I'm looking for a decent mid-range GPU for a new build (mainstream, some light gaming, etc), but I'd really like something that is 1) fairly energy efficient and 2) quiet.  I'm coming up sort of blank on good noise data for newer cards, so I'm starting to lean towards an 8800GS and just replacing the fan down the line if the noise seems an issue.  Any thoughts?
 
sonata designer case
antec earthwatts 500W
E7200
Gigabyte EP35-DS3L  
 
 
Thanks all!

The 3850 is very quiet (the fan only starts up when needed, and even then its faint), very cheap and all ati cards lower their clocks for 2d making them use little power when idle. I used to have one and it was a good card, obviously there are a lot quicker for gaming, but then these are obviously gonna be more expensive.

If you are going to get an 8800gs, get an eVGA one, I have not hear the fan until I manually turn the fan up to 55%.  It is a great card, it is about even with the HD3850 512.  The thing to consider is that the Radeon takes less power idle but more power gaming (I think) than the Geforce.

Any card with dual slot cooler will be significantly quieter than comparable single slot cooler models. Larger fan at lower rpm = lower noise.

Gigabyte, ECS (don't know about others) offer a passive cooled 9600GT.
 
I have a GV-NX96T512HP and it's perfect.
It idles on XP desktop at 40-45°C. 3D games run below 70°C.  
 
3D Mark 2006 however makes it whine when switching modes and the temperatures rise upto 95°C in looped tests.

Agree on the evga 8800GS.  Very quiet card.  Excellent price/performance too.

Avoid any and all 8-9 Nvidia cards. They all run super hot and not one single model aside from the Asus that uses 3rd party software for fan control and monitoring actualy ramps up the fan to stop the card from cooking the GPU. There are a ton of passive cooled 3 series from ATI and the fan cooled models are very low noise. Oh and they run a crapload cooler as it is.

8800gts works fine...I cant hear mine at all

lol on every video card thread you  reccomend the 8800GS. . And for good reason. The 8800GS is a good card, especially because it's so cheap now.

^ yup, true.  Maybe because I have two   (and am impressed by what they offer for the price.)    I especially mentioned it here though because the OP mentioned the 8800GS, and as someone already said, the evga is very quiet.  I do not recommend the XFX GS for a quit build.  
 
 
BTW, here's the stock clocked evga leading the noise charts:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] GS/22.html

I don't agree with that.  Most dual slot GF8's are very quiet and not hot.   Some single slot GF9's and 8's are very quiet.  Many have variable speed fans too?  

Good point. Unless you want to scare people away from your computer, XFX is not a good way to go.

if you want a quite GPU you would need to gat a passive cooler (Zalman VNF100) for it. You can mount one on the 8800GS / 8800GT and the 3850 & 3870.

I think the best card with a passive cooling is 9600GT

You can put passive cooler on any card, it's up to what model manufacturers decide to put it on. Or you can just buy a cooler and replace the stock one.