Silent Video Cards. ????

[saggs]

I kind of want to step up from my current nvidia 8400 vid card.  I'd like to be able to run detailed water,terrain and hi-res textures in 1080 x 1920, and anything above 45 fps looks good on my monitor. I've got a Intel quad core 2.33ghz processor, and 6 gbs of RAM if that makes a difference.

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to video cards, though my one criteria is that I want one that is as quiet as possible, preferably silent.  A quick browse of newegg and I found this a silent 9800 GT, or 4850 both are $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125282
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125258

Do fanless vid cards like this have overheating issues?  I do have 1-120mm fan, in the top, and 2- 80mm fans, front and back, in my case, would this provide enough airflow?  

What GPU should I be looking for to meet my needs, 9500? 9800? 4xxx? 5xxx?

I actually don't mind if a card is somewhat noisy when I'm playing the game as I have headphones on.  But I want it to be silent when I'm photo editing, watching movies, or other stuff.

[cattb]

I would go with the 9800 or spend alittle more and get a 5770. Myself, I prefer xfx or evga because of the lifetime warranty.
Concerns, is your case big enough for the longer 9800? Does your power supply have enough power(amps and overhead) for a upgrade?
As far as your concern about noise I cannot comment.
You also might want to look for reviews of the card or cards your looking at. Google a good place to start. User comments on Newegg may be of some help.

Your airflow in case. I cannot really comment on that, but you could watch your CPU temp and then take the side of case off and see how much your temp drops.
If your cpu temp were to drop lets say 5 degrees to me it would say you could use more air flow.
How much temperature either of those fanless cards would raise the temp in your case I don't know.

[Krusty]

The more powerful a card is, the more power it uses and the more heat it generates.

The ONLY fanless cards you will find are so low in quality [*see below for comment*] and performance as to not use up enough juice to actually overheat. They have passive heatsinks, and utterly SUCK at gaming.

If you want performance, you will get a fan on the card.

The only other alternative is to water cool your system, which still has fans on the radiators and still requires a case fan or two for the RAM and the motherboard chips, but overall is much quieter than a bunch of fast-revving fans.

I'm sorry, it just doesn't exist the way you want it. Either power+heat or nopower+noheat: can only pick one unless you go the time consuming route of water cooling.

I'm sure there is a powerful card out there with an onboard fan that you won't notice much over your existing system noise. You might try by visiting some websites that have user reviews and read what folks are saying (re: loud v. quiet). Give a little leeway in that some folks might get a loud card or two on a product that is generally overall quiet. Get a basic idea.

P.S. To avoid confusion I'll add: The cards you posted have passive heatsinks... but they are still generating tons of heat. Passive or not, they still need a lot of air going over them and constantly being pumped in/out to keep them cool. That means relying on more case fans, on the CPU fans, on extra vent fans on the top/sides of your case. You're not getting them "silent" because of the extra airflow you need to effectively run them.

[saggs]

Thanks for the replies.

P.S. To avoid confusion I'll add: The cards you posted have passive heatsinks... but they are still generating tons of heat. Passive or not, they still need a lot of air going over them and constantly being pumped in/out to keep them cool. That means relying on more case fans, on the CPU fans, on extra vent fans on the top/sides of your case. You're not getting them "silent" because of the extra airflow you need to effectively run them.

I understand that, but if I have enough airflow with my current 3 fans, it won't be any louder then it is currently.  I have a 80mm fan front and back, and a 120mm on top, so I'm hoping that would be enough airflow without having to add another fan.  I'm open to suggestions for quiet fanned cards too, I just like to listen to soft music when photo-editing or other computer tasks, and I use it to play movies too.  I've just heard some systems that sound like a mini jet engine, and that distracts and bothers me.  The 3 fans I have now run very quiet for 90% of the tasks I do, I just wanna keep it that way.

I would go with the 9800 or spend alittle more and get a 5770. Myself, I prefer xfx or evga because of the lifetime warranty.
Concerns, is your case big enough for the longer 9800? Does your power supply have enough power(amps and overhead) for a upgrade?
As far as your concern about noise I cannot comment.
You also might want to look for reviews of the card or cards your looking at. Google a good place to start. User comments on Newegg may be of some help.

Your airflow in case. I cannot really comment on that, but you could watch your CPU temp and then take the side of case off and see how much your temp drops.
If your cpu temp were to drop lets say 5 degrees to me it would say you could use more air flow.
How much temperature either of those fanless cards would raise the temp in your case I don't know.

I have a standard mid tower case, so it should be big enough, I will check the clearance though, thanks for the reminder.  Also I know I would need to upgrade my PS too.

As far as temperatures, any recommendations for a good temp monitor software.  I tried Speedfan once, but couldn't ever get it to work with my motherboard.  I can check the CPU temp in the BIOS, but it would be convenient to be able to do so in Windows.

[Chalenge]

The same people that make CPU-Z also make CPUID Hardware Monitor. Are you sure speedfan doesnt work or maybe you didnt examine it thoroughly? I use it with nMedia PCs Pro-LCD to give visual alerts on the LCD panel and audio alerts when heat starts to get really high. Its never been a problem with the case and fan setup I have and while using 295s in SLI but its nice to know at least something is monitoring heat.

[cattb]

HW monitor and core temp will work also for reading temps.

opps I guess chalenge had HW monitor already

[Krusty]

I understand that, but if I have enough airflow with my current 3 fans, it won't be any louder then it is currently.

Well, would you run your CPU on passive cooling in that setup? Might idle well, show the desktop nicely, but as soon as you crunch any serious numbers it will probably overheat. GPUs are running just as hot as CPUs many times, and they're often pushed harder.

I can't really suggest much from personal experience. My current card is a budget replacement, and it still sounds like a supercharger spooling up compared to my previous one (not too happy about that).

I can suggest (with a disclaimer that I have NO firsthand experience) the Vapor-X system on a video card. Clever idea, interesting physics, keeps cards super cool and thus the fans run really quiet.

Downsides may be running an unknown technology, not knowing how many years it'll last, etc.

Sapphire makes a number of cards with it, one quick example I pulled is the new 5770:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102868&cm_re=vapor-x-_-14-102-868-_-Product

In general, though, I'd suggest looking for a card with a custom heatsink on it. Many are packaged with brand-name (i.e. well known) aftermarket heatsinks, copper heat pipes, rear side cooling vanes, etc... Many times these will be a bit more expensive but also more efficient at cooling so the fans don't work as hard.

Have to read the reviews tho'... I recall a couple on Newegg a while back that had fancy custom heatsink/fan setups but the reviewers complained of noise anyway.

[Chalenge]

Krusty I have run video cards that have cooling fins and heat pipes just like the cards saggs linked to and they do stay cool as long as there is adequate airflow provided by some kind of fan. The point is three fans or eight fans if they are not pushing air over the card fins there wont be much heat moved. So the issue is not how hard the card is used but whether saggs setup can provide adequate cooling as it is (since he doesnt want to add more noise).

Saggs the best case I have for air flow is the Cooler Master ATCS 840 but it is not designed to push air over passive radiators like the fins on those cards (although the secondary HD fans do push air in that direction it will be hot air). I used to have a Rosewill case with a fan mount directly over the video cards and at the time I was using two 8800 GTs with passive cooling. The problem was I had to go with a Scythe 12mm fan (120x120) because the normal case fans were just too thick to mount above those fins. The cards did run hot (up to 72C) but I never experienced graphic anomalies or lockups. That computer is still running in the Philippines WITHOUT any kind of air conditioning (constant humidity and heat both). EVGA 

[cattb]

computer is still running in the Philippines WITHOUT any kind of air conditioning (constant humidity and heat both).

a cebu special  90 degress there everyday

I think the 9800 would be a good card for what he wants. The one hes looking at.
I have to agree with Chalenge as long as there is enough airflow the card will work just fine. 

[groundfeeder]

I have had both type of cards, with fan and without.

Both type of cards need the proper power supply and the internal space for them to operate effectively, if you jam the card right up against something with limited airflow around it,fan or no fan, it will tend to run hot.

I have never had a problem with fan noise on a vid card simply for the fact that if anything your running that would get that intense tends to jack up the CPU fan to compensate for the higher work load, the larger fan will drown out the sound of the smaller vid card fan.

As someone previously stated, the fan cards are bigger than you think and anything close to your PCI-E slot WILL get in the way,getting the dimensions for the card didn't help me much due to the placement of the card in my PC(one side of the card stuck out further than the other). good luck.....

[saggs]

I just downloaded Speedfan again, now I remember why I didn't use it before.  It won't actually turn down the fans when I try it, perhaps my mobo does not support that function.    Strange that it worked on my last system which was a much older and cheaper mobo.   Also the SMART stuff won't recognize my HDDs because they are in RAID, so I have no idea what temps my HDDs are running.

It does tell my my CPU and GPU temps though.  My current GPU (a fanless 8400 GS) is idling at 117°F.  Just for kicks opened my case and in 10 minutes it heated up to 133°, closed the case and it dropped back to 117° in 10 minutes.  So I guess that means my case working well for airflow.  I saw no change in CPU temps, which makes sense cause it has a fan, they were steady at 95-97°

I have this case with that big vent right where the vid card sits sucking in air, and 2-120mm fans blowing out the top and back.  I've even got a silent 80mm fan from my last system I could stick on that vent and blow right on the vid card.

But just knowing my GPU runs 16° cooler with the case closed, I feel pretty confident that I'm getting good enough airflow already to run passive cooling.

So now my question is Radeon HD 4850 or Nvidia 9800 GT?  They both have the same rating on newegg, and comparing them here the specs look pretty much identical.  I'm leaning towards the 4850 just cause it looks more compact and the clock speeds are a tiny bit faster.  Any opinions?

EDIT:  Oh and I will be upgrading to at least a 600W PS to go with either.  Also I cannot find dimensional specs on these cards anywhere, even on the manufacturers website, what a pain, do they just expect people to guess as to whether they will fit?!?!

[633DH98]

When attempting to control the fans in SpeedFan(4.40) did you go into Configure/Advanced, select the chip that controls the PWM modes and change them to Software controlled?

[cattb]

found this in newegg reviews. I don't know how accurate this is.
Pros: Please see below.

Cons: Please see below.

Other Thoughts: Card dimensions:

Length: 257mm or 10.118 inches
Height: 112mm or 4.409 inches
Thickness: 37mm or 1.457 inches

this is for the 9800
I don't know if 4850 are usually as long or as wide as the 9800 or larger, smaller than a 9800.
no comment on which is better

[Chalenge]

a cebu special  90 degress there everyday

I think the 9800 would be a good card for what he wants. The one hes looking at.
I have to agree with Chalenge as long as there is enough airflow the card will work just fine. 

Leyte actually (Ormoc) which is my favorite place in the world.

Saggs I had a 4870 x2 and I was not happy with it but it was early in the driver cycle when I tried it (Ati lags way back with drivers) and Im not sure even now the 4850 would be a choice I would even consider. The 9800 will post scores on 3D Mark06 4000 pts higher of course but the problem is higher power requirements and heat generated with the 9800. The 4870 I tried failed (absolutely failed) at FSX weather rendering and the 9800 is just fine. In fact if I had to say something good about the 4850 the only thing I could think of is lower power and less heat. The 9800 is about an inch longer but bear in mind the power wire attaches at the end of the card and will need additional room to make any type of angle in a new direction.

Search around the net for advice about Speedfan with your MB and you should find a configuration that will give you better results.

[Chalenge]

I take it back:

I found in one of the FS forums where I posted temps of the 4870 at 85C which is WAY higher than the 9800s run.