Hi All,

I would like to buy a moderate-low end card. I was considering buying Gigabyte Radeon 6770 (silent edition) but it is just two expensive where I live (~200$!). Therefore, I tend to buy a non-silent version. Which company (Gigabyte, Sapphire etc.) produce the quietest card? Will the noise from the fan during gameplay be audible (I would play at night, only when my wife is already asleep, obviously )?
Are there are other cards I should consider? My monitor is 1920X1080, but I'm not a heavy gamer and I mostly play strategy the FPS. I'm ready to go slightly up or down the ladder for a really quiet card.

Sapphire HD7750 Ultimate Edition. Passively cooled 7750, ~10% faster than 6770 with reduced power draw.
MSI R6850 Cyclone. 6850 card with the most quiet cooler (with bios switch set to silent, performance mode is preset and loud) , ~40% faster than 6770, could be less expensive than 7750 because the latter has just been introduced.

I believe you mean "then FPS".. But what games do you play exactly? Starcraft II? And what CPU do you use?

Thanks for the rapid response!

The games I intend to play are, for example, Civilization 5, Shogun Total War 2. Maybe Assassin's Creed 2 or Skyrim. As for first person shooters, I would probably go Battlefield 3 and the likes.
As for the Sapphire HD7750 Ultimate Edition, it is not available yet. As for the MSI 6850, I'll look for it, but I suspect it'll be above my price limit (I don't actually need that performance).

What do you think of the Gigabyte Radeon 6770 with the 10cm fan? Will this be loud?

Also, I forget to mention that I plan to use lucid virtu. Does this software powers down the graphics card completely (most of the time I'll use the onboard HD2000 that comes along with my icore-i7)?
As for other specs, I have 8gb ram and an SSD drive.

If you know the 6770 is exactly the performance level you want, why not just buy the cheapest one and put an Arctic Accelero S1 plus on it?

At 1080p with the 5770/6770, you'll have to turn down the quality mode of some of the games listed in order to get decent frame rates (Skyrim, Battlefield 3,..)...or lower the resolution.

HD6770 or anything in it's range is going crawl at 1920X1080. I wouldn't go lower then the HD6850 with that resolution. I believe the Asus cards where the SPCR choice but like the poster said above buy any HD6850 and throw the Accelero S1 PLUS on it.

No, unfortunately it doesn't.

No for 6 series card, yes for 7 series card. 7 series card need only 3W when not in use (Lucid Virtu, 2nd card in crossfire in 2d mode).

Again, thank you all. I did my HW and decided that indeed I should get a 6850 or up.

I have almost decided on the MSI 6850 cyclone (at 155$ or 165$ oc) but then I discovered that ASUS GTX 560 DirectCU is available at the same price(166$). Then I discovered a swarm of other cards and I'm confused again.
At the price range of 150$-165$, which card would you buy? As you can guess from my question in this specific, noise is a major factor. If it is the MSI Radeon 6850 Cyclone, is there a *physical* difference between the OC version and the non-OC version (if it only the default speed, can I just set it manually?) ?

If all is equal, a CUDA support is a slight advantage (matlab etc.).

Thanks ahead!

Anand Bench comparison (ignore the noise measurements). The reference GTX 560 has more horsepower than the HD 6850 and has CUDA for Matlab. Downside is it consumes ~45W more when gaming. The MSI R6850 Cyclone is a decent card for low noise. The ASUS card might be noisier (the TOP is an OC'ed version). ASUS might be aiming for very low temps...so maybe thee is some wiggle room to lower fan rpm profile.