needing a low-budget, silent, decent gaming card

They make noise, too.

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Rewdoalb
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needing a low-budget, silent, decent gaming card

Post by Rewdoalb » Sun May 18, 2008 9:55 am

Now for some details.

This will be for a budget PC build, used for some gaming and some photoshop/video editing.

I was hoping to keep the video card around $75. Most of the games being played on this will be of the older variety. Since the budget is so low, I figured adding an Accelero S1 or other such fanless option will limit the card itself to less than $50. So I was really hoping to get a card which comes fanless from the start.

This is what I'm currently considering:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814127293

Passive 8600GT by MSI. I also like the rebate on it.

What I want to know is....
is there a cheaper card that offers similar performance? (passive)
is there a card that offers more performance for that same price?

thanks!
-Rewdoalb

angelkiller
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Post by angelkiller » Sun May 18, 2008 10:05 am

At this price point, I see three GPUs. The 2600XT, 3650, and 8600GT. This is a review of the 3650, that shows for the most part all three GPUs are about equal. One thing to note is that the GDDR3 versions are noticibly faster than the GDDR2 cards. Here are the passive, GDDR3 versions of those GPUs at Newegg. I see little difference between the cheapest and more expensive models.

Hope this helps. :)

sorenbro
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Post by sorenbro » Sun May 18, 2008 10:08 am

The 9600GT is a very good alternative to the 8600GT. It is a bit more expensive, but the performance is in a whole different league. It will run Assassins Creed with no problems.

The stock cooling of the 9600GT (after the drivers kick in) is very quiet, and i doubt that you would change it to the Accelero.

Rewdoalb
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Post by Rewdoalb » Mon May 19, 2008 10:35 am

thanks very much both of you for the advice. The 3650 review was quite helpful.

I'll discuss the budgeting of the PC with my friend (who this is for) and if he can manage to afford the 9600GT, we'll definitely pick up one of those. If we can't budget that in, then we simply just can't! At that point I'll probably stick with the MSI 8600GT that I posted. It has good reviews and is passive, plus a nice rebate good through the end of this month.

bgavin
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Post by bgavin » Mon May 19, 2008 12:28 pm

I have two of these:

MSI Passive Video Card

This card occupies 1.5 PCI slots, so it is big. The heat sink has a 4-way steel back plate that supports it. Very solid. This card also runs smokin' hot without an auxiliary cooler.

This is the solution to overheating

I bought several of the Rocket V coolers, and am delighted how well they work. The $9.99 price is just a bonus. According to advertising, these have bearings that are not the sleeve type. This is good, because sleeve bearings fail when used with a vertical axis, as is the case in a tower case.

The Rocket cooler keeps both video and SB completely cool in my Solo case. Low speed is very good for silent running and more than enough to cool down this hot card.

Fallsroad
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Post by Fallsroad » Mon May 19, 2008 6:01 pm

Rewdoalb wrote:
I'll discuss the budgeting of the PC with my friend (who this is for) and if he can manage to afford the 9600GT, we'll definitely pick up one of those.
If a 9600GT is in the cards, I can recommend this one wholeheartedly:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814134040

It kills my old 8600GT in games and runs 15C cooler at idle and full load, and is completely silent.

There is currently a $25 rebate on it.

Mikey
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Post by Mikey » Mon May 19, 2008 6:44 pm

^^ yep, totally - at that price point.

It's double what the MSI card is though. Older games will run fine on an 8600GT - guess it depends what ''old'' is though!

I had one of the MSI cards, it was fine with semi-current games on medium-ish settings, for example supreme commander.

:)

Cryoburner
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Post by Cryoburner » Tue May 20, 2008 2:24 am

Fallsroad wrote:If a 9600GT is in the cards, I can recommend this one wholeheartedly:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814134040

It kills my old 8600GT in games and runs 15C cooler at idle and full load, and is completely silent.

There is currently a $25 rebate on it.
That looks like a really nice card for the price. It comes factory overclocked, and includes an Accelero S2 for passive cooling, making it better than a standard 9600GT. It's probably worth the price difference over that 8600GT, considering it offers two to three times the performance. It should have no trouble running any current or near-future games with high visual settings.

What other components are going into the system? Perhaps funds could be diverted from something else to keep the price down.

Rewdoalb
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Post by Rewdoalb » Tue May 20, 2008 6:21 am

At this point, we're looking at:

Antec Solo (waiting on a rebate or else looking on ebay)
Gigabyte DS3L motherboard
2 GB RAM (G.skill) or 4GB if budget can fit $35 more
8600GT ?
Intel E2220 or E7200 if budget can fit $35 more
Seasonic 430 MII, modular if budget allows $99, otherwise non-modular at $79
WD 640GB HD
generic sata DVD burner

basically, if we went with the 9600GT, at least two and maybe all three of the other possible upgrades would get nixed. So would a E2220, 2 GB RAM, and non-modular be worth it to achieve the 9600GT? I'm just not sure.

FWIW, here's some background. My friend is upgrading from a dying P4 build with 1GB RAM and a NVIDIA 4 series graphics card. At this point he only plays games that would run on that old card.

Another thing to consider is upgradability. It's always easy enough to upgrade the RAM later, and he could also buy a new video card to put in without much difficulty. However, he's not likely to grab a modular PSU to replace the non-modular in a year. Neither would he be likely to upgrade the CPU.

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Tue May 20, 2008 8:15 am

considering games you play, 9600 GT is overkill... HD 3650 passive would serve your needs splendidly.

ninethreenine
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Post by ninethreenine » Tue May 20, 2008 11:25 am

Don't bother with a HD 3650, when a 2600XT is around the same price and is the better card (strange mind...)

It depends on the games, if you're playing older games such as Far Cry, Half Life 2, Quake 4, FEAR, Sims 2, and any Playstation 2 ports (Pro Evo, GTA) then any of the cards will do. A 2600XT/8600GT may get scoffed at by some, but they will run these games without a hitch. Heck a 2600XT can run UT3 on high settings at 40fps.

For example, I use a 256MB HD 2600XT that I got to replace my X800. The latter card struggled with Doom 3 (20fps), FEAR (25fps), Half Life 2 (30fps), and Far Cry (30fps) at 1280x1024 with x2 AA. My 2600XT runs Far Cry at 1280x1024 with x6 AA plus HDR (using the beta patch) at 70ish fps. In addition, it runs Oblivion at 30fps with HDR+AA.

The conclusion? Don't bother with a 9600GT unless you are going to be playing Crysis, or games at a considerably high resolution (I'd say 1920x1600.)

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Tue May 20, 2008 12:52 pm

it was my impression that HD 3650 was pretty equal with HD 2600-series, only tweaks was lesser power consumption and lower price...

Cryoburner
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Post by Cryoburner » Tue May 20, 2008 10:09 pm

For Photoshop and video editing, the faster processor and extra ram might be worthwhile upgrades. If you had to choose between the two, the processor would probably be the better choice, since additional memory could always be added relatively easily later on. The modular PSU might not be worth the added cost if you're trying to keep the price down though, as its benefits would be minimal.

While he currently only plays older games, that's probably because he doesn't bother trying to play anything his system can't run. An 8600/2600 level card would probably be enough to run most existing titles at reasonable settings, though newer and future games would benefit from the faster card. As far as gaming performance goes, the video card would be the limiting factor in that system.

CA_Steve
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Post by CA_Steve » Wed May 21, 2008 6:40 am

The hole that most people fall into when selecting a video card is forgetting about the monitor...if you are playing games at 1280 x 1024, nearly any new generation card will meet your needs for decent frames/sec play. It's when you move up to 1600x1050 (20 and 22" LCD monitors) that differences become apparent.

Here's a couple of relevant reviews
2600XT vs 8600GT
HD2400 and 2600 vs 8600GT

higher up:
9600GT vs HD 3850/3870

canthearyou
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Post by canthearyou » Sun Jul 27, 2008 12:24 pm

I'm shopping for a video card for a new system...my old one is an ATI 9600XT, so I'm not really up on what is available. I am thinking of going with NVIDIA. I can accept a card that plays older games well and newer games at lower settings, if it is cool, quiet and less expensive.

An ASUS 8600GT silent is less than $99 at newegg. The one with a fan is the same price.

However, the ASUS 9600GT after rebate is only $114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121242
Maybe I should go for the more modern card?

CA_Steve
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Post by CA_Steve » Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:10 pm

yes. Note that there's also a wide range of silent 9600gt cards out there.

aztec
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Post by aztec » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:48 pm

I got that same Asus card for $104AR from the EGG 2 weeks ago.

The only thing I did not like about the card was it only had a 2-pin fan header. No way of controlling or monitoring fan speed.

I've since switched to an Accelero S1 Rev 2 for cooling.

This card is as fast as my old 8800GTS (640mb), and drawing less power with better temps. So i'm very happy with it.

You can still get an EVGA 9600GT for $104AR and get an SR1 for $22 from SVC.

canthearyou
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Post by canthearyou » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:34 pm

I wonder if the ASUS 9600GT silent at $109 after rebate would be better than getting the cheaper 9600GT and mounting the accelero? Or just get one with active cooling?

aztec
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Post by aztec » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:05 pm

You may want to wait a week or so if you decide on the 9600GT.

55nm 9600GT is *supposed* to be out very soon.

http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=M ... FzdCwsLDE=

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:39 pm

If you don't mind dealing with rebates and willing to spend a little extra on Accelero S2 here's another option for you:

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-PVT88SFDF4-Ge ... 0012W1TSC/

8800GS 384MB. Should beat most of the options so far. With Accelero S2 should come out around 80-85 after rebate, but of course you gotta wait for the $30 rebate.

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:18 am

8800 GS is also known as 9600 GSO...

CA_Steve
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Post by CA_Steve » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:20 am


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