What's the most powerful DX-9 VGA with...

dan · Post by **dan** » Tue May 04, 2004 12:22 am

maybe i should post it like this, or a new thread altogether.

what is the most powerful, preferably DX-9 video card, that (a) is built on a .13 or even better .11, process, (b) offers DVI-D (c) offers great picture and text quality on DVI-D with stable drivers and (d) remains fanless, low power consumption.

Leto · Post by **Leto** » Tue May 04, 2004 5:48 am

doesnt exist, yet. Maybe a low budget version of the new generation fom ATI or NVdia will have all these goodies.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue May 04, 2004 6:05 am

Don't the fanless versions of the ATi 9600 (with DVI) meet those specs?

kbedwards · Post by **kbedwards** » Tue May 04, 2004 8:26 am

Radeon 9600 Pro, available in fanless ver, or moddable of course w/passive cooling

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue May 04, 2004 8:51 am

The Radeons use a .15 micron process (at least the 9800 does. I assume it's the same with lesser versions, but I don't know).

nVidia has used a .13 micron process for their 5900 series and will continue to do so with their 6800 series.

The latest Radeon incarnation, unveiled today, uses the .13 micron process.

dan · Post by **dan** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:22 am

hi,
i heard that the S4 and S8 cards are built on .13 and some do not require
a fan, and are DX9 compliant.

Leto · Post by **Leto** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:32 am

I bet the budget version of the R420 series will have low enough wattage to keep it cool enough with a Zalman heatsink. The X800 Pro runs 58 w at load. I dont know how much Zalman can take but the ~40-50 w of the GF Ti-4xxx series is no problem for it, so I would wait for the X800 Se or whatever its going to be called, I bet it will meet those specs.

shathal · Post by **shathal** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:41 am

dan wrote:maybe i should post it like this, or a new thread altogether.

what is the most powerful, preferably DX-9 video card, that (a) is built on a .13 or even better .11, process, (b) offers DVI-D (c) offers great picture and text quality on DVI-D with stable drivers and (d) remains fanless, low power consumption.

Dan, switching to a small manufacturing process is *VERY* expensive, we're talking billions here easily. That's one of the reasons why Intel is usually the first one to be there (as it actually HAS got pockets that deep).

I've not seen in a long time (if ever) that the graphics cards were created on a process smaller than CPU's. You won't be seeing .011 micron GFX-cards until Intel/AMD are there, I figure.

3rd party foundries (such as TSMC and co) tend to get into these things post-Intel by a few months. So, in that regard, following Intel's die-shrinks is a pretty good starting point

.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Tue May 04, 2004 7:20 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:Don't the fanless versions of the ATi 9600 (with DVI) meet those specs?

Yesss! You are correct, sir! *Ed McMahon*

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Tue May 04, 2004 7:45 pm

I've not seen in a long time (if ever) that the graphics cards were created on a process smaller than CPU's. You won't be seeing .011 micron GFX-cards until Intel/AMD are there, I figure.

Well Intel has .90 PressHots, so the CPU technology is there,(I know that Intel is having all kinds of problems with skyhigh power/heat). AMD I think is set to release .9 at the end of the year so the next line of GFX cards might be there.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Wed May 05, 2004 12:16 am

I'd have to agree with Leto. The cheapest of the new ATI-cards should be one strong contender. Otherwise the 9600 series (any of them) can be run fanless, although I think only Sapphire sells them fanless.

Nvidia falls on the demand of picture quality. Their products (in my experience, I have only run ATI for two months) isn't nearly as good as ATI:s cards when it comes to picture. I do not know how Matrox does compared to ATI, I think it is better, but Matrox is only Dx8(? or is it 7).

dan · Post by **dan** » Wed May 05, 2004 1:07 pm

switching to a small manufacturing process is *VERY* expensive,

not for me, i bought the celeron tualatins when they came out for $70.

Michael_qrt · Post by **Michael_qrt** » Wed May 05, 2004 6:20 pm

The Radeon 9600XT is built on the .13 micron "low-k" process and is available in a fanless version from sapphire. It also covers your other requirements so that would be a good option for you.

I read somewhere that ATi were planning to introduce the RV370 core on a .11 micron process later this year which is basically just the current 9600XT used as an experiment in die shrinkage. However no GPU is made on a .11 micron process or lower at this stage.

dan · Post by **dan** » Thu May 06, 2004 1:59 pm

The Radeon 9600XT is built on the .13 micron "low-k" process and is available in a fanless version from sapphire. It also covers your other requirements so that would be a good option for you.

I am curious as to its power requirements. i know that intel ibm and amd are shrinking to 90nm NOT 110 nm, nonetheless, how much of a power reduction from 130 to 110nm?

Leto · Post by **Leto** » Fri May 07, 2004 5:10 am

ATI is going 90 nm from the start of 2005.

Btw can anyone explain to me what a low-k process is?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri May 07, 2004 5:27 am

Leto wrote:Btw can anyone explain to me what a low-k process is?

Everything You Wanted to Know About Low-K But Were Afraid To Ask.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Fri May 07, 2004 5:37 am

I Radeon 9600 nonPro in Sigma One is fabbed at .13 microns and runs passively; has a puny little heatsink with no fan at all. It's decent enough to play most games when paired with a stronger CPU. Heck, I can play most games even with the not--so-decent P4/2.28 I have it installed in with 845 chipset.

Of course, I...don't, since I now have Gamma Two.

-Ed

stgreek · Post by **stgreek** » Sat May 15, 2004 4:45 pm

Edward Ng wrote:I Radeon 9600 nonPro in Sigma One is fabbed at .13 microns and runs passively; has a puny little heatsink with no fan at all. It's decent enough to play most games when paired with a stronger CPU. Heck, I can play most games even with the not--so-decent P4/2.28 I have it installed in with 845 chipset.

Of course, I...don't, since I now have Gamma Two.

-Ed

Could you please post the model of the 9600? AFAIK only Sapphire has fanless 9600, the Ultimate XT, and it is quite expensive.

Cheers
Stav

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sat May 15, 2004 8:11 pm

Visiontek Xtasy Radeon 9600 (nonPro) 128MB; available at a retail store near you.

Gholam · Post by **Gholam** » Sat May 15, 2004 8:58 pm

Why not just take any 9600/5600 card and put a Zalman heatsink on it? AFAIK, it'll run passively pretty well, although if you want 9800/5900 kind of performance, you will have to add active cooling as well.

What's the most powerful DX-9 VGA with...

What's the most powerful DX-9 VGA with...

Radeon 9600 Pro

what about the DeltaChrome S8

Re: What's the most powerful DX-9 VGA with...