Best video card for DAW? (w/ no cooling fan!)

[We Got Da Funk]

I'm getting tired of listening to the cooling fan on the video card in my PC and want to replace it with a card w/ no fan. Also are there any particular cards that will have a lower impact on system resources than others, when doing audio work? It seems like all the aftermarket video cards advertised and reviewed on the PC hardware sites are geared toward gamers- built-in 500 horsepower vacuum-cleaners to cool the "GPU" while you are blasting everything in sight in the latest 3D shooter, etc. This would be for an older system, ABIT BE6 (440BX chipset, 2X AGP), PIII 850 MHz, Win2k (soon to be XP). Thanks in advance for any advice!
WGDF

 

[Stealthtech]

If your not using high quality graphics programs, then why have a high performance card ?
I've been using an nvidia gforce 7100 32bit card for years...it has no fan and works great with graphics. However, on my recording OS the color depth is reduced to 16bit as to avoid conflicts and resource depletion.

 

[We Got Da Funk]

If your not using high quality graphics programs, then why have a high performance card ?

My thoughts exactly!

I've been using an nvidia gforce 7100 32bit card for years...it has no fan and works great with graphics. However, on my recording OS the color depth is reduced to 16bit as to avoid conflicts and resource depletion.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out! My card is actually even older, nVidia Riva TNT2 "Ultra"- based. Never thought of the 16-bit idea either. And I guess I am getting closer and closer to the dual-boot thing too; the value of that is becoming more and more obvious the more I "tweak" my system.

 

[lost studios]

We use Matrox G-450 Millenium dual head video cards in all our PC rigs. Wonderful cards w/ trouble free installation. You can get your hands on one for just over a $100.

good luck
ls

 

[DeadPoet]

Just got a G550 matrox dual head. no fan, fast, dual head and reliable. Too bad the digital out to analog out convertor is a bit long, and now the door of my isobox for the daw doesn't close anymore gonna hafta find a solution for that.


Herwig