I am building a quiet desktop system with a P182 case and I'm looking for a quiet, low heat, and low power consumption graphics card. Although I am an occasional gamer, I don't need to play the latest and greatest games, but I would like to get the best card that meets the previous requirements.
Based on power consumption it looks like nvidia cards do better than ATI for the same performance (correct me if i'm wrong), so I am basically looking at a 7900GS or 8600GT.
I am confused because I read some reviews that say the 7900 outperforms the 8600 in gaming. However, the 7900 supposedly uses less power, so why does the more efficient 8600 use more power AND perform worse? Which one is actually better?
Also, I was looking at passively cooled cards but I heard that they get really hot. I'm not sure yet what sort of airflow I'll have with the P182 because I haven't gotten it yet, but I am wondering if a fanless card will be sufficient, and if not, which models have relatively quiet fans?
quiet, cool, good performing card for p182 system
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quiet, cool, good performing card for p182 system
Last edited by rotud on Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
I have a 7950GT with an HR-03 and there is absolutely no airflow around it. It idles at 56C with an ambient temp of about 80F. The 7950GT is a good choice if you don't plan on playing any DX10 games in the near future. If you do plan on DX10 gaming sometime soon, then the 8600 series wouldn't be bad choices either. All the 8600s can be cooled passively. It all depends on whether you plan on playing DX10 games or not.
On a side note, "performant" is not an adjective. I think the words you're looking for are "fast" or "good performing."
On a side note, "performant" is not an adjective. I think the words you're looking for are "fast" or "good performing."
First, I'm not planning on playing DX10 games, and I'm not too concerned with the H.264 decoding capabilities of the 8000 series.ck8-04 wrote:I have a 7950GT with an HR-03 and there is absolutely no airflow around it. It idles at 56C with an ambient temp of about 80F. The 7950GT is a good choice if you don't plan on playing any DX10 games in the near future. If you do plan on DX10 gaming sometime soon, then the 8600 series wouldn't be bad choices either. All the 8600s can be cooled passively. It all depends on whether you plan on playing DX10 games or not.
However, I was really hoping to avoid buying a separate HSF. There are quite a few 8600 boards with passive cooling, but lately i'm leaning towards a 7900 or 7950, and all the 7900 boards i've looked at are described as loud.
This review says that the 7950 consumes more power than a 7900 yet is quieter due to new fan designs. Is there an updated 7900 model with a quiet "stock" HSF?
edit: Has anyone tried this one: XFX PVT71JUHE4 GeForce 7950GT and know if it stays cool?
The XFX passive series are as silent as you can get. The 7950GT doesn't start to throttle until the core reaches 130C, so it should be fine. I would imagine that it would run about as warm as mine.
Last edited by ck8-04 on Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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angelkiller
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Than you need a 7900GS. You can rule out the 8000 series for the reasons you listed above. I know of no passive 7900GS, but for a bit more money, you can get a passive 7950GT. It has all the performance an occasional gamer could ask for with zero noise. I would strongly recommend the passive 7950GT. If this is too expensive a cheap 7900GS and a HR-03 is about $20 less. Performance is still more than an occasional gamer needs.rotud wrote:I'm not planning on playing DX10 games, and I'm not too concerned with the H.264 decoding capabilities of the 8000 series.
EDIT: Any passive card will run hot. Surprisingly hot. But its still safe most GPUs can safely run at over 100C! But this card will be very hot but not dangersouly so. As long as your case has reasonable airflow, you should be OK.
Hope this helps.
Wow, 130C is insanely hot. I can't believe it doesn't melt at that temperature.angelkiller wrote: Than you need a 7900GS. You can rule out the 8000 series for the reasons you listed above. I know of no passive 7900GS, but for a bit more money, you can get a passive 7950GT. It has all the performance an occasional gamer could ask for with zero noise. I would strongly recommend the passive 7950GT. If this is too expensive a cheap 7900GS and a HR-03 is about $20 less. Performance is still more than an occasional gamer needs.
EDIT: Any passive card will run hot. Surprisingly hot. But its still safe most GPUs can safely run at over 100C! But this card will be very hot but not dangersouly so. As long as your case has reasonable airflow, you should be OK.
Hope this helps.
The 7900GS supposedly uses about 15 fewer watts than the 7950GT (18.9 vs 25.8 at idle, 45.1 vs 61.1 with load). Does that mean it will run cooler? If I get the 7900gs + HR-03 can I expect significantly better temps on the GPU and inside the case?
Just because a card consumes 15 watts less than another does not necessarily mean the lower power card will output less heat. Heat output is a measure of the card's efficiency at using the power. A 100% efficient card that consumes 150 watts will output no heat while a 50% efficient card that consumes 80 watts will output 40 watts of heat. But in general, the lower the power consumption, the lower the heat output.
Yes, a 7900GS with an HR-03 and some airflow will outperform the stock cooler. The card should be fine passively with little or no airflow, however. It shouldn't have much effect on your overall system temeratures since the HR-03 was designed to run with very little airflow.
Yes, a 7900GS with an HR-03 and some airflow will outperform the stock cooler. The card should be fine passively with little or no airflow, however. It shouldn't have much effect on your overall system temeratures since the HR-03 was designed to run with very little airflow.