Hello,

I'm currently trying to get my system as quiet as possible (without resorting to water cooling). So I have replaced my stock CPU cooler with a Scythe Mugen 2, and just recently (yesterday, actually) installed a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD. Also, I replaced the stock fan in my Antec power supply (NSK 3480 enclosure) with a Noctua, and replaced the fan on my Club3D 7800GT with an 80mm I had lying around.

Since I installed the SSD, my two "loudest" components are the Antec tricool fan (even at the lowest setting), and the videocard cooler. I plan on replacing the tricool with another Noctua fan, but I'm also considering replacing the videocard with a passively cooled fan. But I wonder how today's videocards compare in terms of performance with my 7800GT which, at the time, was a mid to high-end card. Not that I play a lot of games, but sometimes I do. Anyway, the review sites don't often compare these kind of cards directly, so I'm afraid I don't know what to expect. Can a fanless videocard match or exceed the performance of my 7800GT, and if so, which card do you recommend? Also, I'm looking to cut power consumption. Is that also possible with such a card?

Thanks.

Low load power consumption of graphics cards has improved quite a bit in the last couple of years so yes, replacing it with one of todays lower mid-range cards could be a good idea. There are fanless cards around the level of HD6770 and the like, and both performance and features are also above your current card. If using an older monitor with sub-1080p resolution chances are you could do fine with a bit simpler cards as well.

A 7800GT is about as fast as the integrated graphics of an AMD A8-3850 CPU, low end.
A passive AMD 6670 is twice as fast, a 6750 is at least three times as fast.
The 6670 idles at 10W, uses 60W at full load and about 40W in games.
The 7800GT idles at 20W and about 60 at full load.
The 5750 SCS3 idles at 12W, uses 75W at full load and about 60 in games.

Thanks. Seems like I have nothing to be worried about then. What about nVidia cards though? Any recommendations there?

boost is spot-on with the performance comparisons. I'd suggest going to some benchmarking sites and use the HD6670 as a baseline. Look at the framerates for the various games with varying monitor resolution and AA/AF settings, and then choose your level of performance.

Once you get to that point, we can help with specific brands/models.

Tom's Hardware

HT4U

No.
The GTS 450 is the fastest fanless nVidia card.
Performance falls right between 6670 and 5750 (5750= 6750, btw). Price is 90€ vs. 100€ for 6750.
Idle power ~12w, ~110W!full load ~85W for games. Too hot for passive and too expensive, imho.

Thanks all. I got word that a dutch hardware company charges no shipping cost when ordering today (leap day), so I decided on an 1GB XFX Radeon 6570 with dual DVI connectors. I don't play games that often and that probably isn't going to change, and I like having dual DVI connectors just in case I want to run a dual-screen system. Also I took the opportunity to get a Noctua NF-S12B FLX to replace my Antec TriCool, killing two birds with one stone.

Well, I installed the fan and videocard, and my system is extremely quiet .

However, there is one thing that somewhat bothers me. ATI Catalyst Control Center reports a memory bandwidth of 10.7GB/s. Even though the card has DDR3 memory, it's still lower than I would expect, given this overview, which indicates memory bandwidth to be 28.8GB/s for an HD6570 with (G?)DDR3.

My question is, how will this impact performance, and did I buy a card that is not all it can be?

Looks like I answered my own question wrt performance. I just tried a game of RTCW - a fairly old game. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes the framerate drops and gameplay judders. So I'm going to bring it back anyway. They also have a passive 6770 with GDDR5. Maybe that's a better option.