Fanless graphics cards recommendation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fish
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Fish

Could anyone point me to a good "NO FAN" graphics card for my child
who plays game. I might use his computer for editing photos and I
know nothing about games and get lost in a jungle of graphics card.

his computer is Athlon duo core 4600 with 2G of ram and monitor is
samsung 226BW LCD with max resolution 1600x1200 and (only) 60 hz
refresh rate.

question:

with the spec of the display above, it is waste of money to buy any
graphics card with higher resolution and faster refresh rate? how do
graphics card and monitor "sync" together in this regards?
 
Could anyone point me to a good "NO FAN"graphicscard for my child
who plays game. I might use his computer for editing photos and I
know nothing about games and get lost in a jungle ofgraphicscard.

his computer is Athlon duo core 4600 with 2G of ram and monitor is
samsung 226BW LCD with max resolution 1600x1200 and (only) 60 hz
refresh rate.

question:

with the spec of the display above, it is waste of money to buy any graphics card ith higher resolution and faster refresh rate? how do graphics card and monitor "sync" together in this regards?
Click to expand...

the computer has PCI bus and / or PCI light bus also has SCSI hard
drive.
 
Fish said:
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers to be exact. I don't see any IDE light bus
versions
Click to expand...

Could you tell us the brand and model number of the computer, so we
can do some research ? If you built the computer yourself (a DIY computer),
then what we'd need, is the motherboard brand and model number. But
if the computer is prebuilt, the name would be something like "Dimension 4600".
Check your user documentation, or even the receipt, if you cannot figure
it out.

I have a couple fanless graphics cards here. They plug into an AGP
video card slot. One of them is stable while playing games. The
second card (same type as the first), has problems in games. When
I point an 80mm fan at it, then it remains stable.

So, while we can help you purchase a fanless graphics card, you should be
prepared to install a fan next to it, if it turns out to not be stable.

I used a piece of aluminum metal, with L shaped cross section, to make
a bracket to hold the fan. My bar bolts to a PCI slot retention screw.
The fan is held in place with nylon tie wraps. It has been in that position,
blowing on the video card, for a couple years now. The noise doesn't
bother me.

Another issue for graphics card select, is the power supply in the computer.
For example, some low end, pre-built computers, use 250W power supplies.
That is not enough power to run the fastest video cards (there is one
ATI video card that draws 165W all by itself). If you want to get a better
quality answer to the question, it helps to read the numbers off the side
of the supply, and include them in your next posting here. Here is an
example of what to look for.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-103-482-02.JPG

The important info in that example would be:

ATX-250GU
DC output 250W
3.3V at 14 amps, 5V at 25 amps, 12V at 8 amps,
5VSB at 2 amps, -5V at 0.3 amps, -12V at 0.8A
3.3V and 5V are 135W max

In the case of that 250W power supply, 8 amps is not enough power
to do a lot with.

If there is any doubt about the available power, it is possible to
find power supply upgrades for some machines. For example pcpower.com
has substitutes for Dell computer power supplies, as one example.

But I wouldn't worry about any of that, until more is known about
your machine. Knowing what kind of processor is in it, might help too.

Paul
 
Could anyone point me to a good "NO FAN" graphics card for my child
who plays game. I might use his computer for editing photos and I
know nothing about games and get lost in a jungle of graphics card.
Click to expand...

What card is right depends on how demanding the games are.
Some games are pretty undemanding but in general the 3D
games, especially for an older child who will be more adept
at gaming than a younger one would be... and this looking
forward as the child gets older over the life of the system
and video card, the gaming will tend to be more demanding on
a video card.

his computer is Athlon duo core 4600 with 2G of ram and monitor is
samsung 226BW LCD with max resolution 1600x1200 and (only) 60 hz
refresh rate.

question:

with the spec of the display above, it is waste of money to buy any
graphics card with higher resolution and faster refresh rate?
Click to expand...

No, you will need a high performance video card that
supports higher resolutions than 1600x1200 to be able to
play semi-modern games with good eyecandy effects at that
resolution, "IF" the child is playing demanding games. We'd
need some examples of the most demanding games and an idea
of his age.

You will need to buy a video card that has high performance
to not substantially bottleneck the system when playing
games. Generally the budget is the main factor, because
even when a card has a fan you can put an aftermarket
heatsink on it that is passive (up to a point, the really
high powered cards do produce too much heat to be
reasonably, passively cooled).

It is definitely not a waste of money, you could spend over
$250 before it became a waste of money and that does not
include the price of the replacement heatsink. I mean,
UNLESS it is a waste of money in your opinion to spend that
much on a video card for gaming regardless of the other
factors, which is an opinion some people hold.

Generally the slowest things I would suggest as appropriate
for the performance of the system it's being placed in, are
nVidia 7900GS or ATI X1950 series cards. I have not looked
for passive coolers for higher-end gaming cards recently so
this is something you might do, to see which models are
presently supported and what the addt'l cost would be to
refit a passive heatsink on a card.

Keep in mind that with passive heatsinks you don't
necessarily get rid of a fan, instead moving where that fan
is located as such cards tend to need better case
ventilation and typically a case doesn't have such great
ventilation under the video card unless you leave the
adjacent PCI slot empty, leave that empty slot's rear slot
cover off, and have either good exhaust rate at the top of
the case to pull air in through the uncovered slot, or a
strong intake fan in the front of the case which is not
blocked much by the hard drive rack. The other alternative
is a case side panel fan but one low enough to blow on the
video card, not up higher across from the CPU. This need
not be a particularly high RPM/noise fan, would typically be
far quieter and longer lived than a fan directly on the
video card heatsink.

Also keep in mind that if the video card is using
significantly more power than what it replaces, you may need
to determine if your present PSU has enough reserve power to
run it acceptibly or not.
 
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