Noise of Radeon X1900XT 256mb

AndeeG · Post by **AndeeG** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:55 pm

I'm looking to build a new system for myself for the first time in the near future. I'm looking to buy a medium range graphics card to tide me over until dx10 comes out and more powerful cards with it. The x1900xt 256mb caught my eye on tom's hardware and looks to be just about the perfect midrange graphics card solution. However, i've been reading that it has an extremely loud fan. I'm hoping that my computer will be quietish so this might be a problem. Is the card really that loud?

Chocolinx · Post by **Chocolinx** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:30 pm

Practically all video card stock coolings are extremely loud. Unless however, you get a video card with aftermarket cooling slapped on to it already, although those ones usually you end up paying a premium.

It's usually cheaper to buy your own aftermarket cooler and slap it on yourself assuming you know what you're doing lol. It also really depends which way you want to go. Either you pick passive cooling, or fan cooling. For passive Thermalright has some nice ones and for fan cooling I'd suggest the Accelero X2. You might like the Zalman but I find it doesn't cool all the areas of the card and it blows the circulating air everywhere not making it very easy to duct or direct airflow.

Quiet Levels IMO (5 being the best):
Thermalright Passive: 5/5
Accelero X2: 4/5
Zalman V900: 3/5

Cooling Wise:
Thermalright Passive: 0-4/5 (Really depends on airflow of case)
Accelero X2: 4/5 (Very good overall cooling of all parts on the video card)
Zalman V900: 3.5/5 (Does better on cooling the core of the GPU than the X2 but doesn't cool other chips surrounding the GPU very well)

student · Post by **student** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:32 pm

Yes when you are gaming and for a good while after you finish. It's loud and noticable during quiet moments in games, sometimes spoiling the atmosphere. When idle and only doing 2D stuff, its definately noticable, but more in the quiet hum range.

I changed the stock reference (the one with the chick on it) heatsink on my Connect 3D X1900XT 256MB to an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2, which is very quiet, but that recirculates air in the case, resulting in a 5-10 degree in case tempurature rise, causing all my system fans to speed up, resulting in more noise.

Your best bet is to get a HIS X1900XT with one of its ICEQ3 coolers. They have fitted a custom, quiet heatsink fan combo which exhausts hot air outside. The extra premium they charge will be well worth it if you value quiet operation.

You should also check that your PSU is upto the task... I had to change out my Antec True380S for something more beefy because of constant crashing... and if you don't have PCI-E connectors from your PSU you will need a molex to 6pin PCI-E adaptor.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:00 am

you may want to wait for the x1950 pro. It doesn't have 48 shader units, but it does have a 600mhz core, 1400mhz ram, 256bit memory controller, and power color is selling a version with 512mb. The memory is gddr4, i believe, i could be mistaken. The chip is made on an 80nm process, so it may be somewhat cooler, and easier to silence than the full blown xt. I'm considering it myself, as it's price is supposed to drop to $199 very soon after it's availability, and the launch is today.

Chocolinx · Post by **Chocolinx** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:51 am

student wrote:Yes when you are gaming and for a good while after you finish. It's loud and noticable during quiet moments in games, sometimes spoiling the atmosphere. When idle and only doing 2D stuff, its definately noticable, but more in the quiet hum range.

I changed the stock reference (the one with the chick on it) heatsink on my Connect 3D X1900XT 256MB to an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2, which is very quiet, but that recirculates air in the case, resulting in a 5-10 degree in case tempurature rise, causing all my system fans to speed up, resulting in more noise.

Your best bet is to get a HIS X1900XT with one of its ICEQ3 coolers. They have fitted a custom, quiet heatsink fan combo which exhausts hot air outside. The extra premium they charge will be well worth it if you value quiet operation.

You should also check that your PSU is upto the task... I had to change out my Antec True380S for something more beefy because of constant crashing... and if you don't have PCI-E connectors from your PSU you will need a molex to 6pin PCI-E adaptor.

You had a 5-10C increase in temperature using X2? You must've done something wrong

I only had a 1C increase and that's before I had ducts. I made some cheap ass duct and have all my airflow on the bottom leading towards the front now resulting in a 8C decrease in over all ambient temps around the video card. Have the exhaust there can be pretty helpful if you use it properly.

There's just no way your overall temps increased 5-10C

The hot air blowing out of it's exhaust isn't hot enough to do that, unless your airflow is all out of wack.

student · Post by **student** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:21 am

Sorry, a clarifaction:

That tempurature rise is compared to my old Nvidia FX1400 graphics card which had an Arctic Cooling external exhaust cooler.

X2 vs stock cooler on the X1900XT is around half that amount, 2-5 degrees difference.

The X1900XT is a very hot running card.

I don't know how accurate these measurements are though... they are taken from Everest which uses internal sensors.

AndeeG · Post by **AndeeG** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:34 pm

ryboto wrote:you may want to wait for the x1950 pro. It doesn't have 48 shader units, but it does have a 600mhz core, 1400mhz ram, 256bit memory controller, and power color is selling a version with 512mb. The memory is gddr4, i believe, i could be mistaken. The chip is made on an 80nm process, so it may be somewhat cooler, and easier to silence than the full blown xt. I'm considering it myself, as it's price is supposed to drop to $199 very soon after it's availability, and the launch is today.

I just saw that on anandtech today. I'll definitely consider it as it seems like it offers more performance than the x1900gt for less money.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:28 am

AndeeG wrote: I just saw that on anandtech today. I'll definitely consider it as it seems like it offers more performance than the x1900gt for less money.

and it runs cooler, and consumes less power:). I wonder how a switch from 90nm to 80nm would benefit the R580. Probably not as much, as I'm sure voltages are higher, but the digital pwm used on the x1950 pro must help to reduce the overall heat generated and consumed.

AndeeG · Post by **AndeeG** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:44 pm

I just noticed that there's a 30 dollar rebate on the HIS IceQ3 on newegg so it's only 275 now (+shipping). This seems like a pretty good deal for what is a powerful and silent card. However, I might wait to see some more benchmarks and perhaps some info on its noise in comparison to the IceQ3 while I decide on a motherboard and RAM. (overwhelming!)

ionfresko · Post by **ionfresko** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:34 am

Hi, just a tip on how to make an 1900 more silent with stock cooloing: use AtiTrayTool and lower the fan speed to 18% (around 1200-1300rpm), at the lowest (say, below 65C), instead of at around 27% - makes a huge difference in noise!! Also, the temperature only rises to about 55-57 C as compared to 49 with original speed.

This has made me drop my plans for an aftermarket cooler - it is almost silent, even though, of course, when gaming, it gets pretty loud, but which matters less for me.

But be careful: if lowering lower than 18% (like 14-15), the fan cannot keep up - 18& seems to me the sweetspot, starting up stable at that speed if necessary, even from zero (even though ATT starts up high to make things running securely).

Regards, ionfresko