Hey guys,

Im looking to get a gfx card in time the weekend.

I had my mind set on a 7900GT but these are too hard to find in stock at decent prices. So I thought about considering an x1800XT 512MB, which can be had for pretty much the same price at OCUK and I think will be of similar performance.

I have 3 issues:

1) The noise- is it REALLY bad? Im not too bothered about when its maxed out but more bothered about its idle sound in windows (i.e. browsing etc)

2) The heat- Will it raise my case temps considerably? Im overclocking an 146 to 2.8 and the case temp gets kinda toasty already.

3)Power- I have an akasa 400W atx2 psu, will this be enough to power the card?

Quick respones appreciated as i'm wanting to order today!

Cheers

You'll get differing opinions on the noise, i say they are quiet, i cant hear mine at all when browsing etc..., and i can hardly hear it during heavy gaming, only picks up a tad, and even then i have to specifically try and pick the sound from it out if i want to hear it, they only run full speed for about 3 secs on boot up, then they settle down to their 2D windows speed which you cant hear, and as i said even when gaming it hardly picks up from that.

Mine idles about 55-56, and underload only goes to about 70-71, i think they'll have to hit something like very high 80's-90's for the fan speed to really kick in so you can hear it.

Your PSU maybe ok seen as its a branded one, depends what the ampage is on the 12v rail.

The x1800 XT 512mb is faster than the 7900 GT, the 7900 GT is similar to the 7800 GTX 256mb in performance.

Cant comment on the heat raising the case temps as im not an overclocker, everything stock for me, bu the x1800's do give out a bit of heat, wether thats enough to affect your overclock is anyones guess, i suppose it depends on how good your case cooling is really.

Welcome to the forums btw.

yeah il add on to this! fan annoyed me i wanted a completely silent pc lol!
its not loud man but it can wail a bit!
Cracking performance however....i just swapped the fan over with a vf900 from zalman and that doen just the trick as its totally silent now
cracking performance for price!

To add futher,

Noise level wise they are practically silent in windows and they only become audible if the fan goes above 50% (which is normally temperature controlled).

You could also if you so wished force the fan to say 10% and not here it at all. (although this is probably not reccomended).

Your PSU will be fine as long as it has strong 12v rails.

Just to add as well, If you are basing purchasing this card to mainly play oblivion go for the X1800XT everytime over the 7900GT. Its 512mb of vram really helps it out although the FPS still do drop into the teens in feature rich areas. (middle of the forest etc).

If im only running at 1280 res, do you reckon i need a 512MB card, or should i just save a few quid and get the 256mb one?

Id get the 512mb for futureproofing purposes... however if you upgrade the gfx like every 6 months, then save yaself some money.

Lanz said:

If im only running at 1280 res, do you reckon i need a 512MB card, or should i just save a few quid and get the 256mb one?

Click to expand...

get the 512mb version and it will do you till the start of next year when DX10 comes.

Noopz said:

Hey guys,

Im looking to get a gfx card in time the weekend.

I had my mind set on a 7900GT but these are too hard to find in stock at decent prices. So I thought about considering an x1800XT 512MB, which can be had for pretty much the same price at OCUK and I think will be of similar performance.

I have 3 issues:

1) The noise- is it REALLY bad? Im not too bothered about when its maxed out but more bothered about its idle sound in windows (i.e. browsing etc)

2) The heat- Will it raise my case temps considerably? Im overclocking an 146 to 2.8 and the case temp gets kinda toasty already.

3)Power- I have an akasa 400W atx2 psu, will this be enough to power the card?

Quick respones appreciated as i'm wanting to order today!

Cheers

Click to expand...

1)the noise in windows should be silent, if your fans kicking in in windows, your case has heat problems and isnt being cooled properly. i play bf2 maxed out at 1280X1024 and the fan gets to 23%. the only time youl hear the fan is on first boot where it ramps up then down shifts, this only takes 2 or 3 seconds then its silent.

2) the cooler on the card is very very good at what it does and how it does it, i cant see it raising your temps much more than your current Gcard

3)your PSU is fine, i have the same PSU and the same card with 4X DDR stick, a fan controller, 3 HDD and 120mm fans plus the X1800.

Enjoy

Lanz said:

If im only running at 1280 res, do you reckon i need a 512MB card, or should i just save a few quid and get the 256mb one?

Click to expand...

Yeah running 1280x1024 here also, the 512mb helps in the eye candy dept. to, you can ramp the AA/AF up with hardly any hit on performance.

What games you playing -> pong?
AA/AF still has a performance hit. If you are getting no performance hit is because you are CPU limited. In the likes of FEAR etc, there is defo a performance hit, and a decent one at that.

REally its an awesome card, you can easily change the fan of course......as i said the Zalman vf900 is awesome as it knocked a good 20 degrees off my temps and now my case is silent all the time!