Fan Loudness for x800 and 6800gt

[superpandapower]

Hi,

I'm contemplating upgrading from a Visiontek 9800 Pro to either a x800 pro or a 6800gt. The only qualm that I really have right now is that it seems that the cooling solutions on these cards are way louder than normal. Can anyone comment on how the noise level of their x800 pro or 6800gt is compared to a 9800 pro reference cooler? Thanks so much.

 

[Aries64]

superpandapower,

I don't have an X800 Pro - I have an HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256MB [PE] which uses an Artic Cooling cooling system. Because of the way the cooling system is constructed it is very noticeably more quiet than the ATI 9800 Pro 256MB I recently upgraded from. Therefore, the sound reduction I got when going from from my 9800 Pro 256 to my Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256 PE was probably greater than going from a 9800 Pro 256 to a reference cooler-equipped X800 Pro. The Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256 is a reference-design X800 XT 256MB PE card - the cooling system (and a sucky 1-year warranty) are the only other differences. The drivers are the same (I'm running the Catalyst 4.9 drivers now).

If you are not familiar with any of the Artic Cooling units, the systems' incorporate a plastic duct system which draws air in from the front of the card (side facing the front of the case), pushes it through a large heatsink, and then exhausts the heated air out the back of the case, (eliminating a considerable amount of heat which would otherwise collect in the case). Because of the large heatsink and ducting system all of the Excalibur Series are two-slot cards, blocking the slot immediately below the Excalibur card itself.

Below is a link to the HIS web site:

http://www.hisdigital.com/html/iceqpromo_freegame.htm

...and a link to reviews of the HIS Excalibur X800 Pro IceQ II 256MB and the HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256MB on the Tom's Hardware Guide web site:

http://graphics.tomshardware.c...ic/20040723/index.html


Finally, I have to say that I am very happy with my HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256MB card and would recommend it to anyone who wants a cutting-edge card to play today's games at fast framerates AND WHO DOES NOT CARE ABOUT the R420's (AGP) and R423's (PCI Express) lack of DIRECT-X 9.0c (Pixel Shader 3.0) SUPPORT. Currently there are only a handful of games that actually use SM 3.0 - and game performance differences due to ATI's lack of SM 3.0 support hasn't been an issue yet, but I know that I would have liked to have SM 3.0 support built into the R420 core for the future. ATI and Nvidia's high-end cards are about a draw right now - depending on what game or application you are running they trade places in terms of performance lead.

However, if I were:

(a) Less concerned with graphics card fan noise (as I've grown older I have discovered I like quiet)
(b) Less concerned with heat build-up in my case (run a little cooler and longer, maybe a little faster?)
(c) More concerned about SM 3.0 support (and the added "future-proofness" that comes with that support). In this case the 6800GT IS THE WAY TO GO. Same price as reference X800 Pro cards BUT with 16 pipelines instead of the X800 Pro's 12 PLUS SM 3.0 SUPPORT. Very fast card and better price/value ratio than the X800 Pro. No denying this.
(d) More concerned about getting a longer warranty (While rare, cards do occasionally die unprovoked)
(e) More concerned about price (the HIS Excalibur X800 Pro IceQ II 256MB runs $460.00 (in stock at Super PC Mart and the HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II PE 256MB [currently out of stock] runs $550.00)
(e) An anti-ATI Nvidia fanboy (how childish - just like the AMD vs. Intel camps)

BTW, you probably have this handled already, but do you have adequate case ventilation? Make sure your case fans are drawing cool air in AND exhausting warm air. High internal case temperatures can contribute to extended high fan speeds (and thus greater fan noise) because the CPU and GPU fans are trying to cool the case with "recycled" warm air instead of cooler air drawn from outside the case. Taping-off areas inside the case such as wireloom holes and large slots where warm air inside the case can find it's way back to the case's intake fans (instead of the intake fans' drawing-in fresh air) can go a long way towards reducing the ambient temperature inside a case.

 

[SneakyStuff]

They both make the fan go slower in 2D mode, so yes, they are quiter when not gaming, and when you're playing your favorite game at 1600 x 1200, they kick in fair trade-off to me.

 

[Zebo]

HIS looks nice. <20dba though?? common that's inaudable...maybe they measured @10meters.

 

[Aries64]

HIS looks nice. <20dba though?? common that's inaudable...maybe they measured @10meters.

Yeah,

I'm not too sure about that <20db rating myself. That would mean that the card's sound output is "less than" 20 db. Maybe HIS is rating the sound at idle so the fan is spinning slow? I don't know. I do know that 20dbs' of noise reduction is quite a bit. Not only is it measurable it IS VERY noticeable. As an example, while not scientific, if I shoot one of my guns with 19db NR (Noise-reduction)-rated earmuffs, and then shoot the same gun with the same load without the earmuffs the sound is ALOT louder.

But as I said, the HIS X800 XT IS a lot quieter than my 9800 Pro 256MB's stock HSF. With the other fans in my system (2 80mm intakes, 2 80mm exhausts, + 80mm PSF, stock CPU HSF, and NBF) I can't hear the fan on the HIS card (idle or under load), so it's sound output is probably closer to my (ATI) 9800 Pro 256MB and 9800 Pro 128MB cards with their respective Zalman ZM80Cs' and ZM-OP1 Fans installed.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
They both make the fan go slower in 2D mode, so yes, they are quiter when not gaming, and when you're playing your favorite game at 1600 x 1200, they kick in fair trade-off to me.

I think the reference GT cooler stays at a constant speed no matter what the temp of the card. I have never noticed a difference in sound or pitch on mine, and I do run some 3d stuff without sound.

The HIS is nice, but you can buy that same cooler for almost any card from Scythe. You may void your warrantee by removing the stock cooler though.

 

[sbuckler]

I have the Galaxy glacier 6800GT with artic cooling on there as standard, there's also a 6800 vanilla version so you have the choice of ati/nvidia.

 

[roibm]

Here is my experience:
- had a 6800NU with 128Mb(Leadtek A400). Performance was nice and all, but altho they say this card is much quieter than other 6800 cards, this cards screams... read: very loud for me. The idle temp was 55C and I wasn't able to get any lower no matter what. BTW, I have 2x80 in and 2x80 out in a huge case. So I had to bring it back because it was too much for me.
- got an X800 Pro(Saphire). Perf is ok, a bit better then the A400 in doom3, it runs 1024 @ ultra quality and doesn't drop under 60fps(no aa, 4xaniso). But here it comes: this car is quiet. I mean really extremely quiet. I cannot hear it, it is impossible to hear it. I can hear the cpu fan which was not to be heard previously. Am I happy with it? Yes and no. No because no PS3(SM3) and the perf ain't that much better considering the price, and yes, because of everyting else, especially the raw power with aa and aniso.

So here you go, want quiet? I mean really quiet? 6800 is no alternative. Want power and better price/perf.? 6800.

 

[TazmanianDevil]

Originally posted by: Aries64
I have an HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256MB [PE]

Aries64, please tell me where you got this card from. I'm dying to get one of these but can't find anyone of them available, at least in the U.S. or on the internet.

 

[darkwaffle]

Originally posted by: TazmanianDevil

Originally posted by: Aries64
I have an HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256MB [PE]

Aries64, please tell me where you got this card from. I'm dying to get one of these but can't find anyone of them available, at least in the U.S. or on the internet.

I must say, I'm really in the same boat. If you need it now, you might try bigfootcomputers.com. Their stock is listed as "Arrives in very small limited quantity weekly." So you may have some luck there. However, they're in Canada, but they do ship to the US. Pretty expensive though, even after converting to USD, and including the extra charge for shipping to the US.

I'm betting that most of these cards you see around are probably from SuperPCMart.com's 550$ pre-order deal. Unfortunately, they seem to be out of stock, atleast right now. It's a shame how few places carry these cards, I'm really interested in one.

 

[Aries64]

Aries64, please tell me where you got this card from. I'm dying to get one of these but can't find anyone of them available, at least in the U.S. or on the internet.

TazmanianDevil &amp; darkwaffle,

darkwaffle nailed it - I got my card as a preorder from Super PC Mart at the beginning of August. Super PC Mart sells the entire HIS lineup, but they are currently out of both the X800 XT PE (now $580.00) and X800 XT non-PE (now $570.00) AGP versions. If your looking for the PCIe (PCI Express) version of the X800 XT (non-PE) they have that in stock for $599.00.

Super PC Mart had 100 of the HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II 256MB Platinum Edition on order on a first-come, first-served basis. I ordered mine on 8/2 and got an email from them about three weeks later telling me my card was in and asking if I still wanted it. "Hell yeah!" I emailed them back and they shipped it the next day. I paid $550.00 (thats a LOT of money, but a $30.00 less than what they're charging now. Also, less than what others have paid and are still paying for the basic ATI card if you can even find one.

If you want one of the HIS cards check with Super PC Mart - maybe they'll give you a "guesstimate" on when they'll have the AGP X800 XT PE or X800 XT back in stock. I really like mine. Its really fast and quiet. You can't hear the fan at all above the other system and CPU fans. The only bogus thing is that HIS only provides a 1-yr. warranty. ATIO provides a 3-yr. warranty. Heres a link to Super PC Mart's page for the card:

http://superpcmart.com/products/detail.cgi?sku=2117

I was originally looking for the ATI card and had tried Best Buy, CompUSA, PC Club, Monarch, Newegg and CDW - and I actually had an ATI X800 XT PE on order from CDW for about a week, but then decided that if I was gonna wait I might as well get the HIS card from Super PC Mart because I liked the (Arctic Cooling) [ATI 4] it comes equipped with. I got my card quick and didn't have to buy the Arctic Cooling ATI 4 and X800 XT PE separately from different vendors.

BTW, Newegg is listed on HIS' web site as one of HIS' worldwide retailers, but I think that is either new or they haven't worked-out the details yet, as none of the HIS cards are even listed on Newegg's site.

If you can find an X800 XT PE you can always buy the Arctic Cooling ATI 4 from an online store and install it yourself. Heres a link to Arctic Cooling's we site where they list U.S. retailers:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/wheretobuy/dealers/

 

[eVaoVe]

I have a BFG 6800GT and this thing is LOUDDDDD. I listen to music/gaming most of the time so it doesnt annoy me that much...

 

[darkwaffle]

Actually, newegg does carry HIS cards, but only up to the x800pro iceq II model. No XTs unfortunately.

HIS cards at newegg.

 

[Aries64]

Actually, newegg does carry HIS cards, but only up to the x800pro iceq II model. No XTs unfortunately.

Duh. Don't know how I missed that darkwaffle. Must have been the way I did my search. Duh!

 

[roibm]

As posted above, I got an X800-pro(VIVO).
Well, I flashed it to an X800XT-PE and guess what... GPU: 515 MEM: 565
Hmmm... that is good ain't it? The nice part is that it is done on stock cooling(reference X800) and this thing is extremely quiet... It's really unbelievable for me who had a Ti 4200 until now. So much more power and so much less noise.
For extreme performance I'll get an ATI Silencer 4 since the temp under heavy load rises to some 67C which limits the max GPU overclock.

My conclusion is that for this kind of money, there is no better value. Get yourself an x800-pro VIVO and be happy.

 

[Aries64]

As posted above, I got an X800-pro(VIVO).

Well, I flashed it to an X800XT-PE and guess what... GPU: 515 MEM: 565

Congrats on your successful overclock. I have an ATI-based HIS Excaliber X800 XT IceQ II 256MB - this card uses an ATI X800 XT PE 256MB board and comes with the Arctic Cooling ATI 4 cooler you speak of "out-of-the-box". Cools well and is whisper-quiet. Can't hear it above the sound of any of the system or CPU fans even at idle.

Anyway, the ATI X800 XT Platinum card's default speeds are:

519.75Mhz (Core)

and

560.75 Mhz Memory

So, you are indeed VERY CLOSE to X800 XT PE speeds! (And faster than the AGP or PCIe X800 XT speeds (500 Mhz Core and 500 Mhz memory).

However, I don't know how much more you'll be able to OC your card than where you are now, at least for extended periods of time. My "real X800 XT PE" can OC to 573.75 on both memory and core, but for the performance difference (less than 5%) it doesn't seem worth the risk to the card so I don't do it.

Also, even when I OC just a little on the core and memory I sometimes get lock-ups. The higher-end cards are usually clocked closer to their max so this may be a limitation on my card's part. Also, I have one of the early X800 XT PEs' - so maybe my early core stepping can't handle the higher clock reliably.

Or, could be drivers some other hardware-related issue. It ONLY locks-up when playing Halo or when I go into the "HT Frequency" section of the "Cell" section of the BIOS on my mobo. As you can see from my sig below I've got some high-end stuff in my system so its' not like I'm running sh$%ty hardware.

But back to the topic - the mid-range cards and low high-end cards (such as your X800 Pro VIVO) usually OC better than the highest-end stuff, so maybe you'll be able to get a better OC.

One question - did your flash enable the last 4 pipelines (for a total of 16)? If so thats awesome, as you probably saved about $100.00 bucks over what I paid in August for my card after factoring-in the ATI Silencer 4.