How much power difference btwn original 32MB ATI 32Mb Ati Radeon AIW (c. 2000) and modern cards like AIW 9000 pro?

[DaveH]

I would like to put together a couple of systems for home theater and MM use, and have access to some cheap AIW 32 cards from way back in 2000. They use .18 micron technology, versus today's .13 and .15 micron technologies, and use a somewhat less efficient core.

For these applications, where low noise is important, power is a big issue, but top performance is not. So, I'm wondering how much more power I could expect one of these older cards to draw compared to a more state-of-the art unit.

There are excellent reviews on both cards right here at AT and elsewhere, but I couldn't find a comparison of power ratings (my apologies if I missed it...)

Anyone have any links, data, or educated guestimates on this?

TIA, Dave

 

[Peter]

The 9000 cards are still very low power, many of them coming fanless. So are the non-pro 9600. Fear not.

 

[rbV5]

You could probably get away with no fan on the card as well, the 32DDR Le model was fanless, downclock it a little if you need to. My AIW Radeons ran pretty cool.

 

[DaveH]

Thanks for the replies.

Peter, I'm actually most curious about whether the older cards would be much _less_ efficient than newer technologies like the 9000/9000 pro. It is good to hear that the 9000 does well. It makes sense that the 9600 would, with its .13 micron process.

rbv5, good point. Would the rage tweaker from rage3d be the way to downclock a machine like this?

 

[rbV5]

. Would the rage tweaker from rage3d be the way to downclock a machine like this?

Thats what I'd use.