They also test the sonics of the cards, so I'll summarize the least noisy cards here from that test.
SUMMARY:
His Radeon X800 XT PE IceQ II is the most silent stock ultra high performance 3D VGA card tested in the group. Nothing else comes even close.
All 6800 (Ultra or GT) cards are very noisy. Even the least noisy is twice as loud subjectively than the second best Radeon X800.
Code: Select all
X800 models
Rank Manufacturer/model min/max noise
1: HIS Excalibur Radeon X800 XT PE IceQ II 0,3/0,8 sone
.
.
2: Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro 0,8/2,2 sone
3: MSI RX800 Pro TD256 0,7/2,7 sone
.
.
.
.
.
.
last: Asus AX800XT TD Radeon X800 XT PE 6,2/6,2 sone
Other cards: Sapphire Radeon X800XT, Asus AX800 Pro TD and Club 3D X800 Pro
were also quite noisy (between the third and the last in terms of noise).
6800 models
1:MSI NX 6800 TD128 2,0/4,0 sone
.
2:Sparkle GeForce 6800 128Mb 3,2/4,3 sone
.
.
.
.
last: Sparkle Geforce 6800 Ultra 6,7/9,8 sone
Other cards: AOPen Aeolus 6800U, Gainward 6800 Ultra Extreme 2600 Golden Sample,
Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra TDH, Leadtek Winfast A400 GT TDH and MSI NX6800 Ultra T2D256
were also VERY noisy (compare to Radeon cards). Closer to the worst card than the best.
Sound was measured in sone, which gives a better idea of how humans will hear the sound level differences. A sone reading that is twice as big as another sone reading is a sound that is subjectively twice as loud.
IMHO, there is a BIG market for better VGA solutions and the demand is growing all the time.
More companies need to come up with a stock solution to compete with the HIS offering as it currently stands, they now have a practical dominance in terms of product quality.
