Video card - advice needed - most compatible - least PciE noise

[WIREHEAD]

I need a QUIET video card,
quiet as in electrically, I can hear my current card as audio output through my M-audio Delta 44 and it drives me nuts ( not a long drive )...

Currently have PciE Nvidia 8400 - which seems to not get along with Adobe flash very well.

No need for serious 3D or gaming power, as long as it can keep up with KDE with 3D enabled , HD video, etc. with enough headroom to not be obsolete in the near future.

Does not have to be Nvidia chipset .
Brand name suggestions ?
$$$ take a back seat to function.

Thanks!

Wirehead

[MerReady]

I need a QUIET video card,
quiet as in electrically, I can hear my current card as audio output through my M-audio Delta 44 and it drives me nuts ( not a long drive )...

Can you be more specific about the noise you are hearing?  Why do you believe its the video card and not something else?  Unless its a bad fan, I have never heard of a noise problem being caused by a Video Card, but that's just me.

[exploder]

You might try cleaning and er-seating your graphics card. Heat build up in the case can often dislodge the card just enough to have the problems you are describing. I have cheap graphics cards in my computers, nvidea GT 220 and nvidea 6150 on board graphics. The GT 220 has always had some minor quirks but desktop effects have always worked fine. Playing flash with the GT 220 has always meant doing some adjustments with settings but since Firefox 5 came out things are just fine. The 6150 on-board graphics has always been fine. It seems odd that the on-board graphics would be less problematic than the dedicated graphics card but that's just how it is.  It's just my opinion but I have seen people with higher end cards than the GT 220 have less problems and less tinkering to do.

[T6]

yes, a good clean could help here, reseat cards can help too

clean connectors also helps

about the cables used, have you tried different cables, sometimes the cable is the problem, not the hardware

about a new video card, the simpler the card it is, the lesser the noise it will generate, less components, less sources of noise

a video card without a fan can help drastically(a fan is a big source of noise) so a nvidia or ati card, fanless model should be your target

[menotu]

One thing to also take into account if buying a more powerful card is that the PC's power supply can provide enough juice for it.

Does your existing mobo have an on-board graphics chip as some "half decent" ones can do KDE 3D, and HD video tasks pretty well.

[T6]

a fanless video card will use less or in the worst case the same as that 8400 he has now

psu shouldn't be a problem

[MerReady]

a fanless video card will use less or in the worst case the same as that 8400 he has now

psu shouldn't be a problem

My Asus ATI/AMD HD3450 512mb fanless card handles desktop effects and flash just fine.

[demilord]

I would go definitely for NVidia, please avoid ATI.. Hardware acceleration is crap on Flash... And the FPS are horrible with some games...
running ATI radeon 4570HD mobility

[exploder]

My Asus ATI/AMD HD3450 512mb fanless card handles desktop effects and flash just fine.

I will have to remember this and it is probably reasonably priced. I can't wait to get back to work!

[WIREHEAD]

I need a QUIET video card,
quiet as in electrically, I can hear my current card as audio output through my M-audio Delta 44 and it drives me nuts ( not a long drive )...

Can you be more specific about the noise you are hearing?  Why do you believe its the video card and not something else?  Unless its a bad fan, I have never heard of a noise problem being caused by a Video Card, but that's just me.

Absolutely.
This is an audio signal which is heard through speakers or headphones,
the work around is to keep the computer audio output fairly high, and reduce volume with the preamp. Bypassing the preamp and regulating volume within the computer ( full power amp output ) makes the problem very evident.

 I do not have " golden ears " allowing me to hear things mere mortals cannot, everybody can hear it... High pitched and irritating pulsing/changing pitch perfect synchronization with the video display.

Resizing windows makes noise, just moving the mouse cursor makes noise, the noise I hear is 100% positively correlated to what is happening on the screen.

Turning off the monitor is no help.

Searching the net yields references to " blitter noise " with solutions ranging from replacing all components including Mobo and power supply,
to making tin foil hats for your sound card.

Just GUESSING my $29.95 video card is more suspect than the Gigabyte Mobo, OCZ power supply, and M-audio sound card.
I would certainly be willing to gamble a little $$$ to find out, at least the Adobe flash vs. Nvidia 8400 issue would be solved...
I don't have another known good card to swap out or I would have done that already, PCI Express is too new for me to have any spares ( yet ).

Thanks all for the suggestions so far!

Wirehead

[WIREHEAD]

Forgot to add that swapping slots and the usual reseating cards was no help.

Thanks again!

Wirehead

[T6]

i remember a old pc running windows 98, doing that same noise when moving the mouse

can't remember what i did to fix that 

[Village Idiot]

I have the M-audio Delta 1010lt. Noisy also. I changed video cards, psu's (expensive and cheap). The mobo is a gigabyte, with a core i7, is so noisy. The same computer previously had an old Pentium 4 and the sound board was dead quiet. I put a Darla 20 in this same new computer and it is noisy also. 


I had a monitor once, a Philips 190S5 19", the back light causes a noise problem when the back-light is not fully bright. The circuity that dims the back-light creates a square wave pulse to control power for the backlight and that squareness interference gets on the cable leading to the video card. Try turning off the monitor and see if the noise goes away. Adjust the screen brightness and see if that makes any difference.

I have to say tho, you really should consider getting a sound device that has it dac's/adc's outside the computer. I know what I've said you have tried, but try googling "Gigabyte motherboard noise". That's your problem. 

Visit http://www.silentpcreview.com/

[MerReady]

I would certainly be willing to gamble a little $$$ to find out, at least the Adobe flash vs. Nvidia 8400 issue would be solved...

Have a look at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133390   This would be the equivalent of a 8500gt which is a card I use to have. It will give you no problems playing flash and have more than enough to play any Linux game out. I think that is about as cheap as you can get without have to wait 10 weeks and hope you get your mail in rebate.

I would go definitely for NVidia, please avoid ATI.. Hardware acceleration is crap on Flash... And the FPS are horrible with some games...
running ATI radeon 4570HD mobility

Hardware acceleration for flash in Linux is crap compaired to windows no matter what brand video card you run. With that said.....

No problems here with my 2600HD Mobility or HD3450. Sure my cpu does have to work a little harder because I went from a 9500gt to the HD3450, but its a lot better than using the on-board HD3200. Really my only issue right now with my HD3450 is a conflict with the HDMI sound and my usb headset. I can't get sound in any of my browsers.

You will find that many people are happy running ATI cards and other who are having just as many problems running Nvidia. Ati is still riding there bad rap for there past Linux drivers.

I know what I've said you have tried, but try googling "Gigabyte motherboard noise". That's your problem.  

I have to agree here. All it take is 1 bad cap starting to go out and it will give you all kinds of noise problems. I would look for a cap that is starting to swell.

Take a read at this:http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/504897-onboard-vs-dedicated-recent-hardware.html Gigabyte is named as having noisy on-board sound!

Just GUESSING my $29.95 video card is more suspect than the Gigabyte Mobo, OCZ power supply, and M-audio sound card.

If I were in Vegas I would bet on one of those three before your video card. It does give you a good excuse to upgrade your video card.

[T6]

"No problems here with my 2600HD Mobility or HD3450. Sure my cpu does have to work a little harder because I went from a 9500gt to the HD3450, but its a lot better than using the on-board HD3200. Really my only issue right now with my HD3450 is a conflict with the HDMI sound and my usb headset. I can't get sound in any of my browsers"

have you tried this?

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,66982.0.html