A lot has changed in the past few years since I started this site. Back then, the "Leaf Blower" GeForceFX 5800 was still being sold in stores! Today, it's known as a total embarrassment to NVIDIA, and along with ATI, they have taken measures in lowering the heat generated by their video cards.

Furthermore, companies like Gigabyte are enhancing their line of video cards to be almost entirely silent across the entire range. We'll get to that in a bit.

Most of the current high end cards like the Radeon X850 and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra can generate a lot of heat, and require large noisy coolers to keep temperatures down. If you already have a good video card, and want to quiet it down a bit, there are some aftermarket solutions (from who else but Zalman) to help you out. If you're in the market for a new video card, some manufacturers have great cards available in various price ranges that are absolutely dead silent, and guaranteed to work ;)

Silent Video Cards - PCI Express

Gigabyte GV-RX80L256V RADEON X800XL 256MB

The X800 XL is currently one of the best buys you can make for under $300. Think about it - as fast, or faster than a GeForce 6800, but without ANY noise AT ALL! Thanks to Gigabyte for thinking of us when designing their video cards!

Gigabyte GV-NX66T128VP GeForce 6600 GT 128MB

Probably the best buy for under $200 on the PCI-E bus, the 6600GT will definitely hold its own. And the version from Gigabyte is of course absolutely silent.

Silent Video Cards - AGP 8X

Gigabyte GV-N68128DH GeForce 6800 128 MB

If you have an AGP bus, and want to upgrade from your 9600XT or whatever, this is the silent card for you. Although not as strong as the 6800GT, the 6800 definitely holds its own, and is a good buy for AGP users at $200 (actually $200 is an absolute steal for this card, and I just bought one from Newegg.com right now).

Cool Your Own Card

If you already have a decent card, and are looking to swap the loud dual slot cooler for something a little more refined, check these out:

Zalman VF700-Cu

The specs: 1350-2650 RPM. 18.5-28.5 dBA. So yeah, keep it in silent mode. In my experience with the full copper version on a GeForce 6800GT, silent mode cools better than the stock cooler. And it does so at a barely audible level. In my opinion, it should handle anything you can throw at it - even the newest chip out there - 7800 GTX. This cooler only weighs 270g too, so you don't even need to buy the aluminum version (unless of course you want to save $5 or so).

Zalman ZM80D-HP

If you have a cooler video card, such as a Radeon X600, GeForce 6600 and below, and want to go absolutely fanless, the ZM80D-HP is the way to go. The engineering of this unit is immaculate, and it goes together amazingly well. I use one of these on a GeForce 6600 in my HTPC, and it has held up to the test of time in a cramped, hot case for a while now. If it runs a bit hot for your liking, go with the cooler above, instead of adding the clunky optional fan.

We're almost there! Now that our video card is taken care of, let's see what we can do with that huge loud power supply you probably have ;)

Next Page: Silent Power Supplies