7900GTO or 8800GTS for my new build?

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:25 am

The time has come to say goodbye to my venerable P4 2.0GHz Northwood rig (with it's Ice-Q 9800 Pro card and 120 gig Spinpoint drive.)

I've already ordered the Antec P150 case (with the Neo HE 430W PSU). I'll also be getting an ASUS P5B-E Plus motherboard, a 6600E Conroe CPU, 2 gigs of Corsair 6400C4 RAM, a Western Digital WD3200KS drive, a Plextor 760 SATA DVD burner and a X-Fi soundcard.

But I'm not sure about which graphics card to get.

I've narroved my choices down to either a 7900GTO (which is still available here) or a 8800GTS.

In favor of the 7900GTO:

Half the price. Propably the most quiet (not-passive) cooling solution of a higher end card. May be enough for my gaming needs at this time. Lower power consumption.

In favor of the 8800GTS:

While twice as expensive, delivers twice the performance if you crank the IQ settings. Exceptional AF and AA. Will keep me from upgrading for a longer time. Should be able to run next years games at great settings.

My question:

While this rig won't be a silent rig, I've chosen parts based on trying to make it a quiet one. I know the cooler on the 8800GTS/GTX are being said to have similar noise levels to the 7900GTO/GTX cooler (this review even measures it to be quieter), but how do you suppose it's extra power requirements will effect overall system noise?

I mean, don't I run the risk of having the PSU fan ramp up earlier than it would with a 7900GTO? (Even at idle...)

Would it make more sense to wait for a refresh of the 8800 series, most likely with a die shrink, thus requiring less power and being easier to cool?

Thanks for your input!

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:33 am

No one knows for sure yet, but I believe one person in neighboring thread said GTX is loud, so I would suppose GTS will be too as they have similar coolers.

davsmith · Post by **davsmith** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:44 am

Buy the 8800 GTS - I have both the 7900 GTO and the 8800 GTS here and the GTS is definitely as quiet as (if not quieter) than the GTO. I have a similar setup to yours:
Antec Solo, Asus P5W-Deluxe, WD 5000KS, Core Duo X6800, 2 Gb RAM and Antec Phantom 500W PSU.

I'm very fussy about noise as I have my system at eye level. I can't hear the GTS at all in the Windows desktop, and I have to strain to hear it when running 3DMARK 06. In fact when I first installed it, I had to touch the fan to see if was actually spinning.

Very impressed with the 8800 GTS all in all.

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:09 am

i take it the 8800gts iss smaller than the 8800gtx? because the gtx isn't supposed to fit into the solo.... just a thought.

davsmith · Post by **davsmith** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:50 am

klankymen wrote:i take it the 8800gts iss smaller than the 8800gtx? because the gtx isn't supposed to fit into the solo.... just a thought.

Yes, the GTS is a few cm shorter and fits the Solo without a problem.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:08 pm

While the 8800 is more expensive, there are more benefits from buying this card.

The architecture is completely revised so it is now compatible with DirectX10.
Unified shaders instead of separate pixel and vertex shaders, so no more inactive pixel shaders when a scene is vertex intensive and vice versa. This makes the card much more efficient, because all shaders get to be used.
Unified shaders also allow for physics calculations.

Personally I wouldn't buy a DX9 card now. The 8800 is a bit more expensive but you will be set for future games.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 7:25 pm

I've read many reports of people who consider the stock cooler on the 8800 to be quiet, but I have to be skeptical. I've seen a few almost quiet <60mm fans, but none quiet enough for my PCs (even the non-silent ones).

Besides, the huge power consumption of the 8800 will force you to buy a bigger PSU, and the PSU will need to shed ~10-20W more than if you had the 7900.

I would opt for a passive GeForce 7950 or 7900.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:34 pm

Brian wrote:I've read many reports of people who consider the stock cooler on the 8800 to be quiet, but I have to be skeptical. I've seen a few almost quiet <60mm fans, but none quiet enough for my PCs (even the non-silent ones).

Agree, here. The 60mm stock cooler for my current VGA card was actually louder than the stock 40mm fan on my old 9800Pro!

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:39 am

IIRC the fan on the 8800 is 70mmm, though i might be wrong. And it is not loud, i have not heard it in a quiet environment, though i can say it is quieter than a stock intel cooler at idle, but i have no idea how much.

Anyway, if the 8800 truely is as quiet as the 7900GTO/GTX, then it is really quiet. At the moment my NeoHE, wich is not ramping up and has its grill removed, is louder than the GTO. The Neo is the only audible component in my system... I have the fan on the GTO slowed down to 25%, at stock speed it is about as loud as the Neo.

florinp3 · Post by **florinp3** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:34 am

Brian wrote:
Besides, the huge power consumption of the 8800 will force you to buy a bigger PSU, and the PSU will need to shed ~10-20W more than if you had the 7900.

I think his 430W NeoHE should be enough for the GTS. This article has some interesting performance per watt comparisons.

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 9:39 am

Thanks for your replies. It was especially helpful to hear from davsmith as he has both the cards in question.

JazzJackRabbit wrote:No one knows for sure yet, but I believe one person in neighboring thread said GTX is loud, so I would suppose GTS will be too as they have similar coolers.

That was the third post in this thread. He later explained that it was only loud when the fan was set to 100%.

Brian wrote:Besides, the huge power consumption of the 8800 will force you to buy a bigger PSU, and the PSU will need to shed ~10-20W more than if you had the 7900.

According to nVidia's listed power requirements the Neo HE 430W is enough. (For the 800GTS they are a 400W PSU with 26 amps on the 12 volt rail.)