£100-£200 Graphics Card With QUIET COOLING

[Blitzen]

- They're fitted with AC Acceleros which (so the clouds tell me) are very quiet. Miles quieter than any 8800 stock cooler.

Simply not true so take another look at that 'cloud'.

- My X1950XT with a VF900 runs in the same temp range as my mate's 8800GTS.

Your point being??? You were talking about stock and at 'stock' its far far hotter. Your mate's GTS IS using a stock cooler so there is no argument for your case there.

- My X1950XT can run most things maxed out and with AA in 1680 x 1050.

So you are saying that your card can outperform a 2900XT aswell then are you because they can't? So i SERIOUSLY doubt your would.

- In most cases they're only just behind 8800GTS performance.

Just behind as in a similar distance from the 8800GTS to the 8800GTX.......thats not 'just'...thats a good gap there.

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Even the new ATI flagship card 2900XT, isn't up to the 8800GTS standards yet so to say an older generation card is
I agree that the ATI are good value but to suggest, once again, that they are on any kind of a comparison with 8800GTS's is ludicrous.

for what 'Andaho' needs (i.e. quiet cooling), the X1950XT's I linked to are the best choice

Once again, the best choice for the OP is the 8800GTS for the simple fact that it ticks ALL the boxes he requires whereas the ATI card ticks 1 or 2 maybe.

[NightshadowUK]

- AC Acceleros ARE quieter than a 8800 stock cooler.

- The cooler on the cards I linked to is an Acceleros which'll outperform the stock cooler on an X1950XT reference design, so you're arguement about temperature being a reason not to buy an ATi card doesn't apply in this case.

- FEAR, Battlefield 2142, CSS, Prey - all maxed and smooth.

- I'm not denying an 8800GTS outperforms an X1950XT, I'm saying it doesn't outperform it by enough to justify dropping Andaho's main objective of buying a quiet card and every GTS I've heard running has been loud, in most cases the loudest thing in the case.

[Andaho]

I almost had my mind set that I will get the 256MB Power Color RX1950 XT at £116.24 but now Blitzen's points are sticking in my head...

Would a standard 8800GTS like this one 320MB EVGA 8800GTS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600MHz, GPU 500MHz, 96 Streams, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV at £175.08 (on today only) run cooler and quieter than the above PowerColor X1950XT?

I'm worried about this because, years ago, I bought a top of the range geforce 4 back when they were the dogs bollox... It had the exhaust design, and it sounded like my PC was gonna take off!!! - I'm not that dissapointed that it stopped working a few months outside the 2yr warranty, and I replaced it with a passive cooling fx5200.

----- EDIT -----

- AC Acceleros ARE quieter than a 8800 stock cooler.

- The cooler on the cards I linked to is an Acceleros which'll outperform the stock cooler on an X1950XT reference design, so you're arguement about temperature being a reason not to buy an ATi card doesn't apply in this case.

- FEAR, Battlefield 2142, CSS, Prey - all maxed and smooth.

- I'm not denying an 8800GTS outperforms an X1950XT, I'm saying it doesn't outperform it by enough to justify dropping Andaho's main objective of buying a quiet card and every GTS I've heard running has been loud, in most cases the loudest thing in the case.

Sorry, I started writing that before the grand prix was on and came back to post it just now, not realising there was another reply...

You're swinging me back to the X1950XT I'm gonna wait a weekend or a couple before I buy my system, as I want the Core 2 Duo E6850 on the today only offer - and hopefully be able to pick a mobo and graphics card in the same today only offer. So I still have a week or 2 to make my mind up

I'm really liking the arguments here for the 2 cards New to this forum, and loving it already

[Blitzen]

- The cooler on the cards I linked to is an Acceleros which'll outperform the stock cooler on an X1950XT reference design, so you're arguement about temperature being a reason not to buy an ATi card doesn't apply in this case.

Your comparison is so weak its untrue. Has anyone mentioned anything regarding 3rd party coolers??? No!. Thats similar to saying if i put your card water cooled it would be better.....of course it would.

- AC Acceleros ARE quieter than a 8800 stock cooler.

Evidence as opposed to the 'your mate says' comment?

- FEAR, Battlefield 2142, CSS, Prey - all maxed and smooth.

Im sorry but that misleading and unfactual specially on something like BF2142. The amount of AA you could use is SO small on this card it renders it almost useless.
And i quote from the link provided at the bottom of this post 'The ATI Radeon X1950 XT could not handle Oblivion at 1600x1200 with any decent kind of image quality, so it was knocked down to 1280x1024. It could not handle AA'

- I'm not denying an 8800GTS outperforms an X1950XT, I'm saying it doesn't outperform it by enough to justify dropping Andaho's main objective of buying a quiet card and every GTS I've heard running has been loud, in most cases the loudest thing in the case.

You do know where the cooling solution for the 8800's came from dont you? Take a look and see if you can decide
You havent heard any then apart from your imaginary 'mate' that has all these parts at hand to test. I can GUARANTEE you that the 8800GTS cooling is quiet.

Would a standard 8800GTS like this one 320MB EVGA 8800GTS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600MHz, GPU 500MHz, 96 Streams, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV at £175.08 (on today only) run cooler and quieter than the above PowerColor X1950XT?

Yes it is a FAR superior card.
Anyone who has any inkling of computer components will agree.

Take a look here: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA== and see how poorly the X1950XT performed vs the Evga 8800GTS 320mb Superclocked.
It says it all really and there is no argument left.

[aidanjt]

Yes it is a FAR superior card.
Anyone who has any inkling of computer components will agree.

Take a look here: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA== and see how poorly the X1950XT performed vs the Evga 8800GTS 320mb Superclocked.
It says it all really and there is no argument left.

Ohhhh, it burrrrnnnnss. Heh, you really can't compare a high-end DX10 card to a previous generation DX9 card, that's just mean.

[K3T]

ive got my 8800 GTS 640mb for

£183 plus delivery xD from ebay lol

[GSte]

You are joking right???

ATI cards are ALL notoriously loud....where on earth do you get your information from???? The clouds?

OP....the fact remains go for the 8800GTS 320mb (any of them).
They are:
1. Available for well under £200 now
2. Very quiet (my EVGA one is inaudible)
3. Alot faster than any 1950pro
4. The ATI cards all run ridiculously HOT aswell..........they have never released one with good cooling and the 1950's are just as bad there.
5. DX10
6. More efficient
7. Run anything you like at 1600x1200 maxxed out (no ATI card can do that-even the flagship ones as their AA is useless).


The 1950Pro/XT's are decent enough and are good value...........but they arent in the same league as the 8800GTS's which are only £50 more.

My god, you are a d!ck. Why can't you just keep your posts polite like everyone else on these boards, instead of constantly making offensive comments at people? It wouldn't even be as bad if your posts were free of factual inaccuracies, personal bias and 'spin'..... Of course an 8800GTS is faster than any 1950 pro, but it's also twice as expensive. And an 8800GTS cannot run all games maxed out, what about oblivion outdoors???

To the OP: you really need to decide how much you want to spend, and look at the relative performance of the cards compared to their prices. Currently the ones you should be looking at are probably the 7900gtx. 8800gts and 1950pro. You can get a 1950pro for 92 quid with the accelero cooler from Scan, but I haven't noticed any major sound issues with any of the above cards.

[danroyle]

the best way to decide which card is best for you is find the cards that interest you then click the following link

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=724&chart=302

then look at the performance in game and then try the different game options and resolutions on there

toms hardware use exactly the same setup and drivers to try each card so it is very accurate

on performance you will see on most games at 1600x1200 4xaa 8xaf that an 8800gts oc is about 20-25% faster than an x1950xt

you will also notice that in none of the tests does a 7950gt outperform a 7900gtx so bear that in mind also when purchasing that the 7950gt maybe a newer card but is not neccesarily faster


hope this all helps you out mate

and dont worry about the ati/nvidia fanboys they will always argue over which you should buy

just look at the charts and make your own decision as long as you get the best performance for your money then you have done ok

[aidanjt]

Don't forget about compatibility concerns, if you ever want to dab at Linux or BSD, forget about ATi altogether, it plain doesn't work.

[n00dey]

8800 GTS 320MB for teh win! Esp if it's an evga superclocked version.

[notsobig]

One small thing to note is that x1950 series cards are bit lengthy in size so be prepared to move your harddrives if necessary. Also Accelero cooler is taller than it looks so make sure there is enough clearance in your case. Anyway have fun with your new card

[Andaho]

on performance you will see on most games at 1600x1200 4xaa 8xaf that an 8800gts oc is about 20-25% faster than an x1950xt

and dont worry about the ati/nvidia fanboys they will always argue over which you should buy

I think I'm going to go for the X1950XT. Yes it does seem that the 8800GTS OC is about 20-25% faster, but for a price increase of 80-100%+. It costs too much to justify the price, and I'm not going to be running anything over 1680x1050.

Also, after doing my research and filtering through numerous reviews looking for comments about the sound of the fans... the Arctic Cooler that's on the PowerColor X1950XT looks like it's going to be far quieter than any 8800 manufacturer fitted fans.

As for the arguments of ATI vs NVIDIA, that's exactly what I've been looking for I do prefer NVIDIA as a brand, and appreciate how manufacturer's of NVIDIA cards offer superb warrantys, but this time, ATI & PowerColor with it's Arctic Cooler wins me over for being the best value!

Also, thanks for the tip about Linux... I've actually been testing the water with Ubuntu and have it dual booting on my current machine... but I guess I'll just settle with only using it on my second PC.

Thanks again to all of you for your comments - The X1950XT wins for me

[Magnets]

One small thing to note is that x1950 series cards are bit lengthy in size so be prepared to move your harddrives if necessary. Also Accelero cooler is taller than it looks so make sure there is enough clearance in your case. Anyway have fun with your new card

An 8800 is just as long i believe.

An 8800 will possibly run slightly cooler than an 1950 + accelero. The fans on the 8800s are very quiet, on full speed you can only hear the woosh of air (just). An 8800 will vent outside the case too, so your CPU fan will run slightly slower (if it's temp controlled).

It really depends on your budget and what games/res you play.
For current games, an x1950xt will run almost all, at high details, medium AA/AF(4x AA probably).

Take a look at the review Blitzen posted, both cards run BF2142 on full settings with only 5 FPS avg. difference ( http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA== )

At low res/medium AA there is little difference between the cards. If you are playing at high res (over 1280x1024) and want to use 16xAA, or play games like oblivion, then you need an 8800.

As for DX10, i wouldn't worry about it. I made the same decision between an 8800 and x1950xt only a few weeks ago, and i didn't think there was £75 difference between the two cards. I don't play many new games that require that much power. I can run HL2 based games on max settings with very good FPS (50+). ETQW beta runs at 30 FPS (capped) with medium-high settings and 2xAA.
(here's my settings in ETQW here)

Another thing going for the ATI cards, they clock down in 2D mode, so mine idles at 46-48 degrees with the fan on the lowest setting. When i open a 3D app, it increases clock speeds and the temp/fan increase.
I'm not 100% sure if nVidia cards do this, but you can configure Rivatuner to do it for you, it's just not as simple.

[JIM_BOB7813]

Yes the 8800 is very quiet. Mine idles at 50-54 degrees and goes up to 66-68 under load. The fan is almost silent at 60% cycle (1500rpm) and I have mine set to 72% (1900 rpm) in 3d which is where it just about becomes audible over my case/cpu/psu.

You can play with the clocks and fan cycle in 2d to get the 8800 to idle at a much lower temperature, so don't worry too much about fan noise in 2d settings. I believe this is also possible with a 1950xt, which probably does it by default. The 8800 uses the same clock speeds for 2d and 3d by default - you need to manually change them with something like Rivatuner.

The 8800 almost certainly uses more power than a 1950xt so if you leave your pc on overnight, a x1950 will save on your leccy bill.

[notsobig]

As for DX10, i wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah I think so too, it will probably take more time for "DX10 cards only" games to come out on the market so still there will be some life left for DX9ers. So going for DX9 card now isn't complete waste I believe. But if you put resale value into consideration I don't think spending more than 100-120 on it isn't a good idea because probably noone wants to buy DX9 cards in the future when they became practically useless. So anyone spending more should seriously consider going for DX10.

[JIM_BOB7813]

I wouldn't worry about DX10 either. No game developers in their right mind would release a dx10-only game any time soon. I remember reading that the % of people who have a DX10 card (I think it was a steam survey) is so small, like 0.5%.