Gainward is coming out with quiet geforces in both the top end and the second from top end FX. I just hope that Gainward makes a 256mb version. Sparkle is the only company I heard that was so far.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7516

Here is more info on it. http://www.gainward.de/
it comes with a firewire card and a 5.1 sound card in the box.
the fan on the Geforce FX is rated at 7db

I really, really want to see a picture of how they remove 80watts of heat while only making 7db of noise.

I think I'll buy 2 of their cards: one to use a a regular vid card, and the other I'll rip heatsink off and use it to cool my CPU!


I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm with rusty. I'll bet the barn they can't do it.


That, and a sound measure of 7db is sort of laughable - very few "quiet" rooms have sound levels less than 10 or 15 db just from ambient noise. It doesn't make sense - a sound level of 7db is, for all practical purposes, completely silent.

If there is any fan on that card, especially if it is a smaller one (which there HAS to be) it'll make some noise (>15 dBa).

Knowing the Inquirer, this is just a REALLY early April Fool's joke....

maybe it comes with a liquid nitrogen bath or something ?

I'm just waiting for the `oops, forgot to carry the one' conversation:

Frink: You've got to listen to me. Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok, in an orgy of blood and the kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.

Scientist: How much time do we have professor?

Frink: Well, according to my calculations, the robots won't go berserk for at least 24 hours.

(all robots turn against the humans)

Frink: Oh. I forgot to carry the one.

Badashmods,

would you be able to comment on your gainward ti4600 + zalman ZM80A-HP setup? are you able to run it truly fanless? what are your case temps, what is your system fan airflow setup, and what PC case do you use? i would really appreciate your help as I have the same video card (it's truly a great, feature-rich product), and would like to know other owners' comments on combining the gainward with a zalman heatpipe cooler. btw, do the red heatsinks on the gainward card get in the way of the installation? thanks!

Yeah it works great with no fan. I used AS3 on all the contacts your supposed to put grease. I am going to move it to my desk pc P4 2ghz when I decide on a Geforce FX for this one. Probably the Gainward with the quiet fan. But I want to see benchmarks on the Geforce FX's with 256mb first. Gaibward is the best imo. The ram sinks don't get in the way either. There were 2 versions of ramsinks though released, I have the flat ones. If you have the tall red ones on the front I'll have to look to see if you'll have enough room. As far as case I'll link to it http://www.directron.com/201b.html that one with a side window and silver screws/usb plate.
It's all aluminum. I'm using the Vantec Aeroflow P478 Cpu fan with a thermaltake 3 speed switch. Usually running on low speed except benchmarks. On low Cpu is 40C. idle 48,49 gaming.UT2003 etc. It would be colder on high. Also If the Gainward geforce FX with a fan may keep case temps lower than the 4600 with no fan we'll see. Also my scsi drive is warmer than a ide drive. I'm still using the standard case fans that came with that case also on a thermaltake speed switch. The thermaltake switch works nice and is like 7 bucks. http://www.maxcooler.com/thera1fanspe.html
I'm really happy with that case, not sure where to get that exact one anymore there is some imitations but they come with less fans. Long post but I'm a hardware fanatic lol. Hope that helps.

... measured at a distance of 20m.