I need a silent/quiet $200-$250 card for games! Help!

They make noise, too.

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Audiophiliac
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I need a silent/quiet $200-$250 card for games! Help!

Post by Audiophiliac » Fri May 19, 2006 6:03 pm

Well, I have started playing games once in a while and the X300 just isnt cutting it. I have a new Acer Ferrari 20.1" LCD and need something that will run it at 1680*1050 for games like BF2 and Oblivion.

I was looking at some of the passive options, but they seem to be mid to lower end performing cards. I just want something passive or near silent (I am not opposed to adding a quiet cooler), that will get me high framerates in games. :)

Any ideas? I have been out of the PC loop since mine is cruising right along without any problems (until now).

Thanks!

(here is my old build thread.... http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... highlight=)

nici
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Post by nici » Fri May 19, 2006 8:10 pm

1680*1050... The X1800 XT fits your price-range, has sightly better performance than the 7900GT, is a few tenners cheaper than the 7900GT, but runs hotter than the 7900GT.

So if i lived in the states where i could get a x1800 XT for 240$(OEM version at newegg) thats what i would get, and add an aftermarket cooler.

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri May 19, 2006 8:15 pm

7800 or 7900 run MUCH cooler than x1800-x1900.

i like the x1000 series better though with avivo and all in wonder combined and the mega anti aliasing, but thats just me. plus I have a mitsubishi CRT 22 inch artist's monitor, so really, I look for be analog output too.

7800GT is best price/performance/watt.

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Post by derekva » Fri May 19, 2006 8:17 pm

I'm pretty damn happy with the eVGA 7600GT CO with a Zalman ZM80D-HP and a 92mm Nexus fan running at 5V. Pretty much inaudable over my Seagate 7200.7 drives. Of course, installing a ZM80D is a major PITA, but it does the job.

Alternately, you could go with with a VF900CU or a Thermalright V-1 Ultra (you'll have to order it from overseas) on the 7600GT.

-Derek

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri May 19, 2006 8:25 pm

that is a good option if you have 2005 games and keep things that way.

anything new gets crushed at regular resolutions :(

why im making the jump to highest level cards just not the OC or XTX versions.

Audiophiliac
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Post by Audiophiliac » Fri May 19, 2006 8:27 pm

Thanks for the replies so far.

After reading a test of several video cards on Oblivion, it seems that in order to get really good results, I need to step up to the X1900 or 7900 series cards. And these only give good results up to 1280 resolution. So it seems that 1680 just isnt going to happen without a loss of quality.

I think I will try to find a deal on an X1900XT and get a big quiet cooler for it.

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri May 19, 2006 9:07 pm

a x1900xt will Double the heat and wattage of a regular gaming system.

couldnt conceive of the 7900GT ? evga has a great one and it can be cooled realistically. xt or xtx of 1900 im going to doubt heavily that it can be cooled silently.

it does look better for oblivion, but eh, that's just one game. That and FEAR can go shove it. They are eye candy games that are decent games but not stellar. (I think fear actually looks ugly, amazing effects but ugly and boring artistically, at least oblivion has art)

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Post by frostedflakes » Fri May 19, 2006 9:34 pm

The 256MB X1000 cards are actually pretty efficient (50-60w I believe), but the high-end 512MB cards really use a lot of power, they're the ones in the 100-120w range.

I would say 7900GT or 7900GTX if you were just a gamer in general, but the ATi cards do seem to run Oblivion a bit better than the 7900 series according to the benches I've seen, so if Oblivion is what you'll mainly be playing I'd stick w/them.

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri May 19, 2006 9:48 pm

only the x1900 is worth a darn currently. the shaders on it give it an unforeseen edge on all newer games out.

x1800xl is a decent choice and doesnt run that hot, but its like discontinued in the face of a new, cool, 2006 7900GT... ehh...

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Post by Zorander » Sat May 20, 2006 6:52 am

Guys, I'm currently playing Oblivion too and not too impressed with the performance my current video card is giving me. I need a better card.

The thing is, my motherboard is AGP and I'm not financially ready to upgrade to a PCI-e mobo as well (unless there is a mobo+video card combo that will outperform a single AGP card upgrade at the same cost or just a little bit more). I'm quite confused at the choices available out there. Apparently things aren't as simple as it used to be 3 years ago. What chipset would you recommend as a worthy upgrade to the Radeon 9800Pro? Assuming the stock cooler will not be quiet by SPCR standards, what cooler would you recommend too? Do you think my current Antec 330W PSU will handle the new card?

Cheers!


p.s.
Full system spec:
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+
ASUS A8V-Deluxe (AGP)
2x512MB CAS2 Corsair Platinum
ATI Radeon 9800Pro
M-Audio Revolution
Seagate 7200.8
Antec TruePower 330
Sony G420 19"

nici
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Post by nici » Sat May 20, 2006 7:09 am

Theres not really any fast cards available for AGP anymore, and the fastest AGP cards are old stock so they cost more than equivalent PCI-E cards... IMHO your best bet would be to get a cheap mobo that actually works, like the AsRock DualSata thing at about 60$ or something, and then a PCI-E card for that.

Your PSU should handle a 7900GT for example. Someone more knowledgeable about the latest GPUs in different price ranges will probably give better advice.. It would help to know your budget though :)

Zorander
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Post by Zorander » Sat May 20, 2006 7:32 am

I believe there are AGP flavours of the X850 & 7900, but I have no idea on how they perform and what they cost. I haven't got a specific budget at this stage, but let's put it around $250-300 (inc. any coolers I will need to get - unless I can re-use my old AC cooler and/or Zalman ZM80D-HP).

I just want better performance in Oblivion. I'm not a heavy-gamer but do play most popular games in single player mode, and appreciate decent performance.

Cheers!

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sat May 20, 2006 8:12 am

dood, you really have to ditch your motherboard and get a Asrock dualsata-II motherboard for 65 dollars or so from newegg.com

like now!

You have a dual core chip and an overpriced case, yet you cant afford a new motherboard?

just look at the dual sata board. you dont have to get a new vid card it supports pcie and agp.

agp = dead. 7800gs exists and is overpriced and designed to sap the cash from people who refuse to upgrade. I stopped this madness and went full pci-express.

yes agp is just as fast as the top pci-e card outputs, but heck, we have to make someone else rich besides ourselves (who are getting poorer) right?

pci-e ='s gimic of course, but the new vid cards are that way, and discounts can be gotten on them. Funny thing is, the new aegia physics card is pci regular. this made me laugh so hard. I KNEW there was NO reason for pci-e but people said "physics add ons are going to be pci e blah blah" and look, it is not the case.

anyways. go check out asrock's board. its phat in a non plump way.

Zorander
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Post by Zorander » Sat May 20, 2006 8:27 am

How does that Asrock mobo fare with the competition? I had always thought that if I were to upgrade to a PCI-e mobo I would be going with one of those passively-cooled nForce4 boards.

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sat May 20, 2006 12:20 pm

ohmygosh

you mentioned my bane.

A passively cooled nforce4 board is a really hot northbridge and southbridge glued together with a passive sink on it. It wasnt meant to be passive, but the companies want you to buy it and so they put a passive sink on it.

in truth, it gets very hot and offers no performance gains over a separated north and south bridge. Uli 1695 is the north and the south, i forget what it is. the functions are split up. It naturally is passive and has small sinks on it. Please be sure to remove them and reapply compound with as5. they are half-assed done by underpaid malaysian slaves or whatever. The board temps drop to 39 degrees in a single fan system when thermal compound is re-applied properly.

plus, the passive nforce4 solutions from the big companies are over 120 dollars for a good board. The asrock has the same performance than the majority of the asus/abit motherboards for gaming so really, there's no point in looking elsewhere for a person in your shoes.

those were my shoes a few months ago, and i am glad i switched.

Zorander
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Post by Zorander » Sat May 20, 2006 4:04 pm

Gee thanks. I will consider the Asrock board then (are there alternatives too?). Cheers!

p.s. I purchased my dual-core CPU, Antec case and RAM modules more than half a year ago when I had the budget for it all. Right now I don't have such budget yet. :)

mattthemuppet
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Post by mattthemuppet » Sat May 20, 2006 5:41 pm

there's always the option of the 7900-chipped 7800GS AGP cards, though price/ availability are pretty unknown. Then you have to wonder if the premium over regular PCI-E cards is going to equal the cost of a PCI-E card and mobo...

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Post by BrianE » Sat May 20, 2006 7:53 pm

I'm sure if you browse a large online parts store you can get some ideas for semi-powerful AGP cards. I haven't played Oblivion, but the May PC Gamer actually recommended an (older) X800 series video card for a "bang for your buck" solution to upgrade for Oblivion. Maybe you could run it at a lower resolution like 1440x900 also? I heard you could do that sometimes and it looks okay despite not being the monitor's native resolution.

Personally I don't like the idea of trying to upgrade the motherboard, which is a fairly major undertaking and I think you may have to do a lot of re-installing (including Windows) if you change that.

This page is in Cdn dollars, but it may give you some ideas:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... orcatid=49

Zorander
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Post by Zorander » Sun May 21, 2006 10:48 pm

It does not look like a moherboard upgrade is a feasible idea for me unfortunately, so I will have to stick by AGP cards. Can someone tell me how much x850 cards normally cost, whether on Ebay (I don't mind used, as long as it is working) or new? Also, how much faster (and hotter) is the 7800GS? They both come in different price ranges, but which would be the better value of the two?

Cheers!

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Post by mattthemuppet » Mon May 22, 2006 6:04 pm

I think the X850 was ATI's premium card of the day and attracted premium prices (equivalent to 7900GTX 512 cards now), you can still buy them for NZ$1000 here which is bonkers. The 7800GS should consume less power than an X850, as it's essentially a slightly downclocked 7800GT. There's a post in this forum about the Xbitlabs VGA power consumption article, or I think it's at the end of this stickie, and the 7800GT comes in around 5 + 15W, idle and load respectively, than the X850. I'd go with the 7800GS, though bear in mind that there's a raft of 7-series cards with 90nm scale chips coming out soon for AGP and that not many aftermarket coolers fit the AGP 7800GS. Might be worth waiting a few months if you can?
Last edited by mattthemuppet on Mon May 22, 2006 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Filias Cupio
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Post by Filias Cupio » Mon May 22, 2006 8:44 pm

I upgraded from a 9200 AGP to a 6600GT AGP to play Oblivion. Other than the fact that I've not silenced it yet (I've posted about that separately in this forum today) I'm happy with it for this purpose.

The default video settings were conservative, and it was much prettier once I'd increased the viewing distances for buildings to max and most other things to about 50%. I'm playing at either 800x600 or 1024x768 - not sure which. I don't generally play FPS type games, my standards may be lower than yours.

There is a passively cooled AGP 6600GT. There's a discussion of it on this forum somewhere - about 50% found it fine, about 50% were getting bad overheating. I decided not to risk it, and got an actively cooled one which I'm now looking at options for silencing.

But the cheap PCI-E motherboard route may still be better for you.

Zorander
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Post by Zorander » Tue May 23, 2006 12:20 am

IIRC a 6600GT has about the same performance as a 9800Pro...

As for the 7800GS vs x850 pro, I've been able to locate the latter for significantly cheaper price on Ebay. The former still seems to carry a premium everywhere. I might be wrong though... (correct me?)

Cheers!

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Post by BrianE » Tue May 23, 2006 3:25 pm

Zorander wrote:IIRC a 6600GT has about the same performance as a 9800Pro...

As for the 7800GS vs x850 pro, I've been able to locate the latter for significantly cheaper price on Ebay. The former still seems to carry a premium everywhere. I might be wrong though... (correct me?)

Cheers!
While it depends what benchmarks you're looking at, I'm pretty sure that the 6600GT still beats out the older 9800 Pro, especially in newer games. I was comparing these two sometime last year because I was going to buy one.

It's really hard to find benchmarks comparing the X850 Pro to anything (I don't recall a lot of reviews to begin with....), but I found one comparing the 7800GS to the X850XT link and (if I'm reading it right) it compares well to the XT in some cases. The Pro version of the X850 will have lower clocks and fewer pipelines so as a guess the 7800GS might offer more performance.

There's more review links on this page too: Here

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Post by oakdad » Tue May 23, 2006 8:01 pm

I bet this card would so fit the bill if only there was a good way to get Gainward in North America.
http://www.gainward.net/products/produc ... ucts_id=51

Zorander
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Post by Zorander » Wed May 24, 2006 4:39 am

Seems that the 6800GS can be had for about the same price as the x850Pro. Are there any reviews or comparisons between the two, heat- and performance-wise? What are your opinions on each of these? Thanks!

paulesko
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Post by paulesko » Wed May 24, 2006 6:04 am

asus has a fanless 7600gt for about 230€ here in europe, it shoul be a good choice. Gigabyte´s has anotherone, and it´s cheaper

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Post by mattthemuppet » Wed May 24, 2006 7:42 pm

for performance + power consumption, this is a pretty useful review. Looks like there isn't an awful lot in it - so price will probably be the deciding factor. Future proofing an AGP system seems kinda pointless :) and the conclusion made an interesting point about cost of high end AGP cards vs. their PCI-E counterparts, especially where the difference can equal the price of a cheap PCI-E mobo!

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Post by Jolt » Fri May 26, 2006 11:56 pm

Since Oblivion has been mentioned quite a bit in this thread, this is a nice comprehensive benchmark:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746

I have a 7600GT atm and it's running nice and cool, and has decent performance in Oblivion (1024x768, mediumish settings, HDR enabled). Anything higher would probably be a bit too choppy.

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