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I have looked around for reviews of silent or near-silent graphics cards for a while but cannot find any particularly recent articles and I know next to nothing about graphics cards. I am just about to order from scan and would hugely appreciate it if somebody could have a brief look over their site for me (or recommend a make/model and Ill take a look).
The price region I am looking at is about £70.
Thanks very much.
PCI-E or AGP?
Are you thinking of running games on this? If so, what resolution?
With performance in mind, I'd suggest a x1950GT if you really want to stay under £70. 7600GT coming in second choice in that price range.
Ideally, if you stretch a little further, get a x1950Pro for £86:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=481911
Heres a review from hexus on the x1950Pro I linked to above, so you can get a feel of performance:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7016
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=615613
i have the 8500gt version of this (which is £60) so if you dont need it to have strong gaming performance requirements the 8500/8600 is a good card.
Sorry it would be PCI-E as it is a new computer. I don't really game but if I ever did it would be on very low settings (and probably not the newest games) since I find the experience/challenge far better than the graphics.
I do, however, like the idea of having DX10 and SM4 so maybe the 8600GT would be a good choice for me. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=577065 was another one I could see but was unsure about how large it is or how hot it gets. I have an Antec 900 so I guess it should leave plenty of space...
The MSI doesn't cool very well from the review I read when I was looking for mine. My gainward 8500 stays around 45 degrees which is about 20 - 30 degrees lower than the asus, gigabyte and msi offerings.
Judging by that the 8600 gainward should run pretty cool
Just a tip (if you get noisy card and want to quieten it cheaply) - I've done this with a passive X550 and 6600 but not sure how well it would work with higher end cards.
1. I remove the fan (if possible) or disconnect the fan from the graphics card
2. Locate a dead PCI card and plonk a fan on it - can use Blu Tack to attach. Even better to make a hole in the PCI card to allow air through to the fan.
3. Place the card under the graphics card and screw in to place.
Benefit is you can use any fan.
Thanks for that everyone, I went with the 8600GT Passive one in the end. Though I ordered it with Komplett in the end as there was no stock with scan and my scan bits should arrive on Thursday... :surrender::angst: