AGP current quiet champ?

They make noise, too.

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vincentfox
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AGP current quiet champ?

Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:41 am

Any help on advice of the current AGP quiet champ?

I have an old Sapphire Radeon 9600Pro in my PC, using a big Zalman heatsink for fanless operation.

Want to get a boost over the 9600Pro but without adding fan noise to my (nearly) silent system.

Perhaps 6800GS? Or a 9800 if I can find one?

Maybe the X1300 would offer me a good speed bump? I think my AquaMark numbers were around 23,000 and the X1300 looks like double that.

I'd prefer fanless but could live with something with a fan if it's a card that would accept say the Zalman 900 or something similarly offering "quiet" fan operation. Looking for US$200 or less.

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Post by StealthGirl » Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:34 am

Low budget would be a used 9800XT, or 6800GT on ebay ... probably $75-85. More power? Go for the 7800GS for $200. Then buy one of our passive video coolers and presto you have a silent solution! (I know, it was a shameless plug wasn't it!). :)

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:43 am

Well I was looking to perhaps double (or more) my current performance. Minimizing cost is less important to me, than getting *decent* performance while still keeping the noise down.

Any thoughts on X1300/X1600 or 7600 based solutions? I thought I had read those 7900 were quite power-hungry and heat-producing. My CPU is a bit older so I'm not sure I'd benefit from the latest&greatest vid-card anyhow, was looking more at mid-range. I had also thought about X800 series with aftermarket cooler.

Okay don't laugh my system is an Asus TUSL2-C with a Tualatin-Celeron 1.1 overclocked to 1.4GHz. Zalman heatsink and the low-power of the CPU means I have a pretty quiet PC. Yes I try to build a system and get maximum mileage out of the mainboard. My gaming needs are moderate I just wanted to see if I could bump up the performance a bit without going through the whole multi-day rigamarole of new motherboard, reload the OS, blah-blah. Maybe now with Intel FINALLY turning back towards low-power with Core2 I will consider upgrading the motherboard this year or next.

What is "our" cooler? You didn't reference a company or product.

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Post by StealthGirl » Thu Aug 10, 2006 10:00 am

Aerocase passive cooling systems. Here is the link: www.aero-case.com

Just reviewed at http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=477

The X1300-X1800 ATI's are PCIe (I don't think they come in AGP). For your rig, I'd stick with the 800XT or GTO or 6800 solution.

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:29 am

Actually Sapphire shows X1300 and X1600 products in AGP. But you're probably right the X800GTO looks like a good card with lots of punch. Dunno about it's heat levels have to read some more.

Interesting product you have there. Why no SPCR review of it yet? It appeals to me like the Zalman ZM80 did, weighty brute-force approach.

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Post by ryboto » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:34 am

StealthGirl wrote: The X1300-X1800 ATI's are PCIe (I don't think they come in AGP). For your rig, I'd stick with the 800XT or GTO or 6800 solution.
the x1600pro is available in agp, not sure how power consumption and heat output compare to the X8xx series goes. The big difference, is the x1600pro has a 128-bit memory interface, while the X8xx series has a 256-bit.

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:46 am

So then an X800(??) or 6800(??) with the "Condor" larger vid-card heatsink?

I'm a big believer in oversized heatsinks equalling less need for fans. I have a case without just PSU fan circulation now, hate to have to add chassis fans to it.

I'm a little confused by all the X800 variants and which ones have 12 pipes versus 16 pipes. Online purchase descriptions usually aren't much help. Any suggestions on a good X800 card I could buy off TigerDirect or NewEgg? Refurbs are fine, just not doing EBay for a videocard. This is why I like the idea of the 6800GS now that I think about it, less confusing to shop for than X800 cards. There's this one for example:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 0&NoMapp=0

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Post by mattthemuppet » Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:16 pm

I'd guess the best option for price/performance would be one of the 7600 cards (GS or GT) - the GT should be similar in performance to a 6800/GT and the GS to a 6600GT/6800, but with lower power consumption due to the smaller process. Unfortunately the PCI-E to AGP chip (HSI I think) means there aren't any passive models that I know of, even though plenty of 7600GS PCI-E cards come passive as stock. What I hope to be doing in the next 3-4months is buying a 7600GS, taking the stock fan out of the HS and strapping an 80mm L1A onto it. Cheapest way I can think of:)
I had previously been considering a 6800 before, if that's any help?

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Post by Pgh » Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:55 pm

Here's a passive Radeon X1600 AGP. Not cheap:

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant ... de=ALL-ATI

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Post by krusty » Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:31 pm

I'm also looking to upgrade an AGP GF4 4200 1.3Ghz Tualatin
with the same thougts - keeping it near silent when in 2D.

My choice so far is a fanless 7600 GS Gigabyte, but have not seen for sale yet.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... uctID=2334

My mobo is a Tyan S2080 and only supports AGP 4x, but I think it
will be OK. Haven't seen this Gigabyte for sale yet.

Another possibility is a AGP 7600 GT from Leadtek which
is on their website, It has GDDR3. It has a fan though.

I've read GDDR3 runs 2 watts -vs- 4 watts for GDDR2.
That's 8 watts -vs- 16 watts for the memory. Not
sure if that's also 2D power.

The GT GPU runs a higher voltage and is hotter, but
could underclock the GT GPU/Mem when in 2D and the
cards may be close in power in 2D when underclocked.

I run my GF4 4200 GPU at 60Mhz when in 2D, which
is about 95% of the time.

Anyway, I like the fanless Gigabyte 7600 GS, but may go
with a 7600 GT.

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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:02 pm

Wow I didn't think there were any other people with CPU's as old as mine, still trying to squeeze some more life out of them. Good to have some company.

I'll look into those 7600 options. I am concerned about rising power needs though as the years have marched on. Any place I can find a description of power usage of these 7600 GT and GS cards?

One of my reasons original for getting the 9600 Pro was it gave pretty good performance, but on the then-new smaller process was much less heat-producing than the 9800. With a big enough passive heatsink and some overclocking it gave really good value for the last several years.

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Post by mattthemuppet » Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:08 pm

cool! didn't realise gigabyte were bringing out a passive 7600GS for AGP :)

there are a couple of 7600G* threads on here, with links to review sites and power figures - off the top of my head it's something like 15-25W for the GS and 30-45W for the GT, both at load. Both the smaller process and more spartan chip design keep the power requirements down.

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Post by Pgh » Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:12 pm

vincentfox wrote:... Any place I can find a description of power usage of these 7600 GT and GS cards? ...
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... noise.html

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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:43 pm

Excellent article! Thanks for the link.

Both the GS and GT seem like good cards power-wise. Now just need to find reviews, pricing, etc. Thanks again!

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Post by mattthemuppet » Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:27 pm

this seems pretty pertinent - 7600GS just about edges ahead of 6600GT, 7600GT about 2x performance of 6600GT.

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Post by krusty » Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:36 pm

A few more articles I've read while biding my time to see what AGP 7600
cards come out.

7600GS AGP 512mb Passive. Looks beefier than Gigabyte.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/ ... hp?UID=755

Don't know the memory speed.


http://xtreview.com/review134.htm

Interesting Idle power 13.7w -vs- 14.6w / 7600GS -vs- 7600GT

Makes me want to buy a 7600GT and underclock it.
Don't know if it would be worth it with my 1.33Ghz Tualatin,
but some games are GPU dependant.

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354

Any other AGP 7600 GT sightings would be appreciated.

Guess it was AGP WinFast A7600 GT

http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfa ... tdh_2.html

http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfa ... tdh_1.html

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Post by mattthemuppet » Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:50 pm

that xtreview link looks like someone's stolen a bunch of data from Xbitlabs and possible a couple of others and wrapped it all up with bad English. I'd go read the source material rather than crap like that (particularly given the amount of effort the original authors put into it) :x

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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:21 pm

I've never seen a vendor passive setup that I liked. I lean towards buying my own card, then putting a BIG HONKING HEATSINK on it. Something so heavy it makes the case tilt. Heh!

Hence my 9600 Pro with a ZM80 on it. Overkill? Probably, but I have no chassis fans in my case and better too much heatsink than not enough.

Hmmm, tough choice. GS or GT. The GS would still be a good jump I think from my 9600Pro, and would be a lot easier to cool.

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Post by vincentfox » Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:07 am

This 7600GT AGP looks really good, but I cannot find it anywhere.

There are a few AGP 7600GS around. Think I will just order that from TigerDirect and see how it goes. Maybe it will hold me until 2007.

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Post by vincentfox » Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:01 pm

Reporting back.

The eVGA brand 7600gs (fanned version) from NewEgg is JUNK!!!

I mean the worst kind of defective. The DVI port is non-functional. There are long threads about it on the eVGA forums and other places, and eVGA doesn't seem to care.

Fighting with NewEgg tomorrow to take it back without charging restock fee.

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:31 am

[UPDATE] Newegg took back the eVGA 7600GS and waived the restock fee, and gave me a promise of some credit on my shipping fee. Pretty good of them. I submitted a bad review, we'll see if it posts maybe it will keep others from making same mistake. Back to my search for a *working* and suitable card.

I looked at the XFX 512megs 7600GS AGP. 512 Megs seems amazing on a video card. I mean that's the amount of RAM I have in this old system. However no reviews of it that I can find. Not clear how cooler mounting would go either since the XFX card seems to have the GPU sitting much higher on the card than other designs.

I did bench the eVGA 7600GS briefly while I had it in, with an analog VGA hooked up and it was doing about 30,000 in AquaMark3. My old 9600Pro pushes around 22,000 with WarCat drivers at stock speeds. But the difference in FPS and quality seemed wider than just the numbers. I was frequently seeing FPS of 2 and 3 times that of the 9600Pro.


Still no 7600GT AGP it seems.

krusty
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AGP 7600

Post by krusty » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:54 pm

FWIW zipzoomfly 7600 GS 512 MB

On backorder

Passive MSI 512mb

Don't know the memory speed

Might consider if 800Mhz effective
'
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=327704

and...

the Gigabyte Passive 7600 GS 256mb was 'released'

http://www.playfuls.com/news_03950_GIAG ... 00_GS.html

Newegg 7600 GS's

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ategory=48

It's posted:

DVI defect on this card

Pros: Works on VGA port.

Cons: Card will not display to DVI. Check the eVGA forums, there is a 5-page thread about this being a widespread problem and eVGA so far not resolving it. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD!!!


biding my time for an AGP 7600 GT..............
..........but will consider a passive 7600 GS when they are for sale....

a Passive AGP 7600 GT would be ideal

krusty
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Post by krusty » Thu Aug 17, 2006 9:24 pm

Careful with the XFX 512mb

Memory Clock: 533MHz

Is that 533Mhz EFFECTIVE ? Anyone ?

Brand XFX
Model PV-T73K-YAL3
Interface
Interface AGP 4X/8X
Chipset
Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA
GPU Geforce 7600GS
Core clock 400MHz
PixelPipelines 12
Memory
Memory Clock 533MHz
Memory Size 512MB
Memory Interface 128-bit
Memory Type GDDR2


Memory speed is low if 533Mhz Effective

-----------------------------------
Passive MSI NX7600GS-TD512Z GeForce 7600 GS AGP 8X 512MB

Effective Memory speed anyone ?

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:14 am

krusty wrote:Careful with the XFX 512mb

Memory Clock: 533MHz
Yeah well I wouldn't blame this on NewEgg, well at least not THIS time. Manufacturers often have incomplete or unclear specs listed.

Looking at the XFX pages, they say 533. I would ASSUME this is 533x2=1066 which is quite nice. The reference design is 400 so I can't see them downclocking but who knows.

Similarly NewEgg lists a BFG part which lists no memory speed, but this is hardly their fault since there's no speed listed on the manufacturer page either. The BFG part is an "OC" part because it runs at core-420 instead of reference 400. Woohoo a 5% factory overclock. Not excited....

I'll order the XFX unit and see how that goes. I'm hoping to fit a ZM80D-HP unit to it that I have lying around and go passive. I'm hoping I won't have PSU problems as my ZM300B PSU only says 18A on the 12V side. We'll see.

krusty
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Post by krusty » Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:25 pm

Hope your right about the 533Mhz and be careful cooling the HSI chip.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/for ... 7002978731

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Post by vincentfox » Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:00 pm

Ah I see. I am new to this "HSI problem" having sat out the video card upgrade treadmill for a couple of years. Hmmmm.... how hot does the HSI chip get? It's a bridge chip to AGP, so I wouldn't ASSUME it to be even as host as a motherboard chipset gets. I can't find any place were people talk about the watts of heat produced by HSI.

Perhaps I could fit another passive heatsink onto it? There is plenty of space in the ZM80 setup. I have some thermal adhesive so I could permanently affix a heatsink, that is if I knew what I was using would be enough.

I'll take a photo once I get the card next week. Worst case there's a Fry's not too far away so I could pick up a Zalman 700 or 900. I have been fanless on my videocards for so long though I will resist.

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Post by krusty » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:50 am

There's a pic of the HSI chip

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=29634

Think I remember the HSI chip runs about 7 watts

Kind of like this one myself
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=327704
If no AGP 7600 GT's show up, I'll probably go with the MSI or Gigabyte passive.

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Post by vincentfox » Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:42 pm

Hmmm, 7 Watts. So a Northbridge heatsink or maybe a ZM-17 should be more than enough. Yeah I liked the idea of a FACTORY passive GS with 512 megs RAM and maybe some good RAM. However they seem impossible to find in the usual channels.

Seems like I found a few web previews and leask of 7600GT AGP solutions from like 3 months ago, no products in retail. I think it's vaporware. Going to just find something for right now, then start thinking about piecing together a more modern dual-core setup.

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Post by lebaige » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:13 pm

I'm very interested in getting either the MSI or the Gigabyte passive AGP 7600GS cards. Unfortunately, it seems neither one is actually available anywhere. I can't find the Gigabyte model on ANY online vendor, and the only people that seem to carry the MSI model is Zipzoomfly and they're out of stock. Has anyone found these cards available anywhere?

My old 6800GT up and died recently, so I now have an old GForce3 Ti200 in my Media Center until I can pick up a new card. Incidently, the little guy works great lol, five year old card and it never skips a beat. It's amazing how little GPU power MCE actually requires.

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Post by vincentfox » Sun Aug 20, 2006 9:16 pm

Seems a lot of interest in this little niche after all.

I just picked up a VF-700 at Fry's today to give myself another option when the XFX card arrives. So I think I've got the stuff to make it either silent or very quiet. Seems like a factory solution that does what we want is vaporware. I remember when Sapphire had it's "Ultimate" cards for the 9600Pro that cam pre-equipped with basically a ZM-50, and they were plentifully available and a reasonably powerful card. Where are these factory answers now?

Time to DIY.

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