Looking for video card recomendation

[jtl63]

Please suggest a simple plug it in and forget about it video card. I’m partial to ATI and would have purchased an 1800XT by now but after reading a lot of the reviews and newegg customer comments of both NVDIA and ATI it appears a lot of these hi end cards run hot and are noisy which doesn’t appeal to me. I have about a $300 budget and would appreciate some suggestions of other cards I should be looking at. I’m willing to sacrifice a little performance for a stable, reasonably quite/cool, well supported video card.

The games I play are the most:
WOW
Oblivion:

My system is:
2g ram
3.4 Pentium extreme
Intel® Desktop Board D915PBL
PCI Express

 

[Cha0s]

You can Buy a Stock x1800
And equip it with a after market cooler

 

[cleeve]

Yep, if quiet/cool is important to you, an aftermarket cooler is a great way to do it.

You can get a good heat-pipe quiet cooler for about $40, sometimes less.

 

[jtl63]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m not looking forward to adding an aftermarket cooler but since nobody had any alternatives to look at (I couldn’t find any either that’s why I asked here) I guess I should start reading up on after market coolers. Can anybody recommend one or two to look at that are very easy to install on a X1800XT.

Thanks

 

[clue69less]

I suggest you get the card, and try it with the stock heatsin, and if it's still too noisy, get an aftermarket cooler. Best option IMO.

Funny thing is that you read about how hot and loud the X1800XT and X1900XT are. But in my Armor, the 7900GT was louder than the X1900XT and although it was a little more of a soothing frequency, the 7900GTX was louder than the GT. My dB meter backed up the ear on this.

 

[pauldh]

Yup, while I agree the X1800XT at full RPM is beyond loud, I can play Oblivion for hours and stay at 49% fan speed or less. At that speed, my eVGA 7800GT was louder. Summer is coming and if/when room temps go way up then maybe I'll change my song. But I say he try the stock cooler first. If you up the voltage and extreme OC, an aftermarket fan would be the way to go. You don't want to game with a X1800XT at 100% fan speed. But 38-49% is still quiet and 23% in 2D is just pretty close to silent.

 

[raven_87]

How's your X1800XT doing anyway? Did you notice the difference between your 7800GT :?: :?:

:twisted: :twisted:

 

[pauldh]

Only game I have been playing is Oblivion, which was the sole reason I upgraded. Yes, there is a very noticeable difference. I stayed at 10x7 res, but increased details as well as am running 2XAA with cat 6.3 and the chuck patch. The X1800XT owns the 7800GT in Oblivion. 7800GT was not much better than a 6800U.