Silent Graphic Cards

noobert

So i've recently moved my computer into my room, so i have a new need for silence.

I went through my case stopping each fan one at a time (just with my finger for a few seconds) and when i stopped the fan on my Sapphire x1950pro the case went silent.

Problem: Graphics card, stock fan is rated at like 60dbA... that's about 50dbA louder than anything else.

Now, considering i don't game too much these days (Just some WoW, Diablo:LOD, CS, WC3) the x1950pro is way overpowered for what i do. I was hoping someone would be able to recommend a card that performs well and is either silent or has a very quiet stock fan.

Thanks!

MengerSponge

You know, you can just get a replacement heatsink for your current card. I haven't done this myself, but Newegg and some other places have replacement heatsinks, many that are fanless (although they're typically huge) or have quiet and/or adjustable fans. I'd probably go for that, rather than getting a whole new card (especially since you don't need an upgrade).

Edit: a quick search on Newegg turned up this, which might work for you. I have no idea if there are better ones out there, but this is the sort of thing I was talking about. I have the exact same situation, case is pretty quiet, video card is noisy, so I'll be getting something like this soon as well.

noobert

Thanks man.

Currently downloading ATItool and am going to give underclocking + reduced fan speed a try.... No point running the card to its loudest and max when i'm not using any of that power!

Kreutz

Are you sure it's always been loud? My HIS Digital card had a fan which started wearing out and getting louder. I removed the sink from the card, sprayed some WD-40 into the fan axis, remounted it, and it was noticeably quieter.

noobert

Kreutz wrote: »

Are you sure it's always been loud? My HIS Digital card had a fan which started wearing out and getting louder. I removed the sink from the card, sprayed some WD-40 into the fan axis, remounted it, and it was noticeably quieter.

Yeah, the card isn't even more than a month old...

Hirocon

I use this on my 7900GT and it is almost completely silent (my Antec power supply is actually louder). I never have a problem with my graphics card overheating. I'm not sure if that exact model of fan will work with your card, but I can recommend Zalman VGA coolers.

Manic205

My 7600GS doesn't have a fan, it just has a very nice heatsink. Got it for $130 and it runs Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2, and Lord of the Rings: Online at max everything just perfectly(except for some towns in LOTRO, but that's to be expected).

But yeah, completely silent.

Mumblyfish

I would second the recommendation for the 7600GS. Entirely fanless, and the heatsink isn't some case-engulfing monstrosity. It's as quiet as is possible, with no moving parts, and can be had on a budget in both North America and Europe. I would think that getting a 7600GS would not be much more expensive than tinkering with and underclocking your existing card, and you could eBay your existing X1950 Pro to recoup what difference there is - perhaps more.

The most GPU-intensive games I play are Source engine games and EverQuest II, both of which I can run on maximum settings (or close to, in EQII's case, but the bottleneck is my wimpy single-core processor - not the graphics card).

noobert

Thanks for the suggestions guys, however i just ordered these 2:

http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod3255.htm
http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod5267.htm

After someone on another forum, who had exactly the same card, recommended them. Ill let you know how it works out