Looking for a quiet 7800

chaparral · 13 Jan 2006 at 14:47

tbz_ck said:
I would have thought the standard one will overclock to extreme levels anyway. Just with the extreme ones you are getting the guaranteed clockers and better cooling.

Anyway, with this thread, you might want to avoid leadtek anyway !

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17509430

By reading that thread..It looks like a problem leadtek had with there 6800gt cards...
There was no people with 7800 cards in it..And i not seen anyone posting here with failed leadtek 7800gtx cards which have been out a long time now..
or am i missing something.

antikewl · 13 Jan 2006 at 14:59

I've done a little research on Google and couldn't find anything on people with faulty Leadtek 7800GT(X)es. Maybe it was just a problem with 6800s?

antikewl · 13 Jan 2006 at 15:06

Just noticed that the Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX Extreme Edition 256MB has the larger heatsink where the regular version doesn't. Wouldn't this larger one be quieter than the one on the regular edition?

chaparral · 13 Jan 2006 at 15:31

antikewl said:
Just noticed that the Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX Extreme Edition 256MB has the larger heatsink where the regular version doesn't. Wouldn't this larger one be quieter than the one on the regular edition?

Yes..

Mainly what the extra £60 is for..

antikewl · 13 Jan 2006 at 15:34

Ok cool. Thanks for everyone's input on this. I'll most likely stump for the Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX Extreme Edition 256MB as I can't really stretch to the 512Mb. I'm stretching to the Extreme as it is!

tbz_ck · 13 Jan 2006 at 15:41

Cool and good luck

antikewl · 13 Jan 2006 at 15:45

tbz_ck said:
Cool and good luck

Thanks! :/

chaparral · 13 Jan 2006 at 15:52

I think you will be very impressed with it...(very nice card)
It should give over double the fps then your getting from your 6800gt.

Let us know how much better it is then your 6800gt went you get it..

antikewl · 13 Jan 2006 at 16:01

chaparral said:
I think you will be very impressed with it...(very nice card)
It should give over double the fps then your getting from your 6800gt.

Let us know how much better it is then your 6800gt went you get it..

I'm currently using a 128Mb 6600GT so the stats should be even better! WoW should look awesome with a 7800GTX at 1920x1200.

chaparral · 13 Jan 2006 at 18:24

Sorry for the 6800gt/6600gt error..Me trying read/write to fast.

Mundu · 14 Jan 2006 at 00:29

My POV GTX is inaudiable in my rig even under load which I found amazing given all the complaints over noise on the GTX coolers ect.

Arcane · 14 Jan 2006 at 17:23

My gtx sli is very quiet compared to the 6800's, they're easily drowned out by the other stuff in the case.

Angilion · 14 Jan 2006 at 22:29

7800GTs are fairly quiet if the fan speed control works. On many cards, it does not. Instead of ~25% speed in 2D and ~45% in 3D, you get 100% all the time.

Manufacturers either don't know or don't care what the cause is. Cards with this problem can be moved into completely different PCs and have the same problem, so it is unlikely to be a config issue. A clean installation of Windows is claimed to fix the problem, but I do not know of any cases where it actually did so. RivaTuner and any other similar programs cannot control the fan speed on cards with this problem. Although it seems most common with XFX and BFG, it has been reported with Leadtek and eVGA cards, probably with other makes too. However, it's only with some models in the range. For example, the UDF7 revision of the XFX 7800GT Extreme Edition does not have the fan speed problem. The UDE7 and UDER revisions (which, despite the name, are more recent than UDF7) do have this problem (stability issues at stock speeds are also reported with UDE7, which is probably why it was quickly replaced by UDER). Maybe the fan speed control will work on the card you buy. Maybe it won't.

7800GTs are the Dirty Harry of graphics cards: Are you feeling lucky?

If you don't care about having a guarantee on a £250 card that you already know has a serious flaw, you can replace the cooler with a specialist one from Zalman, Arctic Cooling or whoever.

cyclops12 · 14 Jan 2006 at 23:38

the new asus n7800 gt top silent is completely passively cooled and factory overclocked 420/1,2ghz :cool:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=198&model=969&modelmenu=1

Angilion · 15 Jan 2006 at 01:16

Nice idea, but it does rely on other cooling. Also, OcUK don't sell it and probably won't do so, given comments posted here by OcUK staff. It also runs hotter than a card with a stock fan, and that when it was being cooled by a nearby CPU fan.

It's innovative and may well be just the job for some people, but it isn't suitable for everyone.

There's a detailed review at VR Zone, here

However, users of heatsinks that do not have a fan in the usual position over the CPU heatsink (and under the N7800GT's heatsink, in this case) might want to think twice about getting this card, since such a setup would probably mean little airflow over the N7800GT's heatsink and therefore overheating problems. Users with particularly tall CPU heatsinks may also want to avoid this card.

antikewl · 15 Jan 2006 at 11:51

The Asus doesn't look like it's due out for some time over here anyway. A shame.

antikewl · 20 Jan 2006 at 09:01

I now have my Leadtek 7800GTX Extreme 256Mb -- and it's a monster of a card. Physically, at least!

I'll be installing that over the weekend, along with some other maintenance upgrades (replacing the CPU and chipset heatsinks on my A8N-SLi Deluxe, and adding some acoustic padding to the case).

I'll let you know how it all goes, and what I think of the card, when it's done.

antikewl · 23 Jan 2006 at 22:20

Well I've had the Leadtek 7800GTX in for a few days and it's running a dream!

Thanks to everyone's help and suggestions, the gfx card is no louder than my old Asus 6600GT Extreme and really pulls its weight. Was running HL2: Lost Coast at 1920x1200 maxed out and still getting great fps. The card didn't break a sweat and was still pumping out cold air.

Raikiri · 23 Jan 2006 at 22:26

Got a POV GT here, very quiet in 2d but becomes a little more audible when games are running.
But then again thats with 2x 1100rpm 120mm fans which are very quiet, quiet northbridge fan, PWM fan has been 7volted and the arctic freezer is @ 70% fan speed.
If i were using the fans at their standard speeds i cant hear the 7800GTs fan increase until it goes >70% (never done it unless forced in rivatuner)

antikewl · 23 Jan 2006 at 22:31

Yeah, the Leadtek 7800GTX 256 has the same *monster* heatsink/fan as the 512 so I guess is made to run a little quieter than a regular heatsink.