What onboard video chipset can handle CS: Source full detail?

[guht]

I am wondering what, if, any, on board graphics chipset exists out there on the Micro-ATX form factor that can handle playing an older game like Counter-Strike:Source on full detail with good frame rates?

Will the Geforce 8 series chipsets handle that? What about any of the ATI Radeon chipsets? If nothing exists now is there something on the horizon that will be available in the next 6 months that qualifies?

I dont game very much , but when I do this is the only game I ever play.

Right now I have a huge Antec P180 case with Geforce 9800 and 900W power supply. Too much noise. Too much heat. Too much energy consumption.

I want to shrink down to the smallest possible form factor. Use the least amount of power. Have the least amount of heat, and still be able to play CSS on full detail at full frame rates.

Recommendations!

Thanks!

 

[alyarb]

Why don't you get a quality power supply that is cool and silent, and put a silent cooler on the 9800? That will save you a ton of money rather than doing a slower and more expensive rebuild.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835186027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817151040

 

[SonicIce]

having the video chip onboard will be WORSE then a separate card. onboard will have more heat (for equivelent speed), probably be slower, and proably have a screaming little 8000 rpm fan on the chipset

 

[happy medium]

4670 silent and cool here

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161288

Fanless Fortron 400 watt psu.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817104035

Both dead silent ,less power cosumption, twice the price of normal components.

 

[alyarb]

yes, but "passively cooled" and "silence" are not exclusive relationships. there are plenty of fans that are inaudible, and whatever air they do push over their vanes keeps the heat in transit. this additional cooling capacity offers a great deal more performance for a given rate of dissipation, which is why silent 4850's and 9800's are possible.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

there is a difference, silence = 0gb, passively cooled = no electrical or moving parts = 0db

 

[wrangler]

You know, I've asked myself a few times now, how would 785G run CS:S??

I doubt anybody knows for sure though. I thought that I'd seen comparisons putting 785G graphics on par with vanilla 6800......I'm gonna go do a little looking around.

 

[alyarb]

tell us what you find.

 

[wrangler]

Best comparison so far is Tom's showing it running L4D on medium 1280x1024 just barely playable if you overclock it.

CS:S is not as demanding as L4D so.........

Still looking.

 

[wrangler]

Probably more like 6600GT if you paired it with a modern cpu...

I would say yes on medium no AA.........maybe even up to 1680. Full details with 4xAA 16xAF.....no.

 

[alyarb]

well regardless i stand by the original recommendation. silent PSU + silent 9800.

still, it's good to have that comparison. the "discrete performance" counterpart to the world's fastest IGP is a mere 6600 GT. that is abysmal.

 

[guht]

Thanks for all your replies. It looks like there isnt an onboard video chipset yet that can do what I am looking for.

I havent had much luck with building a quiet or cool machine despite my efforts in the past. I will look into some of the recommendations for the PSU and video card coolers.

One more question. What case would you recommend that is Micro-ATX form factor, but can still fit my 9800 without no modification? I was looking at the mini P180, but that doesnt seem that much smaller, and I have also heard that there is issues fitting full size video cards. I like the fact that it has a 200mm fan though.

Would I be better off getting a low profile video card, and then I would have more options as far as Micro-ATX cases are concerned?

Water cooled systems seems like a major pain in the arse. I live in arizona so I would imagine it evaporates. Things that claim to be low noise and passive either arent that quiet or arent that passive. Admittedly I have probably just had bad experiences, and technology has probably come a long ways since I last attempted a build a few years back. ;-)

I just want a super quiet, low power consumption, low heat machine, and I dont want to have to do alot of messing around the achieve that. Is that to much to ask? ;-)

 

[alyarb]

going down to mATX isn't going to make the system quieter or cooler. why don't you want the P180?

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

A 785 or 780g chipset would be able to max out CS:S and be at 60fps.

http://www.amdzone.com/index.p...2-4850e-review?start=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF6_8Z-z6ns

 

[alyarb]

It seems pretty foolish to spend $70+ migrating to a 780G system when it will just barely meet his requirements.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/594924/css.PNG

where do you get your 60 FPS figure from? not a single test candidate achieved 60 FPS even at 1280x1024... if he has a 9800 GTX, he will not be happy migrating to 780G.

 

[MODEL3]

Look at the Eye Candy Mode.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...display/cs-source.html

the upcoming IGPs (probably april 2010)

AMD 890GX & Nvidia ION2 (i mean the succesor to 9400)

http://www.techpowerup.com/103..._Schedule_Updated.html

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/15447/1/

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14468/41/


will be for this old game at 1280X1024 at least at 6600GT speed (500MHzcore /500MHz mem / 128bit mem con with 8 ROPs DX9.1 and 128MB of memory)
if you paire them (AMD 890GX & Nvidia ION2) with a fast CPU.

(in 2004 test the CPU is Athlon 64 3200+ CPU 2.00GHz, 1MB L2 cache.

With fast I mean something like a 53$ Intel E5300$ 2,6GHz (nearly 1,5X per core faster) or a 60$ Athlon II X2 240 (nearly 1,5X per core faster) (for this old game the Athlon II X2 240 is probably a better option)

 

[Qbah]

A P180 with Nexus fans on low... Add a TRUE on your CPU with a Nexus on low. Include a passive 9800GT, attach a Nexus on low to it if necessary - dampen your HDDs, make sure the chassis is standing on something soft. Plus a good PSU (I'm using a HX520 - VERY quiet). Or that Fortron passive 400W.

All it takes is a few Nexus fans on low in that P180 and all you will hear is a distant humming from the air moving inside the case. No need to cripple yourself with an IGP and mATX if you want to game and have silence at the same time.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Originally posted by: alyarb
It seems pretty foolish to spend $70+ migrating to a 780G system when it will just barely meet his requirements.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/594924/css.PNG

where do you get your 60 FPS figure from? not a single test candidate achieved 60 FPS even at 1280x1024... if he has a 9800 GTX, he will not be happy migrating to 780G.

If you drop the AF to trilinear and run it at 1280x1024 you should come close to 60.

 

[guht]

I want to ditch the P180 because it is HUGE. I would like something smaller for the spare bedroom, because the P180 just doesnt fit in there.

I have all nexus fans, and they didnt seem that quiet. I will have to check to see what setting they are at, but I thought it was at medium.

I think the main culprit could either be the PSU, which is the 750W Thermaltake:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/..._-17-153-036-_-Product

Or perhaps the CPU fan, which is the Zalman CNPS9700:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/..._-35-118-019-_-Product

Both of these are highly regarded and are suppose to be "silent".

The noise is only one of the problems however. The heat exhaust this thing puts off literally heats my room almost 10 degrees. That might be a nice effect if I lived somewhere cold, but its not desirable in Arizona! ;-)

So I just figured I could sell what I had piece meal, and start from scratch. Get a CPU that drew less power, graphics card that just did what I needed, etc, etc...

Still unsure of what route to pursue here, but I do appreciate all the good suggestions and replies!

 

[yh125d]

Neither of those are highly regarded. The Zalman should be fairly quiet - just set it on the lowest speed along with the case fans


The only way to reduce how much heat it dumps into your room is to reduce the power it uses - there is no cooling solution that will reduce it, excluding just ducting the exhaust elsewhere. Options for reducing heat production is slower parts, or parts that are as fast but newer (aka die shrunk equivalent processor using less power and putting out less heat, 40 or 55nm GPU for lower heat)

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Unless you have some small ass room, a computer case is generally never too big. In fact, if you care about silent and passive cooling, a larger case with larger fans (like the 120mm P180 fans) on low is an EXTREMELY better solution than any mATX case. A mATX case is going to be cramped and any stagnant air (much more likely) is going to build up real fast and raise temps quite a bit. This is the exact reason why I upgraded to an ATX case. Temps dropped significantly across the board.

Ditching one of the best cases for all around cooling is a bad bad bad idea. I said bad 3 times so you understand.

 

[guht]

Originally posted by: yh125d
Neither of those are highly regarded. The Zalman should be fairly quiet - just set it on the lowest speed along with the case fans


The only way to reduce how much heat it dumps into your room is to reduce the power it uses - there is no cooling solution that will reduce it, excluding just ducting the exhaust elsewhere. Options for reducing heat production is slower parts, or parts that are as fast but newer (aka die shrunk equivalent processor using less power and putting out less heat, 40 or 55nm GPU for lower heat)

I like where you are headed with this last thought. Do you have any specific recommendations for CPU, GPU, and PSU. Also, with these recommendations would you also recommend aftermarket CPU & GPU coolers OR would the stock coolers be sufficient enough in regards to noise.

Thanks!

 

[yh125d]

Well the 9800 GPU you have is known for being pretty damn hot. Upgrading to something like a 4770 (about the same perf but a lot less heat generated) or one of the next gen ATI cards coming out in the next few weeks (5670 should be faster than 9800 and a lot cooler) would be good.


As for CPU I don't really know what you have so I guess if you have a 65nm C2D or C2Q, an upgrade to a 45nm wolfdale or Q9xx0 should produce a bit less heat. If you have an older AMD platform, try to get a newer 45nm, dual or triple core probably

 

[guht]

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx
Unless you have some small ass room, a computer case is generally never too big. In fact, if you care about silent and passive cooling, a larger case with larger fans (like the 120mm P180 fans) on low is an EXTREMELY better solution than any mATX case. A mATX case is going to be cramped and any stagnant air (much more likely) is going to build up real fast and raise temps quite a bit. This is the exact reason why I upgraded to an ATX case. Temps dropped significantly across the board.

Ditching one of the best cases for all around cooling is a bad bad bad idea. I said bad 3 times so you understand.

The room is not overly small, but it is cramped with a large bed, and therefore the only thing that fits is a small desk, which subsequently the P180 is much to large for. I realize its an awesome case, which is why I bought it, but for what it is used for, it seems like overkill.

Perhaps the Mini P180 is a good option for me. ;-)

 

[alyarb]

you still haven't told us much about your system. just list everything you have and we'll go from there.