My 9800Pro with Zalman 80D heatpipe thingy has sadly passed away. having looked around extensively theres seems to be no easy successor. I currently have an asus mATX socket 478 platform with pentium m adapter and a PM Banias at 1800Mhz. Luckily this has a working on board graphics which while dire in 3d performance at least allows me to use the computer. Obviously this is an AGP platform.

I'd like to move to an nVidia product for no other reason that they have a good linux driver. Oh yeah and i dont really like CCC either. i had no problem with the cards performance though!

Options as i see them

6600/GT = seems silent versions are PCI-E only (asus and gigabyte)

6800GS = again cant find any silent versions in AGP format, power hungry, expensive

7600GS - seemingly perfect solution but not out until july in AGP format (read nearer october for UK release)

7-8/900GS/GT/?? = to expensive, forced to buy wasteful 512Mb to get "silence" probably use too much power (gotta go in a silverstone mATX case with very limited airflow), probably too powerful for my needs

One of the above with After market cooler - the zalman heatpipe was a bitch to install, and probably contributed to the cards downfall, i had to mod it to fit originally and i think it came loose later on, maybe they are better now??

Go PCI-E - this solution is littered with issues, i dont see the point unless for significant performance gain which doesnt seem to be there yet, could go with a socket 479 solution but no upgrade path (core duo is a different socket 479?), could go with a socket 939 solution but requires a lot of new kit ($$$) and limited upgrade path, could go socket AM2 solution but a bit too new and unproven

my current thinking is to buy a cheap 6200 as a stopgap and then save for new platform.

So guys and gals what would be your choice??, I would be willing to spend up to £150 though £100 would be better (for card only)

i do think that a 7600 is slower than a 6800GS.

6800gs is where its at, and its not at all power hungry. just have to do some work on it to make it quiet, but it isnt power hungry. Your 9800 pro used similar power levels on load and idle !

anything besides a 7800 or 7900 has 128 bit ram thingie, which cramps the card by a good deal.

an x800xl card (while it isnt agp) uses less power load/idle than a 9800pro, there are some agp variants of the x800 series.

still, they all would be a lil faster than what you have. if not double the speed.

6600GT is outdated yet faster than what you have. conundrum yes.

By the way, on newer games like fear and oblivion, that extra 256 megs or vid ram actually is starting to speed things up.

OK thanks, i guess i didnt really consider how much power the 9800pro was using... it did get very very hot even with that fairly large zalman on it!

EDIT

Using the swedish link in the fanless card sticky thread i was able to find this: http://www.intellect.uk.com/product_inf ... 2594ccf485

Seems like what im looking for and a good price?

So is there any alternatives? Say 6800GS, I want it to be 100% silent, what after market options are available?

/EDIT

Appreciate the comment regarding ATI but i really wanna go nvidia this time for linux support.

I wouldnt go with this card; In this thread, there's reported problems with the way the manufacturer mount the heatsinks. http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... yte+6600gt

Here's the power consumption of 6800 and 6600GT: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... 006_7.html

And the 9800 Pro versus 6800: http://www.hardfeed.com/srv/ramp/review/819.html

Out of these 3, I would go with 6800, due to the lesser power consumption and better performance. It might be a challenge to find a passive one, though. My personal experiences with the Zalman heat-pipe thingy aint the best Why not combine with a Aerocool VM-101? You might want to check this: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=17921

You should be able to find a passive AGP 6600 from Gigabyte if you look around... after all, we reviewed one! Yes, it may be out of date, but it will be cheaper than anything else and it's probably the equal of a 9800 Pro...

I managed to find a 6600GT passive gigabyte one on ebay going fairly cheap, so I bought it, didnt see your post in time!

I'll certainly be checking the temps once i get it, and if its a real problem i guess ill sell it on!!

Thanks for the input, very much appreciated!

I think that you got it second hand changes the perspective; Is there still a warranty? If not, and you get high temps, you and re-assemble it, using good thermal paste. But it also has to be considered, if it has already be worn to some extend - still talking about if you get high temps.

Slightly off-topic, but I happen to be looking for a replacement for my Radeon 9800Pro (as an upgrade for playing Oblivion). Between the 6800GS and x850Pro (AGP), which will make a better buy and for what reasons?

Thanks in advance!

6800 probably is slowerframe wise, but has the higher shader technology. It will blow away the 9800 pro however. when an ati x800 series is overclocked, it winds up using a decent amount of power, definitely more than the nvidia one.

x800 GTO from sapphire is a cheaper alternative but doesnt have the next gen shader technology.

really, I would buy new system for that game. It is a bigger pig than FEAR

Yes i have received the 6600GT. I have had some issues!:

Firstly the heatpipe arrangement is "thicker" than even the zalman z80D. Now this is an issue when you have a small uATX case and you PSU is very close to the AGP slot. So when i managed to cram it in, the temps were appaling, 93 at idle and in excess of 130 in mild load, followed by a crash. (funny the warning only comes at 145??).

Anyway i concluded the heatsink wasnt making good contact due to it being a VERY tight fit, so i removed the PSU temporarily so see how it would fair without any pressure on the 'sink. Temps were much better, in the 70s for idle and 110 or so in load, however because the PSU wasnt there there was no airflow whatsoever, and eventually after several hours of heavy gaming the temps again got over 130 followed by a crash.

So... the heatsink isnt very good, it needs some airflow, and its bigger than i thought it was. Performance is ok, slightly better than the 9800pro in non AA and slightly worse with AA and AF. Thats not numbers just subjective analysis.

Recommended? Nah, probably best to buy a standard one and put a good aftermarket cooler on it. I plan to get a 7600GS when they come out and sell this on.

with the price of a 6600, the cooling of it, and then a 7600gs, you can just go and get a better system and afford the more modern cards...


the 6600GT should be a better card than a 9800pro by a significant margin. this is odd that you are showing otherwise.

If cooling is an issue, I suggest re-applying the thermal with AS5 and cleaning it with their arctic clean system. I have dropped off 2-3 degrees off of ever stock sink on load and idle with the usage of the cleaner+ as5 !!

a worthwhile and longterm investment I have found.

OH, you dont havea fan on the card. Yeah, that card roasts itself and that is why it doesnt exist anymore on the market. However, if added a silent to it, it becomes the best of all worlds.

I looked hard for this, but it was yanked super fast..... reasons are obvious

Not sure what you mean but this? But anyway you are probably right regarding the 7600, i guess i gotta get into the modern age, PCI-E etc!

Regarding the performance, specs wise its compable to 9800 pro anyway? 8 pipes at 500 vs 325MHz but less memory bandwidth, not sure about design efficiency? So anyway its not worse than my 9800 which was my main concern.

what i mean is this: standard heatsinks are 10 cent garbage. Passive heatsinks: nice and heavy. passive = computer on fire for most users who game and do not modify their rigs. (no air openings, screaming fans that are clogged with dirt, etc.)

they yank the passive ones from user failure/complaints. Now, an spcr person know thats a passive heatsink with a nexus 92 or 120 blowing across it is still silent, yet very cool running and efficient. I always recommend getting the best hugest passive heatsink for something and then blowing air on it. inaudible is inaudible, so might as well also have air movement which ='s safety, longevity, investement protection, peace of mind.

thats what i would do with that vid card. THat card has more performance than a 9800pro, no question about it. I have seen the difference as well benches on websites concur.

yea, upgrade the system before you go do a 7600 series agp. the 66oo is a great middle ground however. (i hope it was cheap, should have been, I would unscrew and reapply thermal compounds for lower temps)