Hi guys first post but been lurking for sometime. I'm building a new, relatively quiet gaming rig and wondered which card you thought best suited the job? Before its mentioned I havent before tried fitting after sales coolers to cards (though id be up for trying) but does this not invalidate the warranty?. Im guessing this is a choice between the 7900gts and the x1800xt or possibly x1900xt, whats the verdict?
-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
Good, quiet £200 card
- Thread starter Vispon
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 12 Oct 2003
- Posts
- 2,700
- Location
- Leicester
Go for a x1900xt! The Connect 3D one is Just £211 since todays price drops!
If you want a quite card with a good cooler the HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) is going cheap this week only.;
If you want a quite card with a good cooler the HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) is going cheap this week only.;
From what I've read the 7900gt's are not worth thr trouble - there seems to be a very high failure rate on them. I also read an article today that suggested that the stock cooling on the 7900gt's could also be a lot quieter than it is!
Unless you're going to go over £200, then I think your choices are:
Option 1
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
Price: £126.95 (£149.17 Including VAT at 17.5%)
+
Cooler (@ ~£20-25)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Other_Coolers.html
One of the best price/performance cards you can get just now.
Changing the cooler does invalidate the warranty as far as I know - whether they could tell if you changed it then changed it back before sending it back for an RMA, who knows
Option 2
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 GT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-057-HT)
Price: £134.95 (£158.57 Including VAT at 17.5%)
Performs slightly below a 7900gt and an x1800xt - but already comes with a very quiet cooler. I think I'll be considering this for my next build.
If you can stretch to £230 - This week only - Option 3
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_This_Week_Only_25.html#aGX_2d053_2dHT
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-053-HT)
Price: £194.95 (£229.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)
A top offer - if you can stretch to £230 then you get a top card with a quiet cooler.
Hope that helps a bit
Unless you're going to go over £200, then I think your choices are:
Option 1
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
Price: £126.95 (£149.17 Including VAT at 17.5%)
+
Cooler (@ ~£20-25)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Other_Coolers.html
One of the best price/performance cards you can get just now.
Changing the cooler does invalidate the warranty as far as I know - whether they could tell if you changed it then changed it back before sending it back for an RMA, who knows
Option 2
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 GT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-057-HT)
Price: £134.95 (£158.57 Including VAT at 17.5%)
Performs slightly below a 7900gt and an x1800xt - but already comes with a very quiet cooler. I think I'll be considering this for my next build.
If you can stretch to £230 - This week only - Option 3
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_This_Week_Only_25.html#aGX_2d053_2dHT
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-053-HT)
Price: £194.95 (£229.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)
A top offer - if you can stretch to £230 then you get a top card with a quiet cooler.
Hope that helps a bit
Not sure I can really stretch to the HIS x1900xt as im already a bit over budget
Also i thought the 7900gt problems had been sorted, didnt they ship a load with dodgy memory but have fixed the fault since then?
I think it will probably be between a x1800xt and 7900gt of some variety. How would the factory OCed Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256mb and factory OCed gainward Golden sample 7900gt 256mb compare both in noise and performance? Lets leave reliability out of it for now.
Also i thought the 7900gt problems had been sorted, didnt they ship a load with dodgy memory but have fixed the fault since then?
I think it will probably be between a x1800xt and 7900gt of some variety. How would the factory OCed Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256mb and factory OCed gainward Golden sample 7900gt 256mb compare both in noise and performance? Lets leave reliability out of it for now.
Go for an X1800XT 256MB and put a Zalman VF900-Cu cooler on it. Absolutely silent and cracking performance, there's no way you'll be disappointed and it's way under your budget to boot.
The problems with the 7900 series have not ended, I'm afraid. Some manufacturers like eVGA tried switching the memory on their cards from Samsung to Infineon but the problem never went away, they now suspect that the problem lies within the voltage regulators.
Performance-wise the X1800XT is the obvious choice, it's faster at stock and overclocked, but the 7900GT can be volt-modded faster than the X1800XT will go if you're into that sort of thing (and want to play Russian Roulette.) The 7900GT is also quieter, but keep in mind the much lower cost of the X1800XT will allow you to buy the best in aftermarket cooling to go with it.
The problems with the 7900 series have not ended, I'm afraid. Some manufacturers like eVGA tried switching the memory on their cards from Samsung to Infineon but the problem never went away, they now suspect that the problem lies within the voltage regulators.
Performance-wise the X1800XT is the obvious choice, it's faster at stock and overclocked, but the 7900GT can be volt-modded faster than the X1800XT will go if you're into that sort of thing (and want to play Russian Roulette.) The 7900GT is also quieter, but keep in mind the much lower cost of the X1800XT will allow you to buy the best in aftermarket cooling to go with it.
Last edited:
alright so bearing in mind this is a first build the 'Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB' should easily fit a Zalman VF900-CU (or possibly LED havent decided) without too much hastle? Also the zalman rate the GPU noise between 18.5-25 db does this mean the x1800xt has dynamic fan load control? as i dont much fancy it running at 25db all the time.
So additionally the x1800xt beats the 7900gt at stock speeds full stop? taking into account i mainly play RTS games from EA and Blizzard?
So additionally the x1800xt beats the 7900gt at stock speeds full stop? taking into account i mainly play RTS games from EA and Blizzard?
The Zalman VF900-Cu was designed specifically for X1900 and 7900 series graphics cards, it does an amazing job on them and any other cards it's compatible with. I can personally vouch for it doing a great job on the X1800 series.
They fit simply as can be, it's just four screws basically. No tools or hassle required, absolutely no need to worry about that.
As for noise and speed; The VF900-Cu speeds are controlled by a manual fan controller which is supplied with the cooler, and is just as easy to install as the cooler itself. You can control exactly how slow or fast it is to suit your tastes, but personally I put mine on 100% as soon as I put it in and it was quieter than my Freezer64 Pro CPU cooler so I just left it on 100%. It'll do a great job of cooling even on minimum setting though, especially if you don't overclock.
As for card speeds, the X1800XT thrashes the 7900GT at stock, so no need to worry about that.
They fit simply as can be, it's just four screws basically. No tools or hassle required, absolutely no need to worry about that.
As for noise and speed; The VF900-Cu speeds are controlled by a manual fan controller which is supplied with the cooler, and is just as easy to install as the cooler itself. You can control exactly how slow or fast it is to suit your tastes, but personally I put mine on 100% as soon as I put it in and it was quieter than my Freezer64 Pro CPU cooler so I just left it on 100%. It'll do a great job of cooling even on minimum setting though, especially if you don't overclock.
As for card speeds, the X1800XT thrashes the 7900GT at stock, so no need to worry about that.
Aye, I'd rather have a broken fan than a broken card. For people like me though, the two go hand in hand as I'm too thick to notice the fan isn't spinning.LukeManUK said:My 7900GT is quiet, but if you do go for one, hope you're one of the lucky ones like me, the only thing wrong with mine is that the fan broke, well fan breaking beats the whole thing being broken
Yeah I didn't notice until the nVidia CP popped up saying it was at 120+ degreesÚlfhednar said:Aye, I'd rather have a broken fan than a broken card. For people like me though, the two go hand in hand as I'm too thick to notice the fan isn't spinning.
Not gona risk sending mine off to get a borked one back.
I would agree with this.Úlfhednar said:
I think the Connect 3D X1800XT 256MB is a very good choice.
Great price for the performance.
However i would consider the Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB at £146.82 Including VAT. It offers very close performance to the X1800XT, with the added benefit of extra shaders (should be usefull for future games) & the possibility to mod it to an X1900XT (if thats your thing, but this is not guaranteed).