Quiet/silent graphics card - Radeon 9200 or 9600?

[shredisn@tdead]

I'm looking for a graphics card that should be as near silent as possible. Won't have much instense stuff to do but would be nice to be able to run UT2003 etc from time to time (without wincing)

I searched the forums and have found that the 9200 is fanless. Now am I right to think the base 9600 is fanless too? I know enough now to avoid the 9200SE... presumably the 9600SE also?

This is going to be replacing a 7500 which is whining a lot. Didn't really want to spend more than £50 (ex VAT) but would be willing to go up to £80.

(got to have DVI + Dsub VGA, BTW)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Retail - £77.50
Connect3D ATI Radeon 9600 128MB DVI-I/TV-OUT - £75.50
Connect 3D Radeon 9200 128Mb DVI Retail Boxed - £49.05
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9200 64MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Retail - £42.50

• So am I going to get 50% more out of a 9600 than a 9200?
• Should I get a Connect3D or a Sapphire?
• If the 9600s aren't in fact fanless, is it worth my while saving £7 and getting the 64Mb variety, or paying another £7 or so for the 256Mb?

[Zak33]

9200 is truly not great Its not a new core by any means.

a 9600 with 128 is fine..NO MORE REQUIRED...in fact, if a 64mb one WAS fanless (dunno how to tell) and you are after a silent system, then that would be OK....but best all rounder...9600 128mb.

What ya COULD do is take off the heatsink and put a bigger one on and then get a low volts fan on it.

[Bindibadgi]

9200 is basically an 8500 with AGP 8x and a few "tweaks". As long as you get the 128meg, non-SE model itll be faster than a 7500 for sure. I wanted to get a 9600 for my dad but ended up getting a sapphire 9200. Still, its better than his current Geforce256 SDR which he complains is choppy playing Myst3.

[Donny John]

Go for the 9600 m8, 9200 SuXoR tbh, I know, I had one

[shredisn@tdead]

So best way to tell if the 9600s are fanless is to call the store and get them to check?!

[td5]

Originally posted by shredisn@tdead
So best way to tell if the 9600s are fanless is to call the store and get them to check?!

That or check manufacturer's website.

[Knoxville]

9600 ultimate has got a big zalman heatsink on it and is completely silent, only other passive cards are gf4mx performance territory iirc

[shredisn@tdead]

The mfg websites are pants, to be honest...

Connect3D 9600

Sapphire Tech 9600

Would be too much to ask to have a picture of the card there, ie what's in the box?!

[shredisn@tdead]

And another thing, my Dell that I've been butchering (see thread re CPU retention clips!) came with an ATI Fire GL E1.

Anyone know how this compares to a 9200 or 9600? Can't seem to find any benchmark info for it anywhere.

[hotpurple]

The fire Gl is a workstation card so it will be optimised for open GL for running specialist apps such as CATIA or solidworks.

Chris

[shredisn@tdead]

Meaning it'll be decent with OpenGL games (can only think of Quake3) but lousy with DirectX ones (like UT2003)?

[Zak33]

nope..lousy with both, most likely....Q3 and other GAMES in Opengl call on the vid card in quite different ways....

[Ice Kay]

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Retail - £77.50

The above gfx card is fanless and has just a passive HS, I know because i have the same card.

[shredisn@tdead]

Cheers Ice. Just got Overclockers to look in the box and confirm that - and yup, just a heatsink, no fan. Should be with me tomorrow.

Was thinking I could 3dMark2001 my "collection" of cards. Should I just swap them out and install drivers as necessary? Running XP Pro - should I do anything before I remove the cards, like uninstall somehow so it doesn't freak when I boot with a new card?

Here's the list, in the expected ratings order:

• Connect3D 9500 Pro 128mb
• Sapphire Atlantis 9600 128mb
• ATI Fire GL E1 64mb
• Connect3D? 7500 64mb
• Matrox G400 32mb

[Trickle]

You should uninstall the drivers, turn off.
Swap cards and boot into safe mode.
Run a driver sweep utility such as Driver cleaner 2.6
Reboot into normal mode and install Drivers as usual.

[shredisn@tdead]

Thx. Not heard of that util. Learning something new every day...