Most Powerful Silent Or Quiet Graphics Card

tridion · Post by **tridion** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:19 pm

Just wondered at the moment which is the most powerful graphics card you can get which is fanless.

Also which is the most powerful which is also very quiet in operation.

Ideally, if I got one with a fan, I am looking for one which is silent or virtually silent in general use and only gets noisy when playing games. Not too bothered how much noise it makes when playing games, just that it is almost silent in general use.

scorp · Post by **scorp** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:58 pm

Your best bet is probably 7900GT (MSI has a version that is passively cooled). You could cool it passively (there are several users that managed too, using a VM-102), but you will require some airflow over it (probably a 92mm Nexus @ 7-9v should be enough). According to Xbitlabs, the peak 3D power consumption of the 7900GT is 48W (about the same as a 6600GT). Your next bet would be the 7600GT (there are a few flavors, but the best cooled passive version seems to be the one from MSI). According to Xbitlabs, the peak 3D power consumption of the 7600GT is 35W.

If you want to go high-end, the HIS X1900XTX IceQ3 seems to be a great card, that received a lot of praises for its efficient and quiet cooling system.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:00 pm

Obviously, you can mount a passive cooler on anything, even an X1900XTX, but you'll need some airflow across the cooler to cool a card that hot.
The fastest card that comes with passive cooling as standard (AFAIAA) is the GeForce 7900GT, with Silent cards from Asus and perhaps one or two others. Again, some airflow is helpful, but the 7900GT is a reasonably cool running card (for the performance).
You could also just buy the cheapest 7900GT you can find, and mount a VF900 on it; even at 5V, that should keep a 7900GT cool enough.

StealthGirl · Post by **StealthGirl** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:24 am

Just to note: Aerocase's Condor Video Cooler can maintain either the X1900XTX or 7900GTX series within limits with only 20 CFM, using normal case fans. There is no need for a fan blowing on or across the heatsink, just an exhaust fan for the case.

SG

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:48 pm

Wow good goin girlie. That looks like a fantastic heatpipe and heatsink. That could easily replace my zalman water cool setup. (not that the zalman is bad, im just getting lazier about it as years go on)

http://www.aero-case.com/aerocase.html

oscar3d · Post by **oscar3d** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:55 pm

You mean powerful, and silent, without risks of damaging your card or system?

The most silent is the HIS Radeon X1900XTX IceQ3. No mods, no tweaking. This is hands down the best. ( I have one)

Until I got reviews from Aero-Case coolers, I can't really be certain that the passive heatsinks are going to survive a Radeon X1900XTX,

psionic · Post by **psionic** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:26 pm

A 7900GTX is very quiet with it's 92mm axial cooling fan and since Nvidia uses a full-blown, 4-wire PWM fan on this card, you can use a tool like RivaTuner to set it at practically any speed you want since the GPU is very cool running. I have mine spinning at around 700rpm and it is inaudiable.

Webmonkey · Post by **Webmonkey** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:42 am

psionic wrote:A 7900GTX is very quiet with it's 92mm axial cooling fan and since Nvidia uses a full-blown, 4-wire PWM fan on this card, you can use a tool like RivaTuner to set it at practically any speed you want since the GPU is very cool running. I have mine spinning at around 700rpm and it is inaudiable.

What is the normal speed intervals of the 7900GTX stock fan???