While this is not a silent card. It is a very quiet card. The non standard cooler that comes stock is great. I never realized how noisy my 7900GS was even when idling in 2d mode, when I replaced it with the Palit, my idle noise dropped quite a bit, such that I barely notice my PC now. Under load it barely increases, where the 7900 would turn into a leaf blower in comparison.

My systems is an Antec solo with Antec Tri cool fans on Low. Quiet for me and the new card makes a great match. Those looking for silent will be looking at passive systems or nearly passive + giant fan.

But for those wanting quiet with no effort, I recommend the Palit and it's great stock cooler.

I am not going to provide benchmarks/pics. That has already been done:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/palit_8800gt/

That is the exact package/bundle I received and my card looks identical.

I just wanted to point out a great (IMO) quiet card for those not aware of it.

----------------------------- UPDATE --------------------------------------------

ARgh! more testing reveals I have coil whine, first time I heard this, but there is a wee..ooh... wee..ooh .... While runing the atitool rotating cube.

Now that I have quiet system more noises emerge that I probably wouldn't have heard previously.

Also this certainly the issue. I found the noisy component. It is the coil next to the power connector for the fan. If I put my finger over it, it greatly muffles the sound.

If I get another, what are the odds it will do the same?

Great to know its quiet. I WILL be getting this card when funds permit.

Sad about the coil whine though. I think the noise which I thought was my hard drive's, could actually be coil whine from my MSI 7600gt OC'd...

I have pretty much the same setup as you (antec solo with tricool fan on low) and I find that the rushing sound of the fan on medium is more pleasant than the whine of the GPU cooler, and it manages to overpower it.

I get that also when running AtiTool, but I haven't had that noise running any other 3D program or game... so I dunno why ATITool makes it do it!

Turn V-Sync on.

v-sync will help in several cases but not in all for example Guild Wars still produce whine even with v-sync on (from the game or the directX overrider) and so on.

YAY! It is fixed. Now my system is blissfully quiet even in 3d games/demos/etc..

The Fix: I cut a strip off an earplug (expanding foam) and stuffed it in the hole in the coil. Pretty much undetectable now. I can only hear it with the side of the case off and my ear about 2 inches from the coil.

Now I notice the tone faintly coming through my speakers plugged into the sound out from the front of the case (Very very faint from rear jacks) motherboard sound.

But it doesn't come through the optical to my video receiver. So this this must be putting a ripple on the voltages.

Anyway, now quiet as I hoped it would be. I am back to saying this is a great card. Pic of my fix (hope it doesn't melt):

That's because some modes override the v-sync or are set to a really stupidly high refresh rate(in-game videos and such are common).

Get an app called RefreshForce/ReForce. Set all of your refresh rates to 60 or 70hz - your choice. Set the card and monitor to the same. Hit sync. Now it's truly 60 or 70 hz 100% of the time. This tends to speed up games as well, since the video card no longer tries to crank out 200fps in Quake or other idiocy.

Once this is done, windows only sees those modes and refresh rates as its only option. 1024*768? 60hz. 600*800? 60hz. some oddball 300*600 resolution? Same.

Since I have no fluorescent lights in my house, I set mine to 60hz.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1847

In another forum, I commented that this was a stupid design, more like a piezo buzzer, than a coil, then someone else pointed out the obvious:

It is a piezo buzzer!

Loading must be causing a voltage ripple being picked up by the buzzer circuit, stuffing it with foam solves the noise problem, but I likely still have ripple.

RMA?

Yes, i have a 8800GT and the piezo buzzer (the speaker that's put there to sound an alarm when you don't connect the power cord to the card) is making that sound. I stuffed there a piece of chewing gum and now is silent.

McGyverâ„¢ fix! Nice work!

Bazooka Joe FTW

The thumbnail above is broken so for those that don't realize it the image is at http://i.pbase.com/o2/04/606404/1/96315 ... etCard.jpg

Or not, just posting this message refreshed the page enough that I now see the image.

Anyway thanks for the thread. I really appreciate the tip on using the foam to block the sound and the pic to show me which part of the card you stuck it in.

Interesting. Maybe I should try the same tricks with my whiny 9600GT. It's either that or sell it/donate to family member.

I'm probably either gonna get this Palit 8800gt or the Gigabyte NX88T512HP Type A with the zalman cooler... Not sure which to get now...

Note I read some nasty things about the Gigabyte on another forum(didn't read it all).

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031679365#post1031679365

The Palit card is very quiet. The heat sink seems to have a plate for all the ram. And a separate one for power circuitry:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/palit_8800gt/2.htm

It idles at 40c, and after 15 minutes it maxes at 60c in atiTool 3d view. In games it never reaches 60c and I don't even hear it speed up. Quiet in and out of games.

I couldn't be happier now that I muffled the Piezo buzzer. Note I probably never noticed the Buzzer noise if I didn't run AtiTool. It must be the harshest test going.

I got the Palit on sale, so it was a no brainer decision for me. Decent price for a quiet card. I probably would have tried the Gigabyte if I saw it first at a low price.

It finally arrived, and immediatly I noticed the buzzing. So I did what is suggested and shoved some earplug foam in the little hole... It's less now, but still detectable...

Anything else I can do?

can OP get more pictures? the link you provided says forbidden access for me. Could you take two pics. One of the card with the coil circled and one of a close up shot of the fix? thanks.

Put a space at the end of the URL in the address bar to bypass the "You don't have permission..."-page.

WTF... Is your version the Sonic overclocked version?

Mine looks different... The cooler is orange for a start, and it seems its only got a 2-phase power system as opposed to the 3-phase on your one.

The buzzer thats making the sound is also in a different place. Pic:



See? It looks different...

tephras - looks like we have a security vulnerability.

so i peered at mine a little bit and... it looks like the hole is pretty small. what volume of expandable foam were you able to fit in there?

it looks like i would be able to fit... >thinks of good analogy< a third of an ear of corn. not much in my opinion.

is that enough to dampen the buzzing?

Wouldn't it be a final solution to just remove the piezo buzzer component completely? I mean, if all it does is warn you that you didn't connect the power cable. Shouldn't be to hard to remove.