rec.autos.simulators

due to a recent GPU upgrade for my xp *** machine, I have a spare
Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB, AGP) that's gathering dust, so I was thinking of
putting it into my main Linux machine. However my main concern with the
Linux box is both low noise and low power consumption as it's running
24x7. Hardly any 3d stuff is done on it, maybe a game of TuxRacer by
little Hannah once in a while, a bit of flightgear and trying to wrap my
mind around the Monster That Is Blender every couple of weeks.

Question: Does anybody now how much more power the Radeon consumes while
idling away in the box, compared to a GeForce 2 MX that's currently in
there? Will it produce enough heat so that its fan will be constantly
on, adding to the total noise output of the machine?

It's probably a bit off topic, but I was unable to find anything in the
techspecs on the ATI site.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Uwe

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Try Tom's Hardware Guide to see if there's an article there.

http://www.tomshardware.com

I have a system with a P4EE3.4GHZ cpu, Radeon X850XTPE, and 5 hard drives,
and it ends up quieter if I leave the side door off to keep the system cooler.

If you want total silence (and have some euro's to spare...) check out
http://www.racesimcentral.net/;Mini-ITX's (the current
model name is B1)  running in  my living room, one runs winxp for game serving
and the other runs linux to serve as router with advanced quality of service.

Bart

The major problem you may have with it in a linux box is getting the ATI
drivers installed. I have an X850 PCI-E and dual boot SUSE 10 and can not
for the life of me get the ATI drivers installed (and working). ATI at this
point is not as linux friendly as Nvidia is. The card works fine in 2d
apps.

Ed

These cases / systems sure look nice, though.

Cheers, uwe

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thanks for your reply. The Radeon 9800 seems well supported with Gentoo
Linux, who knows, maybe following URL might be helpful even for a Suse
user:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ATI_Drivers

Thing is, before I start hacking away, I'd like to know how much more
power the 9800 will suck up. If I had one of these metering thingies
that measure pc power throughput, I'd be probably be hacking already ;)

Cheers & bye for now, uwe

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http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=138&code=013

HTH,
Kendt

Frank

Thanks for the link, Frank. I have decided to stick with the Geforce2
for now after reading the article. A tuxracer session every couple of
weeks just doesn't justify the extra waste of energy for the 9800 pro.
Too bad about the DVI out, though 8-P  

All the best,

Uwe

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