What silent graphics card?

[lain]

Hi

I am currently looking at purchasing either the

XFX GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI PCIE

or

ASUS EN7600GS TOP SILENT/HTD

My question is which is the best performer. One runs faster and the other has twice the memory.

If anyone has any other options for silent graphics cards please also let me know.

All the best

Paul

------------------------

Cure premature ejaculation

 

[FarFarAway]

Hmm toughie. I know XFX do a 7900GT that's silent too.

Is one cheaper than the other?

 

[llwyd]

would probably be better off if you gave a budget. their are probably a few cards that with a silent after market cooler and some overclocking would perform quite a bit better

 

[nathan]

is it going in a normal pc or a htpc?

 

[lain]

click on the links in the first post for details

 

[lain]

it's going on a normal pc that used to have a gainwood 256 running around 400.

i would higher on price, around £200 max it depends. I don't really want something with a fan. I work from my pc and get frustrated with the noise of my old gainwood. It also

es me off when a fan goes. Just another problem that stops me working.

pc running anthlon 3.2 with the biggest quitest fan i could find. 1gig ram

I would like to know the difference between the two cards i've selected. What effect is gained from double the memory on one of these cards? It just seems odd that the one with half the memory is faster. I know i don't really understand the spec and would love to know what effect the memory has on how the card performs.

Thanks for your replies in advance

 

[FarFarAway]

Well with bigger memory the card can deal with larger textures. The trouble with lower/mid end cards don't have the speed to deal with the large amount of data going through it.

Therefore the faster card with the lower amount of memory will perform better in most situations, even up to a 7900GT. When you get to the higher end cards it seems to change round a bit.

Remember that a faster core speed is generally a better thing than higher memory in low-end cards especially.

Asus do a card with HDMI out as well if it's for an HTPC, if you're interested

 

[lain]

Thanks, do you know which card it is?

 

[Rastalovich]

oo oo oo

If I was in the market for a silent PCI-e gfx card in the 7600GT variety, I`d like this one:

128MB Gigabyte 7600GT PCI-E Mem 1000MHz GPU 560MHz 12Pipes D-Sub/Dual Link DVI/HDTV SLi Passive

But that`s me, I like Gigabyte gfxcards >.< my last one clocked real well with it`s own silent-pipe.

 

[FarFarAway]

I'd get the XFX Get the XFX one looks to be a nice card at a good price

 

[Mr. Smith]

Just an idea, which might crash and burn... You say you have a £200 limit, that is pretty decent, you can get a sweet card for that and oc it to make it really fly.

I was thinking as the number of retail silent cards seems quite limited why not buy a high-ish performance non-silent gfx card for £150-£170 and buy a silent heatsink such as the Zalman ZM80D-HP (or a better one - can't really look at work review 1 review 2) for about £17@scan etc(it comes with an optional fan than can be added on and undervolted for better oc's - you wouldn't hear it)

Could be more hassle than it's worth but it is another option

 

[markkleb]

I had a pair of the GS and GT cards, The GS may have 512 mb mem but its DDR2 not DDR3. The GT will be faster and a MUCH better card.

Also

The Fatality 7600GT has the 7950 cooler (Works great) I think I read the DDR3 memory runs cooler too.

 

[Ty07allstar]

Can you oc the silent cards as much as one with a fan? Won't it get hotter fasetr because of the lack of a fan to blow the hot air off?

 

[floge03]

I would get whatever is cheapest, then water cool the hell out of it!