Quiet Video Card?

[piasabird]

I have a Sapphire Radeon 9000 and it works pretty good. I Probably couldnt play Halo Very Well, but it is pretty good. You can probably get by with a 9200. It is only the newest 3D games that would give you trouble.

 

[nick1985]

This gets my vote....:beer:

 

[stringcheeseincident]

i'm using a Sapphire Radeon 9600 NP 128mb that only uses a heatsink. it works for me.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: Matthias99
OTOH, the 9800Pro is like 50% faster for the same price and a little extra labor (and voiding your warranty)...

Same price? Do tell! The best most of us have seen is about $210 for the 9800 Pro, plus around $30 for the cooler, which does still need some help from a low-speed fan, because the 9800 Pro is pretty hot. (BTW, I took the 9800 Pro + fanless cooler route. It gets burn-your-fingers HOT without some air flowing over it.)

I didn't bother checking the newegg prices; you had a mistake in your earlier post (which you have since corrected) saying that the 9600 Pro Ultimate was the same price as the 9800Pro + cooler (it's not; the 9800Pro + cooler is nearly $100 more). Thus my comments look rather silly now.

Yes, the 9800Pro runs REALLY hot under load if you don't have good airflow. It's within spec (the heatsinks on the regular 9800Pro get damn hot, too), but a little disconcerting. I added the low-profile Zalman fan that clips onto the heatpipe assembly, and that brought the temp of the thing down quite a bit.

Also worth noting: there's a refurb 9700Pro 'Ultimate' on newegg right now for $179...

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Get any ATI card and replace the HSF with an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer. On low all you can hear is a faint whooshing sound if your ear is right by the exhaust.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: Matthias99
OTOH, the 9800Pro is like 50% faster for the same price and a little extra labor (and voiding your warranty)...

Same price? Do tell! The best most of us have seen is about $210 for the 9800 Pro, plus around $30 for the cooler, which does still need some help from a low-speed fan, because the 9800 Pro is pretty hot. (BTW, I took the 9800 Pro + fanless cooler route. It gets burn-your-fingers HOT without some air flowing over it.)

I didn't bother checking the newegg prices; you had a mistake in your earlier post (which you have since corrected) saying that the 9600 Pro Ultimate was the same price as the 9800Pro + cooler (it's not; the 9800Pro + cooler is nearly $100 more). Thus my comments look rather silly now.

Yes, the 9800Pro runs REALLY hot under load if you don't have good airflow. It's within spec (the heatsinks on the regular 9800Pro get damn hot, too), but a little disconcerting. I added the low-profile Zalman fan that clips onto the heatpipe assembly, and that brought the temp of the thing down quite a bit.

Also worth noting: there's a refurb 9700Pro 'Ultimate' on newegg right now for $179...

I know. Sorry about that.

I bought that same low-profile fan about 3 weeks after the cooler and video card. I use the 5 volt adaptor and it works great without introducing much noise at all. It's barely even warm to the touch.

Oh, and I would have bought that 9700Pro if it was available at the time I bought the 9800 Pro. That's a good price for a card nearly as good as the 9800 Pro. (Assuming some hidden problem missed during testing doesn't show up in the refurb.)