Need opinion on video card 1

[mercie]

First, understand, I know nothing about video cards other than they let me see my screen, so I really need to hear from those of you who know your cards. I need to know if a video card with a fan is better than a card without one.

I had a Mad Dog Champion MX400 64mb video card w/fan. The card worked fine but the fan starting making a noise so I sent it back to Mad Dog for replacement. The card they sent back has a sticker on it saying it's a GeForce MX400 64mb but it doesn't indicate Champion nor does it have a fan and it doesn't look at all like the one I sent them. For all I know, this is a better card but ... I have no idea (how can I tell??). Should I request a card with a fan (like my old one) or am I better off with a video card without a fan? Any opinions?

And while on the subject of videos, if I may ask one more question ... I have an Asus P4SDX with SiS Chipset. SiS' site suggests I update to the AGP (Gart) Driver v1.17E while Asus' suggests I udpate to the AGP WHQL driver v1.17. Does anyone know if these 2 are the same thing? I don't know if I am supposed to install both updates (or perhaps neither!). The video card I have uses the NVidia GeForce MX/MX400 driver which I have installed so I'm not sure if I need the other ones - help!

Sorry for being so ignorant about this stuff!

 

[dakota81]

Video cards with fans run a greater risk of overheating than do video cards without a fan, and that's the bottom line.

While it is true that the air flow fans create does absolute wonders on cooling capabilities, if a manufacturer relies on a fan to provide sufficient cooling and that fan clogs with dirt & dust, that video card is now dead.

Video card with no fan, while on average run much hotter than cards that have a fan, there is virtually zero risk of failure on the cooling device, and will operate within specifications for a long period of time.

 

[paparazi]

Low end cards like the MX400 have a high fan failure rate (as you have experienced) the fans generally are of very low quality and design, they use cheap sleave bearings that clog up at best, wear out very quickly and either make an aweful sound or just plain seize up.
NO FAN is better on low end generic cards.
Better branded cards come with better quality fan and heatsink assemblies, these are by their nature more reliable (you get what you pay for)
With higher end cards you often have no choice, all come with fans but the same rules apply to a lesser degree, cheaper generic cards have cheaper and less reliable heatsink/fan units.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[CreamCake]

My ATI Radeon 9200 is also heatsink-only (called a passive heatsink). It's a temporary replacement for my GeforceTI4800 128mb dual head, after MSI's oddball fan setup failed. I had to RMA the MSI card 3 times, as the cards they kept sending back to me were screwed up.

All because of one little fan failure.

If I thought heat was a problem with a passive type heatsink, I'd install one of the Vantec slot coolers. It fits in an empty slot and blows 2 fans directly over your whole VGA card, cooling both the proc and the memory.
You can go the extra step, and install the little VGA memory heatsinks for a little extra cooling power.

Take a look:

http://members.whro.net/~johnp/pics/vantec-spectrum.JPG

The only problem I would think to watch out for with passive heatsinks is to make sure your case has decent airflow. Again.. my Antec superLANboy eliminated those types of problems with dual 120mm case fans.

 

[mercie]

Thank you guys! Really very informative replies. I think, for the time being, I'll keep this "no fan" card. I didn't realize that these fans could cause so much trouble.

Can someone answer the part about the drivers? To refresh, my question was "I have an Asus P4SDX with SiS Chipset. SiS' site suggests I update to the AGP (Gart) Driver v1.17E while Asus' suggests I udpate to the AGP WHQL driver v1.17. Does anyone know if these 2 are the same thing? I don't know if I am supposed to install both updates (or perhaps neither!). The video card I have uses the NVidia GeForce MX/MX400 driver which I have installed so I'm not sure if I need the other ones."

I really appreciate all the quick responses - thank you!

 

[CreamCake]

That's just an update for your motherboard's chipset,or AGP driver.
I don't see anything on SIS's website saying what that chipset update actually fixes.
I would not install it if nothing seemed broken (a side effect of owning too many ATI cards where the driver updates usually whack my All-in-wonder more often than not).
If you installed the latest NVIDIA drivers, you should be OK.

 

[mercie]

Thanks, I'll stay with what I've got.

 

[felixc]

WHQL driver means that it underwent a series of compatibility tests for the Windows environment and has been approved by Microsoft as being a "good citizen" driver.