Swapping a GeForce 7900 GS

[catastrophe]

I need advice on what video card makes the most sense for me to purchase. I just bought a new Dell XPS 410, but the 256mb nVidia Geforce 7900 GS that came with it has a fan issue (it runs at a hyper rate, nonstop). Not finding a solution (I?m on my second card with the exact same issue), I?m ready to simply buy a new card. The other choice from Dell for this system was a 256mb ATI Radeon X1300 Pro which seems like a pretty outdated card.

Here?s the basic system spec?s:
Intel Core 2 Duo processor E6600 (4mb L2 Cache, 2.4GHz, 1066 FSB)
Vista Home Premium (I?m not thrilled with the OS)
4GB dual channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
500GB Raid Drive
Samsung SyncMaster 214T LCD
Power Supply Dell 375W; 1 x 24-pin ATX; 1 x ATX12V; 1 x 4-pin mini Molex; 6 x SATA

Percentage of Usage (this is my home computer):
40% work related app?s: Excel, Word, Access, etc.
40% internet browsing of mostly news and financial sites
10% personal home media stuff: digital pic?s, etc.
5% cable TV
5% games (none yet, though I want to find a couple that offer a fun break from work)

I would like a card that takes advantages of some of Vista?s abilities, and I?m not inclined to upgrade the card again until I purchase another system in 3 years or so. Nor do I want to change any other part of the system to accommodate a particular video card.

Any thoughts?
Thank you

 

[SlowSpyder]

If you're happy with the performance of the 7900GS (and since you don't game too much) it'd be cheaper for you to just replace the stock heatsink/fan with something after market.

This is the cooler I installed on my 7900GS. It's whisper quiet and I have yet to see my GPU go over mid 40's C.

 

[zig3695]

imo its a terrible time to buy a video card, ESPECIALLY if you already have a 7900gs. i say unhook that fan, position a 80mm fan blowing right on the card for now. then, in about 2 or 3 months, buy one of the cheap dx10 cards.

 

[catastrophe]

Thanks for the advice, both are great points. I'll fix what I've got with the fan upgrade and wait to see what the market bears in a few months. Cheers.

 

[Matt2]

are you sure you cant get the fan to shut up?

Does RivaTuner work in Vista? Does ATi Tool work in Vista with Nvidia cards? What about nHancer?

Any of those programs should allow you to control the video card's fan speed, assuming those programs function correctly in Vista. I refuse to believe that there is no way to control the fan speed of you 7900GS. Even if it is a Dell..