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Recommendation for a quiet, high-end card?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Recommendation for a quiet, high-end card?

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I built the system in my signature block with a couple of years ago and I now want to upgrade the graphics card. I am not very price sensitive, and I've read a lot of reviews on the latest high-end graphics cards, such as ATI's 4850 and 4870, and Nvidia's GTX 260 and 280. I'm leaning towards ATI because they seem to use less power. I have a quiet rig now and I like it that way.

Questions:
For the ATI 4870, any thoughts as to which brand to use?

Is the 4870 noisy in your experience?

I'm not averse to putting an aftermarket cooler on the card to get the temp and noise down. Any recommendations? If I'm going to do that, should I consider a different card?

Thanks in advance!
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well, ati have screwed up a bit in regards to noise in that they have set the fan speed to very low resulting in high idle temps although very quite. there is an easy fix for it by manually setting the fan speed though, IMO very quite and can keep nice low temps idling in the 40-50's, however i am used to x-fired x1900's so noise and heat ain't one of my concerns, still if you can afford it, i am quite happy with my x2.

one other thing would be to know what psu you have especially for the power adaptors.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

high end cards and quite cant go in the same sentence.
Well i have 2 gtx260 and if u leave the stock fan speed on there pretty quite.

------------------------------ intel core 2 quad q6600 @3.2ghz msi p6n diamond (X-FI Extreme sound) 6gig of OCZ+CoRSAIR oc 900mhz Nvidia gtx 260 sli @ 730/1465/1250
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Reply to invisik

there might be a passively cooled version of the 4850 or 4870 somewhere.... but they are fairly quiet even when you force the fan to actually do something productive

Reply to spuddyt

I have a beast of a PSU so connectors and power will be no problem.

Should I consider two slower, passive cards in SLI or Crossfire?

Thanks for the comments.

Reply to kevinea

Go to the arctic cooling website and take a look at the passive coolers they have for the video cards, or shop around on some websites such as newegg you may find a few cards with the passive coolers. The passive cooling devices also have an option for 2 small fans to be placed on them going off memory (aka Turbo Module), just remember you need a special connection they sell if you want to go SLI (I think they sold it through ebay).

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga1.php

You can also look into sound dampening your case, but I have no idea how to go about that, and plus it probably wouldn't dampen the GPU fan all that well.

Reply to assasin32

4870x2 water cooled... now thats silent

Reply to fantom-feltpen

Thanks, good tip.

I see that Force3D is going to put out a 4870 with an Arctic Cooling cooler installed on it. Looks interesting! http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14697

Reply to kevinea

the stock one is fine, just drivers need adjusting to sort out the fan speed without needing to create a profile to do it.

oh and i was just checking if your psu has the 8 and 6pin connectors.

When are the manufacturers going to make a 4870 w/ a new cooler (not the stock)? It's the only thing I'm waiting for till I build my new computer... (and my paycheck)

Reply to z999

For the above post asking for better cooling on HD 4870

http://www.powercolor.com/eng/prod [...] uctID=2304

POWERCOLOR AX4870 512MD5-PPH Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131117

I have no experience with an HD 4870, so I cannot comment on noise, but as far as brands go, I bought a Sapphire 4850 for myself, the other brand I would buy is Visiontek, since they seem to be getting a lot of good views.

Message edited by emp on 09-02-2008 at 07:42:43 PM

------------------------------ Anxiously awaiting the Hydra 100 and the Hydra Engine...
www.lucidlogix.com
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