Which Fanless Videocard is "The Best" for my needs?

[RedShirt]

I have a HTPC box that is too noisy. The main culprit is the video card fan (The PowerColor X800 videocard I have is very noisy).

I was looking at buying a fanless heatsink for the card, but figured if I was going to spend $40 on a new heatsink on an aging X800, I may as well just buy a new fanless card and sell my X800.

Anywho. For the most part, my HTPC will just be used for displaying video, and not even HD content, so no special needs there.

Once in a while, however, I will be gaming on this box, on a 1080p set. I'm not looking for something that will run Oblivion with all features on, at 1920x1080, but I am looking for something that will run many less intensive games at 1920x1080 with decent settings (Basically games that are a generation behind Oblivion, and 2 behind BioShock).

The three choices, all fanless:

8600GTS 256 MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127287

8600GT 256 MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127293

RX2600XT 512 MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127298

I know the 2600XT isn't all that great, but I was wondering if the 512MB of RAM would help at all.

The only reason the 8600GT is on the list, is price (it's the cheapest of them all). If it was good enough for my needs I'd probably get that.

I've searched for benchmarks on these cards, and it's hard to find comparisons. The closest I found was the Tom's Hardware VGA list, but their 2600XT they used had much faster RAM.

Thanks for the input!

 

[hans007]

either the 8600gt or 8600gts will work well.

i actually have an 8600gt with a fan, and even when its spun up you cant hear it.

out of those 3 i'd get the 8600gts because the 8600gt doesnt have hdcp.


if you go for one WITH a fan, get the pny 8600gt (i have that one, its inaudible even when playing games anyway and i'm a huge stickler for quiet computers) as it has hdcp

 

[RedShirt]

Thanks,

I ordered the 8600gts.