1900XT vs GTX

[trinibwoy]

This is the irony of subjective noise: you have one poster offer "barely audible" and another offering "annoying noise" and buying a new cooling solution. To me it would be "noticable noise" but certainly not loud enough to stop me from enjoying gaming or buying a new cooler/quiet solution to enjoy gaming!

The noise issue has been reported by many and in several reviews as well. Either way, the cooler changes gears too often. If I stare at the ground in WoW and then look up at a forested area that stresses the card the fan revs up a lot, look at the ground for a while and it goes back down. It's very annoying if you're not wearing headphones, which I do now that the gf stole my 5.1 set to listen to Shakira in the living room

 

[_xxx_]

To cut the discussion short , just get whatever's cheaper, you'll be happy with either.

 

[alexsok]

Ok thx for the input guys. Apparently NONE of the stores that I called have either the 7900gtx or the 1900xt/xtx in stock, I have to pre-order it. I even looked for the 750$ one,d din't care anymore, and I have to preorder it as well. How LAME is that!

 

[digitalwanderer]

How LAME is that!

I'd say about a 7.

 

[SirPauly]

The noise issue has been reported by many and in several reviews as well. Either way, the cooler changes gears too often. If I stare at the ground in WoW and then look up at a forested area that stresses the card the fan revs up a lot, look at the ground for a while and it goes back down. It's very annoying if you're not wearing headphones, which I do now that the gf stole my 5.1 set to listen to Shakira in the living room

What part of the word noticable are you having a problem with? This is silly subjective talk! It's not annoying to me because my system is in a closed environment with a quality case with nice air flow -- not in front of me!

Not like you:

I should note that my case sits open on my desk in front of me

I can understand how some may conclude annoying but to blanket annoying for all is a stretch. You're not blanketing annoying for all are you? This is my point!

Would I like a more quiet solution? Sure!

Do I feel the need to actually pay for a more quiet solution right now for my existing X1900's?

No!

Others?

Sure, I can see some doing this!

 

[trinibwoy]

I can understand how some may conclude annoying but to blanket annoying for all is a stretch. You're not blanketing annoying for all are you? This is my point!

Do I feel the need to actually pay for a more quiet solution right now for my existing X1900's?

Hmmmm, I must have missed where someone told you to go buy a quieter solution for your 1900, and where I said that everybody would find it annoying. Fact is - the fan speed fluctuates significantly during 3D - that is not subjective. The fact that I purchased an after-market cooler has no bearing on what you should do. But the OP did ask if there was anything else he might want to know before he made his purchase.

And next time you quote me, how about also quoting the fact that I previously had a much quieter card in there in the same environment. My first CPU fan was a 60mm delta, now I won't touch anything louder than a voltage regulated panaflo. Believe me, I know all about noise level subjectivity

 

[Spaceman-Spiff]

Anyone tried the Blizzard X1900 XTX with water cooling? It seems to be a nice option for those complaining/worrying about the noise.

 

[ondaedg]

GTX had some teething problems with higher-than-reference clocks, but NV reports having it settled now. It's discussed around here somewhere. I think techreport or pcperspective did a bit on it.

Haven't heard of problems with XT/XTX, tho I don't think there is anyway it wouldn't be louder in general usage in stock configuration. . .so if that's a major concern for you, by all means consider GTX. If you're buying soonish, XT (which would be my choice anyway) is significantly cheaper than GTX right now, and you could afford to upgrade the cooler to a third-party that is quieter and still come out ahead.

Linux and OGL games also go in NV's corner, if those matter to you.

I do think that X1900 will age better, particularly if you're the type to keep a card for 18mos or longer. Otoh, if you're a 6-monther type, the difference is probably somewhat less. There is a reasonably good chance, in my view, that some stuff that only gets a big play after Vista comes out (like dynamic branching), will translate back in some titles to X1900 thru an SM3 path that will include it. IQ goes in ATI's corner if you care about AF quality, and the possibility of having HDR+AA.

Good post. You address alot of competitive concerns between the cards.

 

[SirPauly]

And next time you quote me, how about also quoting the fact that I previously had a much quieter card in there in the same environment. My first CPU fan was a 60mm delta, now I won't touch anything louder than a voltage regulated panaflo. Believe me, I know all about noise level subjectivity

It was offered to make a point: It's hard to take someone serious if they offer a subjective view of sound over-all when your case is open right in front of you!

 

[fallguy]

Does newegg ship to Canada? If so, the choice is easy. Newegg has a promo going on, for $50 off ATi cards over $300. You can get a XTX for just over $400, and a XT for just under $400. Or a X1800XT 512MB for $250. Seems like a simply choice to me, if they ship to Canada.

Even if you have to buy local, the XT is the better, and cheaper card to me.

 

[trinibwoy]

It was offered to make a point: It's hard to take someone serious if they offer a subjective view of sound over-all when your case is open right in front of you!

I didn't provide a view of sound "over-all" my view is relative to other cards I've had. I don't have a decibel meter so I obviously can't make an absolute observation.

 

[Archaeolept]

no, newegg doesn't ship to canada. Monarch does; dunno who else.

there aren't any good prices for the ati series cards up here yet, afaict.

 

[Geo]

Well, I just caved like a crack-whore with a $10 vial in front of her.

"iloveati" Powercolor 1900XT on the way from newegg. . .

My perfectly fine x1800aiw will go back in the box until the wife gets her pcie mainboard (it was always meant for her anyway in the long run. She's got a 7500AIW, so just a wee bit of an upgrade when she does get it).

 

[horvendile]

FWIW, I got an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 (http://www.arcticcooling.com/vga2.php?idx=90) for my X1900XT. That was the last I heard of that card...
Seriously, I have a rather quiet computer and I am utterly unable to hear any noise at all from the video card.
That it's a bit scary to mess around with changing coolers on such an expensive piece of hardware is another thing entirely!

 

[SirPauly]

FWIW, I got an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 (http://www.arcticcooling.com/vga2.php?idx=90) for my X1900XT. That was the last I heard of that card...
Seriously, I have a rather quiet computer and I am utterly unable to hear any noise at all from the video card.
That it's a bit scary to mess around with changing coolers on such an expensive piece of hardware is another thing entirely!

Nice to hear! How's the cooling aspects with the Accelero X2?

 

[Geo]

I considered ordering the new Zalman at the same time I ordered the card, but Digi convinced me in IRC that I'd be denying myself the joy of experiencing and bitching about the X1900 cooler, so I decided to wait.

 

[SugarCoat]

Its the same cooler as the X1800XT cards, its not loud. Games with HDR are the only ones i notice the fan ramping up, and its at about 50% you can just start to hear it above the chipset and CPU fans. At 70% (it has never gone above this) you really begin to notice it over the chipset fan or CPU fan but more often then not im cought in a game. 50% and lower and you problably wont hear it. I've found that sufficiently cooling the case with a few case mounted fans, couple 120mm for example, blowing air in the direction of the cooler will keep the fans preverbal mouth shut the entire time. True test will come when Summer hits.

 

[Geo]

Well, we'll see. I very rarely hear my X1800AIW fan, but then it is single-slot. I have three 120mm case fans (one front, two back), the giant Zalman cpu heatsink/fan, and a certainly-not-quiet Akasa 650psu fan (no chipset fan tho --heat pipe on that). Tho I do tend to agree with folks who say that variability is more of a distraction than anything. If it gets to be annoying I may try atitool or something to lock it at a constant whatever-I-find-comfortable. And if that doesn't cut it, then the Zalman.

 

[horvendile]

Nice to hear! How's the cooling aspects with the Accelero X2?

Good question! Since I don't overclock, don't plan to and don't seem to have problems with heat, I haven't even bothered to check. Now I started up Catalyst CC which reported something like 45 degrees Celsius in Windows. I then proceeded to play Oblivion in what I imagined to be graphically intensive ways (HDR+AA, mostly outside areas topping it off with some fighting at an Oblivion gate, if that means anything to you), and when I quit Catalyst reported about 75 degrees. While I believe that's still a bit below what you get with reference cooling, it could hardly be called cool, I guess. Might be a problem for overclockers. I dunno.

 

[Geo]

Having received my Powercolor X1900XT today. . .

Okay, so put me down for the "my goodness, that's loud!" camp, when at 100%. But that's not the real trouble for me. The real trouble is the pitch of the whine would drive me batty down to 45% (where I can't hear it anymore).

But that testing was done with ATITool, not with actual games to see how much it happens in Real Life and if it ramps up to that 100% much if it all, or how much time it spends above my 45% whine threshhold.

So I'm going to play around with real games for awhile before making a decision on a 3rd party cooler for sure.

Overdrive put it at 641/797 (this is an XT), which startled me a bit --was expecting better on the core, and worse on the mem. But I'm not a dedicated OCer anyway, just happy to get what I can get, with good stability. I haven't beat on the stability that hard yet at those clocks --just a couple uneventful 3dm06 runs.