Graphics card advice

[Meds tbh]

Please advise if this is posted in the wrong place by the way.

I presently have a pair of NVIDIA GEFORCE 7950 GT 512MB PCIE that make an amazing amount of noise and want to switch them out for something quieter. I know very little about what makes WoW tick and every Gfx card review I've seen is more concerned with the FPS in shooters etc. The two cards I'm considering are:

Asus GeForce 9600GT Silent 512MB
and
NVIDIA Ultra-Quiet 8800GT-ZILENT 512MB DDR3 PCI-E Dx10

Anyone know anything about how these will run WoW? I assume pretty well, but I may be wrong. Should I aim lower, or ever higher? Price isn't really as issue as this is about all I'll be upgrading any time soon.

Any advice appreciated :)

[ChaosSaber]

WoW is not picky about its graphics cards. Both the ones you listed should run it well.

[thomiek]

WoW is not picky about its graphics cards. Both the ones you listed should run it well.

True. I once run it with Radeon 9500 (128MB) and had no problems whatsoever. WoW is RAM hungry though, but that's not of a problem since prices of memory are so low.

[Tunga]

True. I once run it with Radeon 9500 (128MB) and had no problems whatsoever.Well no, a Radeon 9xxx isn't going to run WoW at top spec. Yes, I used to run it on a 9800 and couldn't even max it out and that was before TBC was added (and never mind WotLK).

As for the OP, the two cards listed are fine and the performance will be quite similar. All indications I can find suggest that the 8800s are a little faster than the equivalent 9600s but it's probbaly not something you'll notice in WoW. I believe the 8800 also produces less heat so a silent version will be less toned-down than the 9600 would but again it won't be a huge difference.

Both cards are from decent brands (Asus and MSI) so there's nothing to worry about there.

What's the price difference on these? I'd probably just buy the cheaper one. Take the 8800 if they're similar.

[Kalos]

Well no, a Radeon 9xxx isn't going to run WoW at top spec. Yes, I used to run it on a 9800 and couldn't even max it out and that was before TBC was added (and never mind WotLK).

As for the OP, the two cards listed are fine and the performance will be quite similar. All indications I can find suggest that the 8800s are a little faster than the equivalent 9600s but it's probbaly not something you'll notice in WoW. I believe the 8800 also produces less heat so a silent version will be less toned-down than the 9600 would but again it won't be a huge difference.

Both cards are from decent brands (Asus and MSI) so there's nothing to worry about there.

What's the price difference on these? I'd probably just buy the cheaper one. Take the 8800 if they're similar.
Tunga has advised well. There is little I can add, apart from to make sure that your PSU has enough power to provide for such cards, else you'll need a new one of those as well.

The 8800s are slightly better than the 9600s, when I made the choice between them I went for the 8800 and haven't been disappointed.

[thomiek]

Well no, a Radeon 9xxx isn't going to run WoW at top spec. Yes, I used to run it on a 9800 and couldn't even max it out and that was before TBC was added (and never mind WotLK).


Well, I never said anything about top spec :smiley:

No problems meant no fps (in Cities) under 20 or so.

[Meds tbh]

Have a 700 WATT OEM ATX PSU REV2 in there at the moment - will that do it? Sorry, noob :(

[Tunga]

No problems meant no fps (in Cities) under 20 or so.Okay but considering the OP is running SLI 7950GTs I think we can assume that performance on minimum settings is not what we're looking at here. (And I think a 9500 would still struggle in Shrattrath but that's another issue).

Have a 700 WATT OEM ATX PSU REV2 in there at the moment - will that do it?Should be okay. Brand and quality mean more than Wattage when it comes to PSUs but of course it's still an issue. 700W should give you a decent overhead when running a single card. It's difficult to tell with generic PSUs because they could be made by anyone.

[jschild]

A single 8800 GTS can run Shatt at 60 fps, so it shouldn't be an issue. Of course, this is highly dependent on the resolution being used.

700W should easily cover any normal single card solution without even trying.

[Doric]

I use an 8800 GTS (640mb) and i run the game at more or less 75 FPS at a constant rate. Your CPU and RAM will have the biggest impact on performance as its not a highly detailed game.

[Meds tbh]

I use an 8800 GTS (640mb) and i run the game at more or less 75 FPS at a constant rate. Your CPU and RAM will have the biggest impact on performance as its not a highly detailed game.

Did some tests last night and I was getting 60 fps pretty solid even with the settings maxed out. Turns out the noise was from a little fan I hadn't spotted and not from the cards, so I replacing it and seeing how it goes.

How would 2 8800s work? As they're both fanless and I have plenty of case cooling there's no issues there. Would that run it like a dream?

[jschild]

Should run it very well, probably around a 40-60% improvement. Having 2 SLI'd cards do NOT give you double the performance, but generally closer to 50% more. Some games utilize it better however, as will a top tier cpu help speed things up.

Dual-8800's will make you very happy, but at that cost, you might want to look at the newest ATI and Nvidia cards to see how they compare, cost for performance. I've heard rave things about ATI's newest (their last 2 generations kinda sucked vs. Nvidia's 8x00 line) but I'd examine things first.

[Meds tbh]

Just looking at 2 8800s as they're a) quiet, and b) damn cheap at the moment.

Some fun facts about what a tool I am:

1. Been putting up with this insance noise for over a year from my PC because I didn't notice that there was a tiny screeching fun under the CPU cooler that could have been easily replaced by a decent Zalman cooler, and
2. As near as I can tell for the whole time I've had the rig I've only been using one of the cards. SLI was not enabled. WoW looks much nicer with that aliasing thing cranked right up!

And to think I used to build my own PCs when I had more time :(

[jschild]

Wow....not using SLI for how long? Ouch.....Glad things are working for you now however, grats. And yes, the 8800's are indeed cheap. Why i just got one when I upgraded.

[elsegundo]

all this talk makes me want to build another computer. =]

[Kalos]

all this talk makes me want to build another computer. =]
I just did :grin:

After one of my family chose to blow up my desktop while I was away at Uni, they had to pay most of the money to replace my 2004 era Athlon 64 setup with a Core 2 Quad machine. Finished it all last month, works great. For relivance to the conversation, it uses an 8800 GTS 640 MB graphics card, it works fine for every game I own on high settings, I don't even own a second one or a motherboard able to SLI :tongue:

[jschild]

What did they do to crash it?

[Kalos]

What did they do to crash it?
They tried installing a second harddrive, trying to read data from it. The SATA cable they used got into the 7800's main cooling fan, jamming it up. Ten minutes of operation later without cooling, it had apparently made a rather large bang as it died in a most violent fashion. The backlash from the card's destruction wrecked the motherboard and CPU, I was perticularly unpleased at the graphics card was less than two months old when it was blown up.

It was both irritating and disappointing, and slightly humorous in a fashion when they tried plugging the wrecked 7800 into another, far older machine, and it wrote that machine off too. Don't try using burnt out parts, it is bad for your hardware :shocked: A not so shocking revelation. I'm just thankful that one was just an old Athlon XP nobody had used in years (and I doubt anyone will be using it now either). I do resent having my gaming desktops blown up however, it is always a pain when they have an untimely death.

[WatcherZero]

was its orginal HDD salvagable?

[Kalos]

was its orginal HDD salvagable?
Indeed, after I assembled the machine and had it working for several weeks on three other harddrivers in a RAID 5 array, I decided to interface the old harddrive to access its files and save what memories I had on there. Saved many old game saves, photos from my college days, and even old documents. It was just about the only part of the Athlon 64 rig that was still functional.

Never, ever let your graphics card overheat. Let your processor by all means, it has the ability to underclock itself and even force-shutdown to protect itself on all modern design architectures, but graphics card thermal protection is sorely lacking. I really hope Nvidia or ATI make it an issue, just like AMD and Intel have in their Athlon 64/ Pentium M / Core 2 Duo series CPUs. One of the major dangers in the modern desktop which hasn't really been properly addressed.

[jschild]

Something I've had serious issues with is the default fan rate on my Geforce 8800. It runs hot (placement of the tower is partly to blame, but cannot be avoided) when running intense 3d games for a long time. I mean dangerously so. Had to download ntune to allow me to tweak the speed (which is supposed to "auto" adjust but does not). Instead of it being at 60% (what it shows when on Auto, but it never increases as shown, while the card gets hotter and hotter), I switch to manual and raise it to 85-100% (depending on how hot the day is, and thus our house) and no issue whatsoever. On Auto, it gets around 70C and games will crash. At 85%, it never go any higher than 60C usually, and at 100% doesnt even hit 55C. I've got fans in my case that are over 6 years old, so why can't Nvidia make a fan that can run nonstop for that long?

[Artad]

For ease of use I would suggest using EVGA's Precision to increase your fan settings, it's far easier and nicer than Rivatuner (and it's written by the same person).

I run my 9800's at 80% and at idle get to about 55c on one, 44c on the second, that's with an ambiant outside temp of approx 28c (that's how hot my office is atm). Normally I get between 42 - 50 on both cards at idle, between 50 and 60 under load.

[WatcherZero]

Never, ever let your graphics card overheat. Let your processor by all means, it has the ability to underclock itself and even force-shutdown to protect itself on all modern design architectures, but graphics card thermal protection is sorely lacking. I really hope Nvidia or ATI make it an issue, just like AMD and Intel have in their Athlon 64/ Pentium M / Core 2 Duo series CPUs. One of the major dangers in the modern desktop which hasn't really been properly addressed.

Could of been really unlucky, usually even Graphics cards have some form of overtempeture protect, though less reliable. My geforce 6600GT though BSOD when it hits 90, usually with artifacts beforehand. I have almost as much trouble with one of my hdd's though, on very hot days it can overheat and it just gets slower and slower before becoming unresponsive till it cools off.

[Tunga]

The 8800s do run quite hot though and seem fairly happy with it, mine idles at 60 deg C and in games it goes to ~70. I setup fan profiles originally but the noise was excessive and I found out that those temperatures were fine for the card.

[Meds tbh]

Re: Fan noise, are we talking about the same one? This is the one I'm looking to buy:

8800 (http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vga-cards/msi-nx8800gt-zilent)

[Kalos]

Re: Fan noise, are we talking about the same one? This is the one I'm looking to buy:

8800 (http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vga-cards/msi-nx8800gt-zilent)
That one's GPU is the G92, built on 65nm fabrication. The original 8800s that were built in 2006 (and are still being built now, so you have to select carefully) were fabricated on 80/90nm fabrication, and were far hotter. The 8800 GTSs are a funny series of cards, some are built on the old fab and others on the new.

Your card linked shouldn't have these problems, its on the newer and cooler revision and it hasn't followed the reference design cooler, so it won't sound like most other 8800s. Quite how silent it'll be I can't say, only it has been custom designed by MSI.

[Meds tbh]

Had to share this. ok, I know it's Dell but meh. When someone buys a Dell and it's got a scratch or whatever they return it and Dell sell it - fully working and 12 month warranty - on eBay.

Got this for £120:

AMD A64 1640B (2.7Ghz)
80GB (7,200rpm) SATA 3.0Gbs Hard Drive
2.0GB 800MHz NON-ECC DDRII Memory(2*1GB)
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro PCIe 256MB, DVI (Full Height
Windows Vista SP1 Business


Just a backup for the gf to write scripts on and play WoW. Bargain right? Can always get rid of Vista if SP1 hasn't helped :laugh:

[WatcherZero]

80gb hdd :P
ive got a 300gb and only got 25gigs free.

[Meds tbh]

heh, GF has only played about 5 games in her life total and now only plays WoW. That plus the occasional script - works on most on her lappy - and I don't think she'll be troubling it :)