Low noise to quiet video card request

[riversend]

All,
I need to upgrade my video card, currently I am running an E6750 (stock), 4GB of DDR2-800 on Win7 HP 32bit, game at 1680x1050 using a 8600GTS from MSI that is passively cooled.

I don't have much time for gaming, so usually some older titles stack up and I get to them much later (for instance I just finished all the HL2 titles which of course the 8600GTS worked fine). Now I am looking to pick up Mass Effect (original, but could lead to the 2nd) and am running Empire: Total War since it was on sale this weekend for $10. Anyway, want to kick up the effects on both, Empire is definitely slowed by the video card.

Looking for two things:

-Can spend $150-200 or so on the card, don't care if it is green or red
-Quiet is fairly important, my current rig while not silent, is quiet all the time, and I don't want it to get much noisier than it is now (seems like with the increase in ram on the cards there are few folks with passive stock solutions for video cards)
-I would probably look at picking up ME2 or some other current titles in the next year-18mos.

What I've picked up on:
In the $150 range, seems like the available choices are the GT250 class (9800GTX) or the Radeon 5750/5770 class. Or wait and see what Fermi does since the mid-range product will likely have to meet ATI prices... but can't bank on anything with that chipset. Have not really looked at the 150-200 range.

8600GTS will likely move to an HTPC I plan on building in the next 12 months or so.

Thanks for the help.

RE

 

[RobsTV]

The HD 5750 is available passively cooled, so you could get one of them, or change other 5750's or possibly 5770 to passive cooling.

I moved from a passively cooled HD 4830 to a normal HD 5770 with the intent on changing it's cooling to passive, but the HD 5770 ( 1gig powercolor pcs+) runs so cool and dead quiet when fan is at 36%, I left it alone. This is for a living room HTPC, where any little noise is easily heard, so dead silence was required.

 

[riversend]

I will take a look at the powercooler 5770, and although it is in an HTPC do you use it for any gaming or activity that would cause you to need higher fan speeds?

 

[RobsTV]

Yes, I use the 5770 in a HTPC for gaming on a 50" plasma TV, which is why I upgraded to it from a 4830. I have not needed to turn the fan speed up when gaming. Keep in mind that the 5770 runs cooler than the 4830 (which I later ran without any fan after switching heatsink). 4830 passive cooler was ZALMAN|VNF100, CPU cooler used is SCYTHE|SCSK-1100. 120mm silient case fan blows towards video card slot.

many reviews comparing power consumption, noise and temperature.
Here is just one example showing the advantages of the 5770:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=13

Those results are just an example of stock, and can not be directly compared to how I use the cards. Since I was used to no fan, I manually adjusted fan down until it was silent, which was around 36%. That is still more fan than the hotter 4830 had. End result is much faster gaming HTPC, that runs cooler, without noise. Of course results will be different depending on many things, such as ambient indoor temps (usually tropical 80+ here), enclosures, and how close it all is to you, plus much more.