Is there much of a noise difference between 9500pro & 9600pro?

[Timmyotule]

I'm looking to order one of these cards this weekend and it seems that the the 9500pro has the definite speed advantage. But does anyone know how much louder its fan is? I'm guessing the 9600pro will be a fair bit quiter since it has the .13u core. Any experience or data on this?

Currently the loudest component of my system is the WD hard drives and I'd like to keep it that way. I know I could get the Zalman heatpipe passive video card cooler for silent running but I don't really want to spend $35 extra for that. I have the Zalman bracket that holds a 92mm fan over the CPU, if I added another 92mm fan to this that blew directly onto the video card would it be enough to keep it cool with out the stock fan?

Maybe I could do this, and keep the stock fan but drop its voltage....

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Viper96720]

Looks like the 9600Pro's fan looks similar to the fan the 8500's had.

 

[Timmyotule]

So does that mean it should be fairly quiet?

 

[Viper96720]

Should be I got a 9500Pro and the case fans are easier to hear.

 

[Fallen Kell]

If you are debating between these two cards, don't worry about the noise. The clear winner is the 9500 Pro in performance. The noise is truely secondary when there is a fairly significant performance difference between the cards. If you manage to overclock the 9600 Pro to 550 core then you might get performance that is on par with the 9500 Pro, but that is a SIGNIFICANT overclock. Don't remember where I read this, but it was a in a comparison between the new generation 9600 vs 9500 cards. Basically, the 9600 non-pro is slightly better then the 9500 non-pro hence the use of numbers higher then 9500, but the Pro's are no where near each other in terms of performance. The 9500 Pro hands down beats the crap out of the 9600 Pro.

 

[Timmyotule]

Granted if performance is your number one priority then everything else is secondary, but if noise is the top priority, or on par with performance...

Viper: You said the 9600p fan is like the 8500, then said you had a 9500pro. Is this a typo on the 9500pro or do you have that and the case fans are noisier?

I have the low speed NMB fans and you can't even hear them.

I may look for the Tyan G9500 pro that has an adjustable speed fan, anyone now where I can get one of these at a good price?

 

[JZilla]

You know you could wait for the 9600 non-pro, as it doesn't have a fan. That's what I am doing.

 

[camswinton]

I'm also waiting for the 9600 (non-pro w/passive cooling). Any idea when we'll begin seeing the non-pro versions? Any guesses concerning the price?

 

[Corporate Thug]

oced 9500 pro and oced 9600 pro gives you identical performance. if your not planning on ocing, the 9600 pro is not the right choice for you

 

[Viper96720]

Get the 9600Pro if you want a quiet fan. The one on there is small. Notice the big size difference between the two. It may even be possible to run the 9600Pro without the fan just a heatsink on top. With the amount its overclocking with just that little thing on there.
9600 Pro pic

9500pro

 

[Timmyotule]

Thanks for the advice, I probably going to go with the 9500pro and then get a Zalman Heatpipe cooler from SVC so there's no noise. I figure it'll be worth it in the long run since those little video card fans die on me once a year or so.