A quiet tide me over card

Nino_fs · Post by **Nino_fs** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:59 am

I am specing out a new system and I am having trouble picking out a VGA.

My current system is getting too slow and I want to go from AGP to PCI cards. Right now I am running a Radeon 9800pro which is a great card and has served me well but it is loud as sin.

I definately want to make the leap to directX 10 cards but I want to wait for them to release some cheaper budget versions that are not as power hungry and destructive to my wallet. So what I am looking for is a "cheap" quiet card to tide me over until the dx10 cards become reasonable.

I was wondering if anyone knows what type of performance increase I can expect going from my 9800pro to something like a 7600GT, 7600GS or 7900GS.

For an idea of prices(in CAD):
BFG 7900GS 179.00
BFG 7600GT 219.00
BFG 7600GS 159.00
Saphire X1650Pro 165.00
XFX 7600GT 162.00

Any suggestions? I would like to keep the price below 200.00. Does anyone know about where the 9800pro lands in terms of performance among the newer cards because all comparisons don't go back that far. The comparison I am looking at goes back to x600pro.

If the stock cooling on these cards turns out to be too loud any suggestions? Or what companies make the equivalents of the above cards with passive cooling or good cooling built in?

Khato · Post by **Khato** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:40 pm

The 9800pro is probably closest to an X800 GT. The X800 GT has two more vertex shaders and a bit higher core/memory clocks, but not a whole lot.

7900GS is definitely the best of those cards listed - it's the only one with 256 bit memory bus, and is 20 'pipeline' versus 12 for the 7600's. There are a number of good cooling options for the cards as well, primarily since the 7900 isn't all too hot of a core over all.

Nino_fs · Post by **Nino_fs** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:08 pm

Any thoughts on the X800xl? It seems to outperform the 7600gs and get better framerates in most games. the 7600GT beats it in some games and loses out in others. But the big advantage is I can get one for a measily $140 canadian. Which is a $40 savings on the 7600GS. Also the 7900GT seems to be a sale so if the say ends it price goes up beyond the range I want to spend.

The big thing is this is just a card to tide things over until August or so when some more reasonable Dx10 cards are out.

How is the X800 XL for heat and noise?

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:34 pm

NVidia announced the more mainstream versions of the 8800.

The 8600 Ultra sounds like a winner, $179.

Not sure when available.

mrzed · Post by **mrzed** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:14 pm

I just picked up the BFG 7900gs from NCIX in the weekly sale. I'm not a power gamer, but so far I am running Oblivion at 1360*768 with mid level details and it is smooth. It would be great leaps above the 9800pro.

The best thing for me is, at idle, it is inaudible. There is a start-up burst, then it settles down to some very low speed. Cranking up the games gets it going, and by that point it is nowhere near quiet, but for me, that's not a problem, as I always have the game soundtrack drowning it out.

Only minor issue is, it takes forever to ramp down after using 3D, sometimes I have rebooted to get it to calm down.

I was originally intending to get aftermarket cooling, but the idle noise is so low that I may just put up with it.