Customer Reviews:
 Great video card May 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
great video card worked as promised. Does take a connection to the power supply to work, make sure your can handle it.
 Nice card, but noisy... TOO noisy, I'm sending it back. April 21, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a nice card, very fast, very nice quality. The heatsink is large, heavy, and cools not just the GPU but also the RAM chips. The support bar on top is a nice touch and makes plugging the card in and taking it out feel easier. The card easily overclocks to the same speeds as the OC version with full stability, I almost think the two cards may be identical.
The major drawback for this card is it's LOUD. The fan runs at 100% at all times. It sounds similar to air being released from a car tire. Imagine that sound CONSTANTLY. Perhaps if your computer is under the desk in a cabinet, the noise won't be bad. However, my computer is on top of the desk, next to my monitor, and the noise is unbearable. It's louder than 2 80mm PSU fans, 1 90mm case fan, and an OEM CPU fan - combined! It's loud enough I can hear it in the hall before I even enter the room. Some say it's because this card has a 2-wire fan, but that's not the cause. Many Geforce cards only have a 2-wire fan, yet the fan speed is automatic and can also be manually controlled in nTune. Resistance tests shows the black ground lead going to the fan is indeed a floating ground, probably controlled either by GPU or fan control IC - a very similar setup to previous Geforce cards WITH 2-wire variable fan control. My guess is this could be fixed via VGA BIOS update, but I have never heard of XFX offering firmware updates for their video cards so there is really no point in hoping there will be a fix.
As much as I like the card overall, I plan to return it.
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