I finally got hold of an 8800GT and installed it. The card is fantastic. Overclocks to 675/950 easily enough, makes things run disgustingly smooth at high features in 1680x1050, etc. The only problem is that when it’s pushing polygons that little fan spins up to full tilt and makes my computer sound like it’s getting ready to take off. I’ve had a Ti 4600, a 9800 Pro, a 6600GT, and a 7900GS recently, and I never really noticed any of the fan sounds they made, but this puppy is loud.
Is there any realistic way without replacing the heat sink to make this card quieter? I have the BFG version (if that matters) though I suspect it, like most other versions, is using a stock cooling solution. The noise is annoying, but probably not annoying enough that I’m going to want to try to pry that whole card cooler off to replace it (nor pay the $60 or whatever a replacement would cost).
(It makes this noise regardless of whether or not I’ve OC’d the card, so that’s not a solution.)
Mine doesn’t ramp up, but that’s heat dependent. You probably don’t have adequate air-flow in your case, causing heat build up. I had a Zalman v900Cu fan on my old 1800xt, but the problem with that is that the hot air isn’t directly removed from the case which may be problematic.
Better cooling for the case to lower the temp sounds like the right idea. Intake in the front. A big honking exhaust fan in the back. Keep the filter on the intake fan clean. The case I recently got with a major upgrade has a good sized exhaust fan in the back that is super quiet. I bought a fan for the front. Strangely the case has a plastic cover that was only open on the bottom. On the floor where all the dust is.
So I cut the area in front of the intake fan off with a dremel. Still have to clean it regularly. But my motherboard temp dropped 10 degrees F with the present setup.
