Hi folks,

I am currently running LFS on an AMD Phenom X4 9950BE with 8GB RAM - BUT: I've got an onboard gf 8200 chipset combined with a passive 8600GT grapihcs card.

Must have's:
>= 70 FPS (currently ~35FPS)
nVidia (because I need that 3 lcd's up and running for work
passive (because my pc should be SILENT around 0dbA)

Should have's:
cost < 150€
70fps @ max details
able to run rFactor / RACE on on triple head with low / mid details @ around 40-50fps min.

A GTX 275 should do (or, if it costs more than 150 EUR in your country, GTX 260).

Quote from bberger :

Hi folks,

I am currently running LFS on an AMD Phenom X4 9950BE with 8GB RAM - BUT: I've got an onboard gf 8200 chipset combined with a passive 8600GT grapihcs card.

Must have's:
>= 70 FPS (currently ~35FPS)
nVidia (because I need that 3 lcd's up and running for work
passive (because my pc should be SILENT around 0dbA)

Should have's:
cost < 150€
70fps @ max details
able to run rFactor / RACE on on triple head with low / mid details @ around 40-50fps min.

Hum, you don't have to limit yourself to nVidia, ATI supports 3 screens as well (eyefinity). My question though is: passive, really? My guess is that you record something and that the room must be completely silent? The thing is, though, that you're going to be limited to the power you can muster out of a passively cooled GPU. Personally, if I had to run a PC that needs to be completely silent, yet keep some graphics power, I'd go for a very silent case, and a graphics card that's renowned to be silent (there are some on the market, just not the reference coolers).

... but seriously, 0db? That means the case can't have a single fan...

Quite large requirements, so little of money ...

:hyper:

I doubt you'll ever get 70+ fps with a passive video card. But let us know if you do!

well.. there IS a way to do it. a nice (ati eyefinity, like a 5850) with 0db.
Just put the computer in ANOTHER ROOM.
Really - make a hole in the wall, pass all the needed cabels through said hole, close hole, voila. Computer in one room, everything else in another.


OR... do it like I've seen it - fill a fish tank with oil, submerge computer in oil, get a water cooling rig up to circulate and cool the oil.

get eyefinity....

Get an ATi card that supports it, put a new cooler on it, and done. For example, my old cooler was loud, and cooled crap, new one is silent, and cools a LOT better. I actually turned of the fans on them. But really, what's wrong with a little noise? You really won't notice it that much... And some airflow won't hurt the other parts in your computer.

I have an 8800GT, this one: http://www.gigabyte.com/produc ... uct-page.aspx?pid=2720#ov Type A to be exact. The stock cooling was crap, made by Zalman, still crap. I've replaced it with Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 rev. 2 with no fans, even tho they reccomend them. The actual card is passive cooled but sits in an Antec Threehundred case with all the fan slots full and all fans running on low I get 130-140fps on my 1680x1050 but I've limited them to 60 because I don't see the point of more fps than the refresh rate of the monitor. (keeps the card cooler too). CPU is E8400 with FSB set to 400, not that it ever kicks in at full power anyway.

I say you look on reviews for the lowest power consumption regardless of the cooling and strap on some aftermarker passive cooler, the bigger the better.

Last time I checked, 5750 from Ati had a low enough power draw but still decent performance. Also I doubt that hybrid-SLI of yours will work with nVidia 200 or 400 series.

I had 9600GT which is passive, but it overheated too much. Had around 110 celsius on gta IV, dont buy passive. Graphic card fans dont make noise imo.

Well, I've found another solution now:

I forced the resolution of the side screens to 640x480 and set "useMultihead=0" (which allows the SLI to work) - and it gave me an ENORMOUS performance boost.

Having now around 60fps stable and the low resolution isn't effecting your view on the sides, because those screens are mainly used for a supportive visual experience than for a nice look as they are only in the peripheral field of view.

Just in case you change your mind...
look at this one, might fit your needs?

http://www.behardware.com/news ... anless-from-gigabyte.html

That card unfortunately doesn't support Eyefinity which means: HDMI + DP aren't usable at the same time..

I heard from various people that running 16 bit on your side monitors will give you a good boost (depending on what the bottleneck is) [running SoftTH?]. I think any card that costs over $70 (given that you get a good one) will get the job done of 3x 1680 x 1050. I can get a 9800GT for $60 xD, and a GT220 for $40. And such cards should do that easily even a high detail.

I ran 2 monitors (but rendered three SOFTTH back before Z28) with a 7600GT [should run as fast on an 8600GT [b/c of DX8/9 of LFS] on 1280 x 1024 on high with AA/AF on with 72 FPS [maybe even VSync ON] with a way crappier CPU, quarter of the RAM you have.

Close the programs that you don't need, and if possible [get some better cooling] overclock the card, and you may be able to get by without buying a new card.

GT240, GTS250, GTX260 should be the range that I'd say you ought to look at. ATI cards are out of the question if you want to run with a single card with 3 monitors. Unless you have an extra PCIe slot.

Cards: 9600GT (maybe OC though), 8800GT (9800GT, GT240), 8800GTS 512 (9800GTX(+), GTS250), GTX260.

Anything else, unless you have the money, or plan for future proofing, is not necessary. I mean, go ahead for a GTX480 if you want... But can you buy me a better CPU while your at it.

Quote from bberger :

That card unfortunately doesn't support Eyefinity which means: HDMI + DP aren't usable at the same time..

5770s can indeed run Eyefinity and they are capable [power-wise] of doing so. And HDMI and DP can be run at the same time... Unless you are saying that only VGA(DVI) can be run with DP simutaneously which would be complete non sense. They both run the same signal (minus VGA which would be converted via RAMDAC). If not, how would DP run in the first place?

The problem with EF is that you need DP, and you'd need an adapter, or DP monitor to do so (unless you have it natively on your monitor, which I highly doubt).

Quote :

I doubt you'll ever get 70+ fps with a passive video card. But let us know if you do!

Sorry, I don't get what you mean by a passive card not getting over 70FPS. It isn't dependent on what cooler you have. If you have a good passive cooler on a (Accelero S2 + 8800GT (which was a typical setup), why not. Contrarily, you can put a FU(KING turbofan blowing a shitload of air onto a card like a Rage 128 , and you won't even be able to load that game that you are running 71 FPS on on the 8800GT. But ofc, it comes down to what game you are playing xD.

Passive, water cooling, or effective air cooling. Any of these would get you good results. Bigger the better. Fan size, heat pipes, the room between components, and the surface area that the air cooling shrouds have.

Acceleros are good passive coolers, and they probably cool better than the mini 5 cm fans that you have on the stock 8600GTs @ 100% at no sound at all.