Cool/Quiet Graphics Cards

[Little_Crow]

I think my graphics card is dying.

It's been happening for some time, but 9/10 times my Windows XP boot screen will be corrupted, completely grey with horizontal stripes. Other than that my PC has worked totally flawlessly. After reading some other threads, it seems this is a bad sign for my card.

I'm looking at the 8800GT for a stopgap, as I'm going to build a backup gaming shuttle PC (SX38P2) in May-ish, which this card will go in to. Then my main rig will be treated to a 9800 (Hoping that early specs are nothing to go by).

1)I'm aiming to keep my shuttle as quiet as possible and I'm impressed by the passively cooled cards, but less than impressed by the skin melting temperatures they run at, especially considering the case this will end up in.
I've read good things about the Gainward Bliss Golden Sample, but is this going to fit in my proposed shuttle?

1a) Alternatively, should I just buy the cheapest card possible and get an aftermarket cooling kit?

2) I am nVidia's biotch, how are the ATI cards looking from a performance/power usage perspective vs the Nvidia Cards?

I really didn't know whether to post this in the sff forums, but decided that as is was all graphics card related, here it will go.

Thanks in advance,

Little_Crow

 

[ACESHIGH]

My understanding is that the 3850 / 3870 series use a fair bit less power than Nvida's 8800GT/GTS/GTX cards. Performance of the cards is pretty close for the 8800GT / 3870XT and the 3870X2 outperforms the 8800GTX in most games.

I think my graphics card is dying.

It's been happening for some time, but 9/10 times my Windows XP boot screen will be corrupted, completely grey with horizontal stripes. Other than that my PC has worked totally flawlessly. After reading some other threads, it seems this is a bad sign for my card.

And indeed that is a bad sign.

 

[-iceblade^]

go for ATI for low power draw and HTPC performance... if that's your concern... the ATI's are really cheap atm, and there's a special on em from OCUK for this week... you could grab one on the ultra cheap

 

[Lanz]

Single slot 9600GT's run cool and quiet, and if you're planning on putting it in a media center, many of them have HDMI onboard and some even have DisplayPort.

 

[Little_Crow]

The shuttle I'm aiming at is the SX38P2 as a second gaming machine (for the missus), and watching Hidef movies, and the like. It's also going to be left on practically 24hr's a day which is where the low power comes in.
The problem here is that not only do I want to have my cake and eat it, but I also want your cake, too.

I've done some further research on power consumption and noise (it's a dang shame the tom's HW charts don't include these) and I think I'm going with the 8800GT, on the basis that though they use more power, from what I can tell they tend to be quieter.

The SX38P2 will support dual slot cards, or 2 single slot cards, so any card should fit without issue, though airflow is a potential issue.

I thought I was 100% on the Gainward Bliss, but then noticed it only has a 1 year warranty, does anyone have any experience with Gainward cards in general, are they reliable or will I regret this purchase?

Anyone have any other recommendations on quiet 8800GT's?

cheers for all the advice,

Little_Crow

 

[Rroff]

I've used gainward cards since forever (1999 maybe) and never had a real problem... the fan started to fail on my 5950 Ultra but I could have replaced the cooler easy enough - instead I got a 6800 series card as they were well established by that time...

I have the Gainward BLISS 8800GT and aside from a rush of fan noise when you first power on the lasts maybe 3 seconds the rest of the time its almost totally silent even when gaming - the fan is quite noisey if it does kick in tho - its set to auto switch to 100% if the core temp exceeds I think 88C and continues on full power til the card cools down - so if you have a warm case it might kick in :S never done so for me tho so far outside of testing with a custom BIOS.

 

[Monkeynut]

All NVIDIA and ATI cards are made in the same factory and shipped out to the suppliers, so Gainward are the same as any other brand bar the cooling and sometimes a slightly shortened PCB.

 

[Little_Crow]

Well, I've taken the plunge and gone for it.

I'm not sure why it never struck me before that they are all the same cards with different branding. I certainly know that PSU's are made by a very small number of manufacturers and rebranded, but never extended that logic to other components.

Well as I said in another thread, OCUK get themselves another sale purely on the strength of their community. It just can't be beat.

Cheers,

Little_Crow

 

[MoRT489]

I've used gainward cards since forever (1999 maybe) and never had a real problem... the fan started to fail on my 5950 Ultra but I could have replaced the cooler easy enough - instead I got a 6800 series card as they were well established by that time...

I have the Gainward BLISS 8800GT and aside from a rush of fan noise when you first power on the lasts maybe 3 seconds the rest of the time its almost totally silent even when gaming - the fan is quite noisey if it does kick in tho - its set to auto switch to 100% if the core temp exceeds I think 88C and continues on full power til the card cools down - so if you have a warm case it might kick in :S never done so for me tho so far outside of testing with a custom BIOS.

Hi Rroff is urs the single slot or dual slot version and is the warranty 1 year direct with OCuk then how long with gainward?

 

[Rroff]

Old style single slot - its not the greatest for cooling (but I got it cheap) - no idea on the warranty not something that I really bother about.