Best fanless video card ?

tridion · Post by **tridion** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 5:23 am

I am looking for the most powerful fanless AGP video card (fanless out of the box). I do not really play games so its 3d performance doesnt need to be exceptional. The main features I require are :

1. The best possible TV output.
2. Hardware DVD acceleration.
3. Preferrably a TV tuner (but would like an idea of best card without this feature too - as I can always add a cheap WinTV like card at a later date)

mudboy · Post by **mudboy** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 9:43 am

The ATI All-in-Wonder 7500 http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/aiwra ... index.html would probably be your best bet. I have an AIW Rage 128 and it's a decent card, good picture quality, and the tuner gets the job done.

Pete

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 9:46 am

i believe geforce 4 mx cards are fanless too.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 10:57 am

Hands down the Matrox G550 is the best fanless card if you don't want to do 3D gaming. It has absolutely the best 2D quality for office and content creation. Make sure you get the retail pak - not oem - so you get the TV adaptor. It offers some DVD acceration. The TV output is gorgeous. Sorry, no TV tuner.

Better monitors are wasted when they're not connected to a good vid. card.

Gerwin · Post by **Gerwin** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 12:57 pm

powergyoza wrote:Hands down the Matrox G550 is the best fanless card if you don't want to do 3D gaming. It has absolutely the best 2D quality for office and content creation. Make sure you get the retail pak - not oem - so you get the TV adaptor. It offers some DVD acceration. The TV output is gorgeous. Sorry, no TV tuner.

Better monitors are wasted when they're not connected to a good vid. card.

Amen! There's just no competition for this card. Pity Matrox blew it with the Parhelia. The matrox G400 I had was the only card that could run a desktop (not a game, but a spreadsheet) at 1600X1200 on my 17 inch crt with all text still clearly legible. I now own a Geforce 4200, which is about 10 times as fast in games (D3D that is, OpenGL is still rubbish), but the image quality is rubbish compared to the Matrox. If I didn't like playing games so much, I'd own a Matrox G550.

Zergling · Post by **Zergling** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 7:21 pm

The most powerful fanless video card is probably Radeon 8500/9000 series made by sapphire, newegg sells them, directX 8 support, not too shabby

SilentDave · Post by **SilentDave** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 8:30 pm

regarding mudboys choice of cards.

My ATI AIW 7500 came with a spinning fan on it.
I bought it april/2002
I would not consider taking if off either since it runs quite warm
as it is.

Alicey · Post by **Alicey** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 9:59 pm

I'd go with the AIW 7500 recommendation, if you can find a fanless one. ATI has tended by be second only to Matrox in terms of consumer-level 2D quality, and the AIW series has a good reputation for TV quality. Newegg has the AIW 7500 for $126 with free shipping, which might seem a bit expensive for something 'old' but it's not really. The AIW is a nice and easy all-in-one solution with a proven track record, no hastle.

The other choice would be a fanless card with good 2D plus a seperate tuner card. A GF4MX would be the cheapest video card, but Nvidia's 2D reputation isn't as good as ATI's. Which leaves a Radeon 7500 or 9000/9000 Pro. Both will play even UT2K3 as long as the detail isn't cranked up, and have good 2D. The 7500 is about $50 and the 9000 Pro (I think only the Powercolour one is fanless) is about $80. The 7500 has a 350MHz DAC, the 9000 Pro has 400MHz. You then add the cost of a decent tuner card. Though of course two cards instead of one means more hastle.

At the end of the day, the decision between the 3 choices comes down to budget and how much emphasis you place on gaming, really.

tridion · Post by **tridion** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 2:13 am

Thanks for all the recommendations - very much appreciated.

If I was to get a separate TV tuner card, what would people recommend ? I would want to use the machine as a digital video recorder so the Hauppage PVR series looks good. Any others ? Pinnacle PCTV ?

TheMuffinMan · Post by **TheMuffinMan** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 5:21 am

Not all GeForce 4 MX's have no fans. Some of them have bigger and louder fans than some Ti's do.

ATI makes internal and external TV cards. They can do some pretty cool stuff (besides just letting you watch TV on your PC), like make a channel your desktop "picture"...a better description:

# Video Desktop - display live TV signal as video wallpaper

A link to newegg's ATI TV page

ATI's TV Wonder pages(s):
Internal models:
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/tvwonderve/index.html
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/tvwonder/index.html
USB Models:
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/tvwon ... index.html

All are fanless, BTW.

Bigg · Post by **Bigg** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 5:28 am

personaly, i'd get a r300 and put a zalman thingy on it. the AIW radeons usualy come with fans. oh, and matrox didn't blow it with the parhelia, its the best card on the mrket at the moment with it's triple head

Bigg · Post by **Bigg** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 5:49 am

oc system has an enhanced oced video card that has the zalman heatpipe thingy on it. with a quiet panaflow, it culd still keep its oc, and if u backed the oc off, it would be almost totaly fanless. u can get the cool in different colors too.

Alicey · Post by **Alicey** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 6:04 am

R300's probably slight overkill for someone who says they don't really play games =)

tridion · Post by **tridion** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 12:39 pm

Was looking at the Matrox G450 eTV but a review reckons it runs really hot and you end up having to have a fan blowing at it. This kind of defeats the object of buying the card because it is fanless.

Anyone have any opinions on this ?

Gandalf · Post by **Gandalf** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 12:47 pm

The Pinnacle TV cards are pretty affordable and nice!

tridion · Post by **tridion** » Sun Jan 12, 2003 10:59 am

looking into this further I see that I actually only need a VIVO card - I do not actually need a tuner in there to record TV. As TV is coming via a satellite box.

Is this correct ?

If so could someone recommend a VIVO card - with excellent TV output.

Bat · Post by **Bat** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 4:00 pm

I'm looking for much the same thing, but instead of wanting TV features I want a DVI output. Basically it just needs good 2D performance at 1600x1200 or better, and DVD (mpeg or whatever) acceleration would be nice.
Would the Matrox G400 be a good choice? Hard to find nowadays though.
Oh, and it needs to be something which has drivers for Xfree86.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 4:54 am

Bat wrote:I'm looking for much the same thing, but instead of wanting TV features I want a DVI output. Basically it just needs good 2D performance at 1600x1200 or better, and DVD (mpeg or whatever) acceleration would be nice.
Would the Matrox G400 be a good choice? Hard to find nowadays though.
Oh, and it needs to be something which has drivers for Xfree86.

I use the Radeon OEM ("Powered by ATI") 64MB 7500LE's for this exact purpose. They are fanless and have DVI-out and acceptable 3D. They're getting harder to find though. Maybe an ATI Radeon 9000. THey have DVI-out and no fan.

Bat · Post by **Bat** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 1:52 pm

Thankyou for the advice. Looks good.
Oh... I've found them with fans, but not without. I found a fanless Radeon 7000 (not 7500) but it only has 32Mb... perhaps it'll do anyway.
Alternatively, I might just see how the 7500 (or 7500LE) does without the fan, perhaps with a bigger heatsink, or I could include it in the water cooling system.

Incidentally, I've noticed the Linux Hardware Database at lhd.zdnet.com seems to have disappeared without trace. I wanted to check those graphics cards on there. Does anyone know what's become of it?

Luckystrike · Post by **Luckystrike** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 2:17 pm

MSI GNvidia eforce 4 MX440-T8X MS-8890 8xAGP 64MB DDR ram VideoCard with TV out
http://www.qmb.co.nz/showdetail.asp?productID=405

Cheap'n'nasty, tried'&'true, bang for ur buck & best of all SILENT.

Paul Jungnitsch · Post by **Paul Jungnitsch** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:12 pm

ATI AIW Radeon VE

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDE4

Fanless, cheap, and with a very sophisticated VIVO/TV system, the same as an AIW 9700

WhoIsThat · Post by **WhoIsThat** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:17 pm

I am going to say Radeon 9000 is your best bet. It's fast enough to play UT 2003 and yet it's fanless.