New Card- Perf Goes Down?

[TedBPhx]

long time reader first time poster - need some ideas

Just replaced an ASUS 9600GT silent with an ASUS GT520 Silent. My perfomance as measured in the Win7 performance experience dropped from 6.8 to 4.2 for Windows aero and from 6.8 to 6.3 for the games and business graphics metric. Ran the test twice.

nVidia 280.26 drivers were used to run both the before and after tests
ran DXDIAG and Directx 11 is installed

Win7 Ult x64. sp1 all updates applied
ASUS P6T Deluxe

any suggestions?

 

[TVeblen]

Hello TedBPhx. Welcome to the Forum.

When you replaced the card, did you uninstall all the nVidia driver software first,
and then remove the card from Device Manager,
and then shut off the computer,
and then change the card?

Or did you do it differently?

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

The GT9600 runs @ 208 GFLPS...the GT520 runs @ 77.6 GFLOPS.....basically you bought one third of a GT9600....

 

[Thorsen]

Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

Heres a good list. I think I got both cards right

 

[TedBPhx]

Yes. I uninstalled the drivers before swapping the card.

then I did it again.

Put the 9600GT back in

installed the driver re-ran the experience assesment. back up to 6.8

should have known it was too good a deal to be true. Frye's ad has the ASUS GT520 Silent 1 GB DDR3 DX 11 3 years newer for $35.

my 3 yr old 512mb DX10 ASUS 9600GT silent blows its doors off.

POS - taking it back now.

any good silent cards out there these days?

 

[Thorsen]

Looks like it is a more recent card, but not as powerful in any aspects as the 9600.... 40mm instead of 65, but less of everything else.... sorry to hear

 

[TedBPhx]

Hey Thorsen NICE link.
Thanks!

 

[Thorsen]

This one looks good for the comparison and it says its noise level is moderate (same as the 9600)

nVidia GeForce GTX 460 SE Video Card - Reviews, Specifications, and Pictures - GPUReview.com

And the comparison: Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Got this for NividaNewegg.com - SPARKLE SXS4501024D5SNP GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

The best card is thisNewegg.com - PowerColor SCS3 AX6850 1GBD5-S3DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

There are a few cheaper options....is fan-less a necessity?

 

[Thorsen]

looks like the normal 460 1GB is listed as Quiet.... and is a little better than the SE one. it does draw more power though so make sure you have a good PSU with enough power to handle these.

Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

 

[stormy13]

The GT9600 runs @ 208 GFLPS...the GT520 runs @ 77.6 GFLOPS.....basically you bought one third of a GT9600....

Sounds about right. Finding any reviews with a direct comparison between the two is rather difficult, too many generations between them You can however use this one for the GT 430 that has the 9600 GT in it,

ZOTAC GeForce GT 430 1 GB Review - Page 9/32 | techPowerUp

and this one that has both the GT 430 and GT 520,

ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 1 GB Review - Page 9/27 | techPowerUp

and after comparing between the two reviews the 9600 GT is quite a bit faster than the GT 430, and to make it worse the GT 430 is a fair bit faster than the GT 520. One nice thing about using those two reviews is that with the exception of the driver used in each, the rest of the test system hardware is the same (i7 920, motherboard, ram, etc).

How much are you looking to spend, and what is the main use going to be?

 

[TedBPhx]

My 9600GT is silent - no fan.
Yes silence is golden. Even before the 9600 I was into aftermarket silent graphics coolers for years. Can't stand fan noise
For the case fans I use a controller that I crank up when I need the airflow(games, video transcode etc) but in general I leave the fans really really low and keep an eye on the temps with a desktop gadget, CoreTemp.

 

[Thorsen]

hmm I like that one too as an option

but the GTX 460 is still better... not sure about pricewise here is the comparison for those as well:

Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com


This is neweggs price on a 460: Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

My 9600GT is silent - no fan.
Yes silence is golden. Even before the 9600 I was into aftermarket silent graphics coolers for years. Can't stand fan noise
For the case fans I use a controller that I crank up when I need the airflow(games, video transcode etc) but in general I leave the fans really really low and keep an eye on the temps with a desktop gadget, CoreTemp.

Those are the best cards on the Egg that are fanless the Nivida options would be the best price/performance card @ $149

 

[TedBPhx]

spend as little as possible to increase video performance.
I use LightWorksBeta and Blender and Mediacoder extensively. Mediacoder especially could use a faster graphics card as it offloads to nVidia's CUDA trick. The newer cards 5xx series implement OpenGL 4.2 and I believe, may be wrong, that Blender can use that.

Guess I'll stick with the 9600GT fanless for awhile I think I gave Newegg about 120 for it back in early spring of '09 - knew it was a great buy then didn't expect it to still be 3 years later.

Thanks for all the research guys.

Ted

 

[TedBPhx]

@Ivan The SoSo. Thanks
That Sparkle GTS450 - fanless looks like the best bet. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187129

I also found this one from ASUS ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Graphics Cards- ASUS ENGTS450 DC SL/DI/1GD3
that does not appear to be available in the US? The specs claim it does not need an extra PSU - I assume they mean no 6 or 8 bit pin extra power lead needed. Not an issue as my PSU has two of them available but low power means less heat.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Seems to be a difference in the on board ram, the one you linked to is DDR3 instead of DDR5, also the clock speeds are much lower.....so the performance will be somewhat lower as well....I doubt idle draw will be much lower in any case.....

 

[TedBPhx]

Ended up with the ASUS ENGTX550Ti DC 1 GB DDR5

It has a fan but it is very quiet. Even when stressing the card with Furmark the fan never went over 31% and the temp stayed at 70c. Some noise at that level but very OK. In normal surf the net mode the fan is quiet. It has to be dead silent 2am for me to hear it.

The ASUS 560s also look, and I suspect sound, very interesting but this card was 107, with the ASUS Spet. rebate, from superbiiz and I couldn't justify doubling that for a 560.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

sometimes price trumps all.....

 

[Windows i7 920]

Hello TedBPhx. Welcome to the Forum.

When you replaced the card, did you uninstall all the nVidia driver software first,
and then remove the card from Device Manager,
and then shut off the computer,
and then change the card?

Or did you do it differently?

Hmm, I never did that with my Optiplex GX280 when I took a Radeon 8960 out of it and put in a Quadro FX 1400. In fact, I think I forgot to even uninstall the ATI driver... oops. Doesn't seem to be affected by this though.