Gigabyte or PowerColour

[qqg3]

Jumping on the band wangon and ordering a 3870 soon. I've heard the PowerColour has a loud fan, is it true? Therefore would the Gigabyte be better for the extra pound.

 

[pwillat]

i have 2 powercolor 3870,s and cant hardly hear them, the fans on these are 100% all the time but are virtually inaudible tbh, plus u get the extra clock over the gigabyte versh

 

[drak3]

I got the powercolour and fan is 100% always but keeps it cool.

Got nice clocks also as in sig.

The question is tho, are these cards always in 3d more or ATI stoped doing the 2d/3d profiles?

 

[Quixote]

I've got powercolour's reference 256mb 3850. That uses the reference cooler. Checked & definately clocks the GPU right down in 2D Mode. I've heard about the powercolours being in 3d all the time, I think it may be associated with the new cooler they added for the more powerful models. Strikes me as a poor idea, considering how much energy this series saves in 2D mode.
So for such as small difference, I reckon the gigabyte.

 

[muon]

The zerotherm cooler they use doesnt have the 3rd wire needed for fan control. Isnt there a way of using a zalman fanmate or something? They do have ati powerplay though, so they reduce clocks fine.