I need to upgrade my video card to support 2500x1600 resolution for a future new monitor. Currently I have a fanless 7600 GT and have been relatively satisfied with its performance. System has a Xeon 3070 in an Antec P180B case, 3 hard drives, 3 fans, Seasonic 650W PS, and runs so quietly that I cannot hear it over any other sounds. Running Windows 7.
I want to retain the silence!
Primary use of the computer is for photography, some editing of audio, minimal editing of video, no games.
I am looking at the GIGABYTE GV-R485MC-1GI Radeon HD 4850 and the GIGABYTE GV-N98TSL-1GI GeForce 9800 GT 1GB Silent Cell.
Cost is about the same. How will these two cards compare in the amount of heat that they generate (since that affects air volume through the case)? Is either likely to work better with Windows 7?
From the reviews I have read, the 4850 may be a bit faster, but that's not a key issue for me.
Thanks.
Guy
9800 GT or HD 4850?
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johnniecache7
- Posts: 332
- Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:10 pm
- Location: Toronto - Ontario - Canada
I haven't been able to find a fanless HD 4770 for sale anywhere. I see a few articles about it from June 2009 but nothing for sale now. Do you know a source?johnniecache7 wrote:You should forget them both and get the HD4770 it's about the same as the HD4850 but lower heat and power useage. The 9800 GT has no chance against either the ATI cards you would be wasting you money.
I still wonder how the HD 4850 and 9800 GT compare in terms of heat generated. I'm concerned about the heat issue because a lot of reviews I read mention the 4850 being hot. That's obviously more of a potential problem with a fanless card.
HD4770 isn't really a good choice neither as it has a high idle power draw.
Though frankly the 5-series is a lot more power efficient, a HD5750 is about as fast as a HD4850 with a lot lower power draw, and the 9800GT isn't terribly efficient neither.
For what you're doing though I'm not sure you really need anything like that? Wouldn't a HD5450 do just fine? That one is cheap for sure and passively cooled. If you think that's not enough, HD5570/HD5670 are fairly low power too and I think you can find passively cooled versions.
If you want to stick with nvidia, the most power efficient card is probably some GT240 card, I think there are passively cooled ones too. Again though if all you really need it for is to drive a 2560x1600 monitor GT220 or even GT210 should do just fine.
edit: actually thinking about it, why do you need a new card in the first place? I thought the 7600GT should support dual-link dvi. Might miss the ability to play copy-protected content at dual link resolutions but I think should work fine otherwise.
Though frankly the 5-series is a lot more power efficient, a HD5750 is about as fast as a HD4850 with a lot lower power draw, and the 9800GT isn't terribly efficient neither.
For what you're doing though I'm not sure you really need anything like that? Wouldn't a HD5450 do just fine? That one is cheap for sure and passively cooled. If you think that's not enough, HD5570/HD5670 are fairly low power too and I think you can find passively cooled versions.
If you want to stick with nvidia, the most power efficient card is probably some GT240 card, I think there are passively cooled ones too. Again though if all you really need it for is to drive a 2560x1600 monitor GT220 or even GT210 should do just fine.
edit: actually thinking about it, why do you need a new card in the first place? I thought the 7600GT should support dual-link dvi. Might miss the ability to play copy-protected content at dual link resolutions but I think should work fine otherwise.
I have a Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH (Manual Rev 101, dated 2006). My recollection is that this board was rev'ed immediately after I got mine and the new rev supported dual-link DVI but the one I have only supports 2 DVI connections to separate monitors. Certainly the manual I have makes no mention of dual-link DVI.mczak wrote:edit: actually thinking about it, why do you need a new card in the first place? I thought the 7600GT should support dual-link dvi. Might miss the ability to play copy-protected content at dual link resolutions but I think should work fine otherwise.
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Cryoburner
- Posts: 160
- Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:25 am
I checked the product information at Gigabyte's site, and I see what you mean. There are rev. 1.0 and 3.0 versions of the card found there, and while the 3.0 manual lists support for Dual-Link DVI, the 1.0 manual makes no mention of it. The product page does show a Dual-Link icon on it though. It might be worth trying the monitor with your card first to see if it works, but it may very well not.
If you need a new card, an HD 4850 or 9800 GT is probably overkill if you're not gaming or doing extensive 3D modeling. For photo and video editing, it probably isn't worth getting a significantly more powerful card than what you already have. The idle power consumed by those cards is probably a fair amount higher than your current card, and may cause other fans in your case to ramp up. You might also not want something less powerful than what you have either, though.
Perhaps something around the HD 4650 or 4670 level might be good. Newegg appears to have some fanless versions of those cards available. They may not be able to handle recent 3D games very well at 2560x1600, but they should be plenty capable of running desktop apps at that resolution.
If you need a new card, an HD 4850 or 9800 GT is probably overkill if you're not gaming or doing extensive 3D modeling. For photo and video editing, it probably isn't worth getting a significantly more powerful card than what you already have. The idle power consumed by those cards is probably a fair amount higher than your current card, and may cause other fans in your case to ramp up. You might also not want something less powerful than what you have either, though.
Perhaps something around the HD 4650 or 4670 level might be good. Newegg appears to have some fanless versions of those cards available. They may not be able to handle recent 3D games very well at 2560x1600, but they should be plenty capable of running desktop apps at that resolution.
Idle power wasn't really optimized that much in these days, though the 7600gt didn't use that much power.Cryoburner wrote:The idle power consumed by those cards is probably a fair amount higher than your current card, and may cause other fans in your case to ramp up. You might also not want something less powerful than what you have either, though.
In any case, I'm not convinced a HD4550 or 5450 is actually slower than a 7600GT, could be quite similar in performance.
Thank you all. In the Radeon line, I'm leaning now toward the PowerColor 5750 fanless card. fyi, I found a very interesting article on graphics card power consumption at xbitlabs.
I still have to decide between nVidia and Radeon. My concern is that I have seen some reports of problems with the Radeon 5000 series and Windows 7. I'll probably explore that on another forum, unless someone has good advice here.
I still have to decide between nVidia and Radeon. My concern is that I have seen some reports of problems with the Radeon 5000 series and Windows 7. I'll probably explore that on another forum, unless someone has good advice here.