Gigabyte 7900GT with VF700 stock - quiet?

catalinr · Post by **catalinr** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:51 am

OK, so my order of the HIS X1900XT ICEQ3 is still nowhere in sight. Supply issues coupled with a 40% price difference for the 7900 are making me reconsider.

So, what do you think, is it QUIET?

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... 9T256DP-RH

I like that the 7900 consumes less power. Even if the performance is also lower, the more accessible price and the better performance per watt are rather attractive.

What worries me though is the fact that I am not sure if the VF700 fan can be controlled. Or does it always run at 100%, noisy speed?

Anybody knows? Thanks!

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:31 am

There is nothing about the VF700 that prevents it from beeing controlled, it's just like any other fan.

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:03 am

Since it's connected to the graphics card header, it should work as well as the stock cooler when it comes to thermal control. Then again, I think I read that 7900GT does not have that, making the fan run at full all the time.

catalinr · Post by **catalinr** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 5:38 am

Exactly. For what I understand, 7900 does not have a thermally controlled fan header. In this case, is there any other way to change the fan speed and noise on that VF700?

I heard RivaTuner is an utility for that purpose, and I wonder if it would have the deired effect on this card... And how would it work, I wonder?

Mike_P · Post by **Mike_P** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:00 am

catalinr wrote:Exactly. For what I understand, 7900 does not have a thermally controlled fan header. In this case, is there any other way to change the fan speed and noise on that VF700?

I heard RivaTuner is an utility for that purpose, and I wonder if it would have the deired effect on this card... And how would it work, I wonder?

The VF700 does not plug into the video cards fan header. just plug a fan-mate2 into the VF700 and the fanmate to a regular fan header on the motherboard, or a molex->3pin fan plug.

Noni · Post by **Noni** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:15 am

It does on the card.

omgy · Post by **omgy** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:45 am

I have the Gigabyte 7800gt version. You can control the fan speed through a program called RivaTuner. It allows you to set percentages for 2D, low power 3d, and performance 3d (25-100%).

The physical fan connection is 2 wires, no tach. There isn't a way to read fan speed on the 7800 & it looks the same for the 7900. However, it was cheaper to buy the Gigabyte 7800 instead of a standard 7800 with aftermarket cooler.

I have it set to 25/25/50. For me, the fan is still a little loud and noticeably audible over the rest of my system (see sig).

korsch · Post by **korsch** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:11 pm

I have an eVGA 7900GT with VF-900 connected to a P5WDH motherboard fan header. Speedfan controls the fan speed just fine in this case, although I found that on the lowest fanmate setting the VF-900 keeps the GPU cool under load (low 40s C) and at extremely low noise levels.

Speedfan control of video cooling fans in this manner would be ideal if only Speedfan could read the GPU temp like Everest and other software. It should be possible.

Gorsnak · Post by **Gorsnak** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:13 pm

I would expect that the Gigabyte model with the vf700 doesn't come with a fanmate, so pointing out that you can use a fanmate to control the fan speed may not be entirely relevant.