Help Finding a new silent card please!

daneldil · Post by **daneldil** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:28 am

Well my old GF4 Ti4200 with silent Zalman heat pipe is showing its age since I just purchased Far Cry and I am in need for a new card. The only problem is that my wife is a noise freak and gets mad at me with the whirling of fans in the computer room. Yes she can hea it, I swear she must be part wolf/woman! Anyway I am in need for help fidning a new card. I really don't feel like dealing with any fancy mods although the Zalaman mod removing my fan was not too hard but I would prefer to buy something already good to go.. I see that Sapphire makes a silent 9600xt or 9800Pro. Gainward makes a 5700 silent card with dual DVI which looks nice but doesnt seem like much of an upgrade. I read that MSI's 5900xt runs pretty quiet. Any help with suggestions for a silent card without doing hefty mods. Price under $250 is preferable since I just sprung for a new Dell 20" 2001FP setting me back $800.

Regards

Dan

Boomerang Rapido · Post by **Boomerang Rapido** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:41 pm

Well if you don't consider your ti4200 fast enough for Far Cry, you should probably stay away from the 9600. It's not all that much faster than the ti4200 as I recall, so you'd be out looking for another upgrade once the next big game comes around anyways.

shathal · Post by **shathal** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:54 pm

My FX 5200 isn't fast enough for farcry (PAINFUL.... real painful)...

... I'm just counting the days until I can order my HIS IceQ II X800XT

.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:37 pm

get the 9800 and the artic VGA silencer. it is really easy to put on. and together will be around 210-225. i think it is much safer then the huge zalmans

~RaNDoM

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 7:25 pm

9600 pro is *WAY* faster than the Ti 4200 in a DirectX 9 game! That is some serious misinformation you're spreading.

The 9600 pro is also faster across the board than the Ti 4200, as long as we are talking about the pro model. XT is faster still.

It will also run dramatically cooler than the Ti 4200. The 9600 is one of the coolest running cards you can buy (trivial passive), and by far the best bang for the watt:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=11657

Boomerang Rapido · Post by **Boomerang Rapido** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 11:17 pm

Maybe. I haven't seen a video card in ages that featured a ti4200, so I wouldn't know how it performs in the newest games when stacked up against the competition. But the tests I DID see when both cards were still big sellers did not seem to indicate the 9600 being miles ahead on performance.

Anyway my point was that, sure he'll see a performance gain with the 9600, but if he's unhappy with the performance of the ti4200 now, then it probably won't be that long till he is also unhappy with the 9600.

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 1:22 pm

did not seem indicate the 9600 being miles ahead on performance [vs the ti4200].

Look again, at DX9 results. What you say is true for the 9600 *non-pro* in DX8 class games.

That said, of course the 9800 pro will perform much better than the 9600 pro or xt. I'd go with that if you are a gamer.

Rook · Post by **Rook** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 1:06 pm

I'll toss in my recommendation for the Sapphire 9600XT ultimate (link in my sig). Every game I've tossed at it has run fine, however I'm not big on "cutting edge" games. If that's your ball of wax, the Sapphire 9800XT Ultimate would probably be a better option.

Cerb · Post by **Cerb** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 4:41 pm

9800 Pro or 5900XT minimum!
I went from a Ti 4200 to a 9600XT. It's nowhere near worth the upgrade.
The 5900XT (NV) and 9800 Pro (ATI) offer good performance for the money, and both blow away any 9600. The 9800 is better for newer DirectX games, and the 5900 is better for OpenGL and DX 8/8.1 games.

I've had a 9800SE, 9600XT and 5900XT. The 5900XT really felt like an upgrade. The others just didn't.