ASUS: The EN7600 GS Silent, and EN7800 GT TOP Silent
by Josh Venning on May 12, 2006 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
While it might be nearly impossible to make a PC run completely silent, there are lots of ways for those concerned about noise to deal with the problem. And for those who want a quiet system for recording or whatever else, but also to play games every once in a while, a silent graphics card will help keep the noise down while still allowing you to game. Still, silent graphics solutions are specialized, so the average gamer won't mind that their card adds a few db to their computer noise. These cards are made to fit a specific need, and both the EN7600 GS Silent and the EN7800 GT TOP Silent meet this need very well.Both of these cards are identical when it comes to noise level, but obviously there's a large difference in terms of gaming performance. It's difficult making fast cards run quiet because higher power requires more cooling and eventually you will need fans or other moving parts to cool down the processor, which in turn will generate noise. The 7800 GT is fairly high on the performance ladder, and the fact that ASUS managed to make a silent version of this card is nice. What is even nicer is the fact that the EN7800 GT TOP Silent was able to achieve a fairly high user-overclock over the already decent factory overclock. (Note that overclocking ability varies between cards of the same type.) It's fairly safe to say that those looking for both the most powerful and quiet graphics card available need look no further than the ASUS EN7800 GT TOP Silent. However, the price for this card is a bit higher than a normal 7800 GT, so the silent operation will cost you extra.
As far as pricing goes, it makes sense that a slower card like the 7600 GS would likely be easier for a manufacturer to modify to silent operation over a fast card like the 7800 GT, thus saving on costs. Currently, the ASUS EN7600 GS Silent can be bought for about $147 on Newegg, which is relatively inexpensive for what you get. It is still a budget/midrange card though, so it won't be able to give you the kind of performance you would need to run the latest games at high settings. The ASUS EN7800 GT TOP Silent lists for a much higher price of $399, and at the time of this writing we weren't able to find any of these cards for sale. Normal 7800 GTs can be found now for as low as $280, so having one of these cards that runs noiseless will be more of a luxury item for most gamers.
Overall these cards adequately fulfill their job of providing a level of graphics acceleration while making no sound at all, so for those interested in this aspect of the cards, you won't be disappointed. Which one is better for you depends mostly on your budget, and most likely the ASUS EN7600 GS Silent will be a more reasonable purchase for the consumer in the market for a card of this type. There are other low-noise solutions available, but none quite as fast as the EN7800 GT TOP Silent which makes it unique, and the likely choice for those interested in maximum performance with lowest noise levels. With NVIDIA's "slimming-down" of their most recent line of cards, we can imagine more powerful silent-operation will be easier and cheaper to achieve in the future, and we'll be interested to see what advancements are in store for us in this area.
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Jayman - Sunday, August 27, 2006 - link
The ASUS EN7600 GS has both 256MB and 512MB versions currently available on Newegg. What version was included in this article and how big a performance difference could we expect between the two? Thanks.SciBoy - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
Could you list the memory sizes of these cards, please? I have the 7600GS but with 512Mb, and I'm pretty sure there is a 256Mb version too. They're claiming the 512Mb version is faster, but I'm starting to feel bad about my purchase today (considering that the 6600GT, which was my old card) seems to even be faster in some instances (especially considering I paid the equivalent of $170 for the 7600GS and I could buy a new 6600GT for $90, albeit with only 128Mb mem).A compounding factor is that I had the Gigabyte silent 7800GT but had to return it when dual mode did not work on it (some kind of problem the Gigabyte 7800GT apparently has, I can't recommend it to anyone).
Well, anyway, mem sizes please! :)
Thanks!
xsilver - Sunday, May 14, 2006 - link
heyjust a suggestion
if there could be a page with a listing of a plethora of cards and their relative performance versus each other so it can be easily seen if its worth upgrading to a newer generation
eg. someone has a 9800 pro; is a 7300gs faster? (ignore the obvious agp/pci-e fact)
or a x800gt vs a 7600gt?
its hard to look over your old articles to compare as some dont use the same benchies/resolutions/etc..
it doesnt have to be super accurate, only accurate enough to say card X is generally better than card Y
inclusion of high end older cards (5900, 9800, x800,6800 etc.) are important
as well as mainstream generational cards (6600,9600xt, -- god forbid 9200,6200 :)
thanks
Cerb - Monday, May 15, 2006 - link
Tom's Hardware does this. It's a series of major roundups called "VGA Charts", IIRC.For current-gen cards, there's Digit-life's video digests.
plonk420 - Saturday, May 13, 2006 - link
i wonder if these fit in X-QPack uATX cases.. any owners out there?poohbear - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
if u could provide sys or case temps that'd be great so we can know what to expect in our own rig (my rig runs about 34c in the summer:o). really impressed @ how these babies perform considering they're so quiet, but as someone mentioned, the accelero x1 is indeed virtually silent albeit cools much better than the stock aircoolers.Cerb - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
No fan = silent. 'Virtually silent' is marketting. Ambient noise may cover up a certain degree of noise (ideally all noise from the computer), but every fan gives a greater chance of it being audible, or worse (such as a VGA Silencer): grating and annoying, even when not terribly loud.nullpointerus - Saturday, May 13, 2006 - link
"Virtually silent" is not marketing. If you have trouble with it - such as in a home theater setup - it's better to use extension cables to position the sound further away (such as behind a corner or a piece of furniture) than to embed an ~80C heat source in the computer.As for my VGA Silencer, I can't hear it. My computer is under my desk, not on top of it. I have two low RPM 120mm fans in my ~$60 case and even when my CPU is overclocked and at full load the variable speed CPU fan barely goes above 1200 RPM while staying under 50C. That's pretty cool, IMHO.
IIRC, there were some VGA Silencers shipped out with bad fans. You might want to try getting a replacement if yours grates. Good fans do not grate. And if you are referring to the tons of junk out there that are misrepresented as "virtually silent," then I feel sorry for you. I bought a few such fans, and they sound like jet engines...
Cerb - Sunday, May 14, 2006 - link
""Virtually silent" is not marketing. If you have trouble with it - such as in a home theater setup - it's better to use extension cables to position the sound further away (such as behind a corner or a piece of furniture) than to embed an ~80C heat source in the computer."Or just make it very quiet to begin with. With Turions, Pentium-Ms, and newer A64s, etc., it shouldn't be too hard.
"My computer is under my desk, not on top of it."
Same.
"CPU fan barely goes above 1200 RPM while staying under 50C."
Mine are all well under that (fastest is the Panaflo, ~700 RPM). I don't think I can get a diode reading, so won't trust what I have to be definitive (socket reading stays below 50, but Thermaltake's Orbs ruined any confidence in that--twice).
"IIRC, there were some VGA Silencers shipped out with bad fans."
No, it's from the design and materials. Not quite as loud as a standard A64 stock cooler, but annoying, and stays annoying even slowed down. The fan being part of the duct, and duct being brittle plastic are mainly to blame. Attaching another fan, even somewhat decoupled (1/2" of foam mouse pad), causes the same kind of noise, though far less pronounced. If softer plastic were used (which would likely not be clear), I don't think it would be bad at all.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article199-page3.htm...">http://www.silentpcreview.com/article199-page3.htm...
Assuming they all use the same fan (mine is a NV Silencer 3), it should be a bit louder (I was running it at 5v until yesterday) than everything else I use, with my CPU fan being the only one close. See the note here for my primary issue with the VGA Silencer's noise (the entire thing is a fan frame): http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html">http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html
"and they sound like jet engines..."
No jet engines in sheep skin (but, I did start with them, ugh!):
Nexus 120mm (5v, might be removed soon, or upgraded to CPU fan duty)
Yate Loon 120mm from Fortron PSU (5v, soon to be replaced, being near as loud as the Silencer, if easier to listen to)
Panaflo L1A 80mm (5v, now in place of NV Silencer)
Adda 120mm in Seasonic S12 380 (I may try to isolate it a bit, if I get bored enough one day)
Either the entire system is inaudible (listening position and distance counts, as does ambient noise), or it can be heard. "Virtually silent" is a good way of saying, "it's not loud." But there is quite a gulf between "virtually silent," and, "is it really on?" If you're after "is it really on?", Gigabyte and Asus offer the only stock gaming cards worth considering, because it means no voiding the warranty--such a cooler as the X1 is not a good option (I should have considered a Geforce FX not an option *grumble*).
JarredWalton - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
You could always try getting a 7900 GTX and underclocking it. :) The big fans and HSF should do a good job at keeping the card cool if you drop clock speeds a bit. I'm not sure how well the RPM controls work on the cards, though.