FX 5900 Ultra - cool and quiet

[Sarke]

These are from avault.com's preview of the FX 5900 Ultra (thanks to vacs for the link), and I must say that this is very good news but why didn't they do this for the 5800? Too much preassure to release the board I guess...

"In fact, this new cooler is not only quieter than its predecessor, but it's quieter than the Ti4600 from last year."

"Compared to the FX 5800 Ultra or the Radeon, this card runs relatively cool for its features and power."

 

[cleeve]

They didn't do it for the 5800 because they couldn't. The 5800 had to be overclocked like a banshee to compete with the 9700, so they needed crazy cooling.

The 5900 is optimized and runs at a slower speed than the 5800, so it doesn't need the ludicrous vacuum cleaner unit...

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

But Cleeve, who needs quiet when I coulda had another 100mhz. Heck I already wear headphones to play games, I'll just put those bid orange ear protectors overtop of them, and annoy the neighbours, all for my pursuit of +3FPS. :tongue:

Glad to see the change, but I think you are right on as to the reason. It didn't need steroids to beat the 9800P (or 9800P-256) so they were able to back it off a bit and be 'reasonable'.

However it STILL takes up 2 slots (sarke, yes it's only small concern/comment) so portable gaming may take a hit, although I don't know if the shuttle can run that much power or not (R9700s were giving people trouble sometimes).

Also, where did the cool Dawn's eye go? And all those 'ugly' capacitors!

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red> :tongue: GA to SK

 

[Sarke]

However it STILL takes up 2 slots (sarke, yes it's only small concern/comment) so portable gaming may take a hit

yeah, but remember it is only the ultra that takes 2 slots and there is the FX Go for portable/low power.

 

[LancerEvolution7]

I didn't read the article from avault.com, but tom's did a review on it. It said in the conclusion that the fx5900 is still the louder of the ATi video cards. So I'm still wondering how quiet it really is.

 

[Ryan_Plus_One]

Any PC with a video card that has a fan on it should free up that first PCI slot to improve airflow!

The way I see it, Nvidia just forces you to use common sense by blocking it. Who needs all those PCI slots anyways? Soundstorm is increasingly popular, ethernet is integrated as well as SATA.

Who here actually has more than 2 PCI cards in there board?

 

[Sarke]

Who here actually has more than 2 PCI cards in there board?

O-oh! Now you've done it Ryan_Plus_One (Grape, stay calm!).

I suggest you read <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=349459#349459" target="_new">this thread</A>.

 

[RCPilot]

I don't have a thing in my PCI slots. I don't even have the extra cards that fit the slots from the MOBO installed either Like the Firewire & extra USB 2.0's.

As you said with all the integrated things on MOBO's & how good they are is amazing now days. It's all happened in quit a short time as well really. It sure does make for a lot cleaner build. I don't see as many conflicts with onboard stuff as I did even a year ago.

I'd give up PCI slot 1 for a FX5900 Ultra in a Hot Skinit & remember a Skinit is 60 seconds less than a minute.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[Ryan_Plus_One]

So this issue has been discussed before. I still want to hear from other people who have more than 2 PCI slots used in their motherboard. Especially in a forum like this that is full of computer geeks with modern equipment.

I like the part where Grape asks, "What are the Shuttle users supposed to do?" Haha... it's called buy a case that wasn't built for pussies LOL!

 

[dhlucke]

I have a NIC (need 2), modem, and sound card. I could pull the modem out I suppose since I don't use it.

Also, with respect to the noise. I returned my Ti4600 since it was so noisy so I'm still not convinced. It would have to be a lot quieter than even that card to make me happy.

<font color=green>Everyone should be like the Dutch. They're perfect.</font color=green>

 

[Sarke]

Keep in mind that the preview nv35 has a reference cooler, and some retailers (espec. MSI) can be quite good at coming up with improved and quieter cooling solutions.

 

[dhlucke]

It's always the same ol' story though. We went through this last time as well and nothing panned out. Remember the 6 dba card from Gainward? That was complete bullsnot.

I'm gonna wait until everything hits the market and people actually own these cards. No more hype.

<font color=green>Everyone should be like the Dutch. They're perfect.</font color=green>

 

[reever2]

They werent really saying it was 6db, some guy fudged up big time and forget to add "softer than the reference cooler" after the 6db