, if I can't sell it I'll definitely pursue that route. Thanks.
 
Spend $20 on an Arctic X2 cooler and problem solved. Better cooling. Barely audible. I didn't realize how loud my 6800GT was until I bought one for it.
 
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