750ti - Seems to run about 60 USD. I can't comment on how loud they are though.

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-05-21, 19:08:

750ti - Seems to run about 60 USD. I can't comment on how loud they are though.

Very quiet when idle. Very efficient design .

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce- … ew,3750-21.html

GT730 is probably somewhat slower than a 4850 but it has other advantages over it like better game compatibility and image quality. I played around with one for a bit. Really I'd just try this and see what you think.

The 750 Ti is pretty nice. GTX 960 is also something I would ponder. 960 cards often come with excessive cooling capacity that leads to their fans remaining off much of the time. They are also the last with XP drivers I think.

560ti is cheap and already overkill.

The GeForce 750 (ti or not, not sure?) also exists in passively cooled versions, I believe.

750TI has aTDP of 60 Watts .
560TI has a TDP of 170 Watts .

Considering the primary issue is fan noise, I do not believe the 560TI is a step in the right direction .

I think the gtx5xx series are the last that work well with earlier games that use things like bump mapping. By gtx9xx series, it had definitely become a problem, not sure about 7xx series. But we are talking about a 2014 gpu for XP....I doubt they were testing XP era games by then.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-21, 22:58:

I think the gtx5xx series are the last that work well with earlier games that use things like bump mapping. By gtx9xx series, it had definitely become a problem, not sure about 7xx series. But we are talking about a 2014 gpu for XP....I doubt they were testing XP era games by then.

Good point, I had issues with the last XP drivers not recognizing my monitor over HDMI . i had to go back a couple of versions . I did not play many games before I mothballed that machine . There is always dgVoodoo2 for older games .

Thanks for the advice everyone. In pursuit of compatibility, I’ve decided on grabbing either a GTX275 or a GTX560 (non Ti).

Any thoughts on these? I’ve decided I’ll put up with some minor fan noise.

The 275 is a heat/power monster. The 560 better imo.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-22, 09:29:

The 275 is a heat/power monster. The 560 better imo.

I am really not sure what the objective is here .

The Radeon 4850 has a TDP of 11o Watts .
The Geforce 560 has a TDP of 150 Watts .
The Geforce 560 TI has a TDP of 170 Watts .
The Geforce 275 has a TDP of 219 Watts .

All the cards you're considering and expect to be quieter than the 4850 consume more power and generate more heat than it does.

More heat generally means more cooling and thus more noise . Granted, some more powerful cooling solutions are quieter than lesser ones, but there are no miracles to be expected .

That said, maybe your 4850 has a particularly crappy cooling solution or the fan bearings on it have degraded and are noisier than they should or maybe the thermal paste on the GPU has deteriorated and the thermal sensor on the card is spinning the fans faster in desperation to try to prevent the card from overheating . So maybe you'll get lucky and the 560 will actually be quieter than the 4850, but I would not bet on it .

Yeah the Radeon HD 48xx cards were sometimes anything but quiet. Lots of cheap cooling solutions back then. ATI wasn't producing high quality reference coolers either.