7900GTX: Way too expensive for what it offers, especially considering the X1900XT costs considerably less yet outperforms it in just about every game.
X1900XT: goshawfully loud and runs very hot. the epitome of what NOT to get for a quiet PC.
X1800XT: similar design to X1900XT.
7900GT: almost perfect except for the stock fan being one of the dinky ones that is not only noisier than the one on the 7900GTX but also tend to be very short-lived.
7600GT: Asus offers an over-priced silent version but as is typical with passive cooling on GPUs, it runs hotter and thus will have a shorter lifespan. On top of this it's not exactly a star performer in recent games at the resolutions I would game at. The stock fan on the reference cooler is again the dinky little, noisy, short-lived style common to most other video cards out there such as the X1900GT and many other older ATi models..
7600GS: Made for passive cooling, but also poor performance.
My current X800XL w/ Zalman cooler (it came like that stock - Sapphire model) is more powerful than the 7600GS and also the 7600GT I believe.
I want to upgrade to improve gaming performance but have little to no options currently it seems. This is frustrating.
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
More so since I have no interest in taking apart a $250-300 product, risking damage to it, just to put an aftermarket cooler on it that rarely fits right anyway without further effort and modification.
What I would ideally want:
The 7900GT to come with the 7900GTX's cooler. $260 is fine. 7900GT performance is fine. 7900GTX's cooling setup is fine. Combine those and I'd be sold.