The best low-profile PCIe x16 video card?

Are there any LP cards w/ a DVI connector? Namely with the horse power around a 7600 or x1600?

Best I can find actually for sale are low profile x1300's and 6600's :( Would really love to play HL2 with all candy off but at 1920x1080 :)
 
Necere said:
one caveat: the one place i found it, microcenter, doesn't have such a great rep.
Click to expand...
They're not as bad as that makes them out to be. I've shopped at the local store for years and yeah the prices aren't better than e-tailers (except with the occasional huge mail-in rebates) but the people on the floor are for the most part better at giving advice than anyone at Best Buy or Circuit City. If you already know what you're looking for it's not a bad option.
 
just fyi, a friend of mine ordered the lp 7600gs I linked earlier, and despite being backordered he *did* eventually get it after a few weeks. dropped it in his XPS 200. only issue he's had is some artifacting in 2D apps on the desktop ("snow"), possibly due to insufficient bandwidth over the DVI connection (he's running native 1920x1200 on a dell 2407WFP). games run fine.
 
Necere said:
just fyi, a friend of mine ordered the lp 7600gs I linked earlier, and despite being backordered he *did* eventually get it after a few weeks. dropped it in his XPS 200. only issue he's had is some artifacting in 2D apps on the desktop ("snow"), possibly due to insufficient bandwidth over the DVI connection (he's running native 1920x1200 on a dell 2407WFP). games run fine.
Click to expand...

Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but did the card come with the LP bracket?
 
canadianpsycho said:
Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but did the card come with the LP bracket?
Click to expand...

i don't hit this forum much, so i apologize for the late reply. yes, it did come with a low-profile bracket. it should fit in any system that accepts low-profile (aka half-height) pci-express (not pci-x) cards. also, i should mention the artifacting issue only occurs very infrequently according to my friend - it might happen only after leaving it running continuously for 1-2 weeks at at time. hope that helps.
 
Zoogle said:
There's plenty of evidence showing that if you get a 6200 that has a NV43 A2 or A3 core, there's a good chance of you being able to use RivaTuner to unlock another 4 pipes, making it almost as good as the 6600. Lots of the 6200's have cores that overclock like beasts as well. Do a google search. In the end tho, my vote goes for the half-height 6600 you found on newegg.

Dang... Interesting 7600GS and 7600GT...I doubt they'll ever make it here in time for him to buy them tho.
Click to expand...

What option in RivaTuner will unlock the other 4 pipes on a 6200 based card?
 
Time to update this thread. New King of low profile is the
Visiontek Radeon X1650 Pro HD
LINK



The Ultimate
Video Card for the HDTV Enthusiast
The VisionTek X1650PRO HD is designed to deliver outstanding entertainment and 3D graphics through its unique ultra-threaded core architecture and ATI’s Avivo™ video and display technology. The VisionTek X1650PRO HD is a perfect way to connect your PC and consumer electronic devices together for an ideal home entertainment and gaming system. Built for the future, the VisionTek X1650PRO HD is ready to deliver the ultimate gaming performance that works with all games.

Transform Your PC with Intense 3D and High-Definition Visuals
The VisionTek X1650PRO HD is designed to deliver outstanding entertainment and 3D graphics through its unique ultra-threaded core architecture and Avivo™ video and display technology.

A New Era of Visual Realism Brings Your Games to Life
VisionTek X1650PRO’s new 3D architecture support Shader Model 3.0 and deliver better gaming allowing for new high dynamic range visual effects, enhanced realism with adaptive anti-aliasing and lightening fast performance.


Radeon X1650 Pro
ATI’s new Radeon X1600 series transforms your PC with astonishing graphics performance and visual quality, creating a lifelike High Definition (HD) viewing experience with 3D games, DVD movies, and digital photography and video.


High Dynamic Range (HDR)
High dynamic-range(HDR) lighting effects bring environments to life for a truly immersive experience. It takes advantage of the subtle light, texture, and color intricacies to create incredibly realistic environments.


SMARTSHADER™
A new technology developed by ATI, represents a new generation of visual effects for your personal computer. With SMARTSHADER™, game developers will be able to create immersive, life-like worlds by modelling the surface and material qualities of 3D objects with an unparalleled level of realism.


SMOOTHVISION™
Supports a High-Performance anti-aliasing mode and a High-Quality anti-aliasing mode. Both of these modes give users the ability to choose between 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, and 6x sampling, allowing for a total of 10 different anti-aliasing settings.


AVIVO™
Avivo™ redefines the ultimate visual experience for today’s PCs, and sets the stage for tomorrow’s exciting possibilities. Check your board for specific support of Avivo™ features. Avivo™ is a technology platform that includes a broad set of capabilities offered by ATI products. Full enablement of some Avivo™ capabilities may require complementary products.


CATALYST™
ATI’s all-new CATALYST™ Control Center goes far beyond traditional driver configuration software—it’s a feature-rich and stable 3D acceleration control application that puts you in complete command of your ATI visual processing unit


Windows Vista Ready
Windows Vista is the first operating system to require a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to realize the best experience possible.


PCI Express Support
PCI Express is a new Intel bus architecture that doubles the bandwidth of the AGP 8X bus, delivering over 4 GB per second in both upstream and downstream data transfers.


Specifications

GPU/VPU Radeon X1650 Pro

Pixel Pipelines 12

Maximum Resolution 2048 x 1536 @ 85Hz (Analog)

Video Memory 256MB

Memory Type GDDR2

Interface Type PCI Express

Interface Speed 16x

Connector(s) HDMI
HDTV/S-Video
VGA (15-Pin D-Sub)

Multiple Monitors Support Yes
 
Not that I can find, but in most cases its about a 25% increase in performance over the X1600 Pro low profile offered by sapphire.
MSI is also selling a 7600GS low profile but from what I can tell this X1650 should be faster. I think there are one or two customer reviews on newegg for the X1650
 
The 7300GT GDDR3 on Newegg is a better low-profile card methinks. ~$20 cheaper than the X1650PRO GDDR3 and almost as fast as a 7600GS in some cases, according to Hexus' review of the Inno3D variant of it here.
 
That isn't a low profile card. It's single slot, but not low profile.

Hmm, and on a random note, do you think I can ever overclock my C2D on this Dell machine? I ask here because the answer will probably be a short "no".
 
Right, so what exactly is a low-profile card then, seeing that the 7300GT's specs are far lower than the X1650's?
About the OCing issue, I don't see why not. As long as the HSF's still there! :p
 
Like the person that brought this thread back up, a low profile card is like a sawed off card. It's like half the size of a regular single slot card. It's primary use is in small cases.

Low profile card:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2918623&sku=V261-4038

Single slot card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122010

Double slot card:
any 8800 card.

About OCing, doesn't that depend on the motherboard and bios? I have a Dell issued mobo and a Dell issued bios. The bios does not have any OCing options.
 
Cant overclock Dells. BIOS are locked. Some people have found ways around it though but it is fairly risky.

You can overclock the GPU of course, but the cooling is most Dells sucks soo badly that you will probably be hitting temps most people will say are unacceptable.
 
to bring this thread back to life a little more, i just have a few questions...

i'm most likely going to be ordering the MSI 7600GS low profile vid card for my dell xps 200, but want to know if anyone else has put this in their small form factor pc...i'm starting to second guess whether or not this card will fit in the xps 200, even though Necere mentioned a friend of his has one in his...

also, i originally wanted this Galaxy 8600GT low profile, but can't find it anywhere....has anyone bought one or know where to get one? ...that site and all their distributors are outside the U.S. and won't respond to my emails about where to find one...

thanks for any help in advance and it's great to see all the great info in this thread on low pro cards...
 
rimz said:
also, i originally wanted this Galaxy 8600GT low profile, but can't find it anywhere....has anyone bought one or know where to get one? ...that site and all their distributors are outside the U.S. and won't respond to my emails about where to find one...
Click to expand...

A couple of months ago I was having an e-mail conversation with a bloke in Galaxy about their LP cards. I'll see if I can get any info out of him.

But, ... I vaguely get the impression that Galaxy focuses first on SE Asia and Oceania, second on Europe, and third on the Americas ...
 
thanks Ajax9000...i've read on the internet in a couple of places that people have had a hard time getting in contact with someone at Galaxy...if you find or hear anything, i really appreciate you letting us know... ;)
 
Got a reply from Galaxy last night (I think they were all off at Computex last week :)

Anyway, the advice was that the LP 8600GT's would be shipping in mid-July. He wasn't specific about that being to the US, but I'm sure that's what he meant.
 
Ajax9000 said:
Got a reply from Galaxy last night (I think they were all off at Computex last week :)

Anyway, the advice was that the LP 8600GT's would be shipping in mid-July. He wasn't specific about that being to the US, but I'm sure that's what he meant.
Click to expand...

sweeeet...thanks Ajax...i can wait til mid july for that... ;) ...they didn't happen to say where to buy one from, did they? ...i'm sure the distributors list on their site should have them, though...thanks again for the update...
 
Any news about this Galaxy GeForce 8600 GT Low Profile ? I've been sending emails to Galaxy and most of its distributors, but no feedback yet :(

Galaxy also has a 7600GS gDDR3 HDMI Low Profile with impressive memory and clock speeds, but I can't find it anywhere either... It may be a nice card as it's clocked like a 7600GT.

Has anyone tested the VisionTek X1650Pro HDMI yet ? According to Tigerdirect, it's clocked at 500Mhz for the core (instead of the default 600Mhz) and 400Mhz for the memory (instead of the default 700Mhz) : it will hurt performances a lot : memory bandwith drops to 12.8 GB/s instead of 22GB/sec with a factory clock card : it's more a x1600Pro than a x1650Pro (which is supposed to match the x1600XT perfs)
 
the_seb said:
Any news about this Galaxy GeForce 8600 GT Low Profile ...
Click to expand...

I got this from them last week:

I can say it is HDCP support for all those models in below.
...

The 8 series LP version will start to ship in NEXT week:

GALAXY GF 8600GT Low Profile 256MB DDR3 128bit 1.2ns 600MHz 800MHz PCI-E CRT+HDTV+DVI

GALAXY GF 8500GE Low Profile 256MB DDR3 128bit 1.4ns 600MHz 700MHz PCI-E CRT+HDTV+DVI

GALAXY GF 8500GT Low Profile 512MB DDR2 128bit 2.8ns 500MHz 350MHz PCI-E CRT+HDTV+DVI

GALAXY GF 8400GS Low Profile 256MB DDR2 64-bit 2.8ns 450MHz 400MHz PCI-E CRT+HDTV+DVI


All the cards are overclocked in default except 84GS. And What 8500GE means is we use 8500GT and put it on the 8600GT board with dramatically performance upgrade from DDR2 450/400MHz to DDR3 600/700MHz.
Click to expand...

I don't know how fast it'd take to get stuff through the manufacturer>distributor>retailer channel, but I'd guess another fortnight or so.

I can't help with distributor information -- unless you happen to be in Australia like I am. :)

By the way, this has just turned up on the MSI website NX8500GT-MTD256EH. It is only a 8500GT, but it does have dual digital out (DL-DVI+HDMI) and passive cooling. Reportage from Computex 2007 indicates Galaxy will be bringing out an HDMI version of its LP 8600GT (look at the sign to the right of the card in the last photo), but the bloke I've been in contact with hasn't revealed how soon, nor if it will be HDMI+ DVI or HDMI+HDTV on the LP bracket.
 
Thanks for the valuable info Ajax !!

It seems you're luckier than me on getting infos, I haven't had a feedback from Galaxy or their distributors when asked about their 8600 GT LP.

Let's wait and see then... hopefully there will be some European resellers with this card soon ! :)

Let us know if you get more infos, they're always welcome !

Thanks again !
Seb
 
Ajax, are you sure you don't work for Galaxy...? ;) ...you seem to be the only one getting info out of them...

thanks for the great info man....i can't wait for the 8600GT! ...bring on the U.S. resellers too!
 
Hey Guys,
I first of all would like to thank everyone that's contributed here. I'm a tech at UW, and I've been trying for a month to find a high end card for some low profile dells. From what I've found, the best cards out there in mass production are the Visiontek V261-4038 X1650 and the MSI NX7600GS-MTD256E 7600GS. Both have been brought up in previous posts, but here's my basic analysis.
The Visiontek is probably the better performer, although the clock speeds are lower than most X1650's and not that much better than most X1600 pro's. If it does have an edge over the 7600 it is most likely very slim. It does however, come with a low-profile bracket (BIG PLUS), providing instant gratification for those in a rush.
The 7600, while being clocked to factory specs, is a decent preformer, and more importantly (for my purposes at least) has DVI+HDMI. With a $2.99 adapter from newegg, this card becomes dual DVI, allowing me to hook up 2 monitors with pure digital quality. The MSI 7600 DOES NOT come with a bracket. This almost had me in tears until I submitted a support request to MSI with my model # and they got back to me within minutes informing me that they would send as many brackets as I needed, for free + 7.95 S&H.
For me the choice was clear, I absolutely needed dual DVI and though the X1650 may have a slight edge, I'm confident the 7600 will still be almost as good, if not better in some applications. Good Hunting!~
 
@PiratePowWow

the S27 looks decent, but i haven't found many low profile versions of it...the one i did find was very similar spec-wise to the current nvidia and ati cards available...so why is it only $91+/-?

@jguw21

UW as in wisconsin? ...i'm originally from milwaukee, so just curious...

you and i have been considering the exact the same cards...i've always leaned towards nvidia, though, for their quality and reliability...yeah the ati cards come with a bracket, but now that you mentioned emailing MSI and them saying they'll send the bracket for the cost of S&H, i'm sold...i figured i'd have to find some other LP bracket and cut it to fit the 7600GS....glad i don't have to worry about that...but like i mentioned, i'm waiting for the 8600GT...
 
Washington actually;) The 8600 is a great card. I just put 10 full sized BFG cards into our main lab computers. I noticed that galaxy (who manufactures the L-P 8600) doesn't have any US resellers yet. Anyone know if they will be selling stateside anytime soon?
 
This HS 2400 low profile card http://www.directron.com/2400proscs3256.html looks like the best of all worlds. HD 2400 UVD acceleration, low profile, passive cooling and cheap.

The only question is whether or not the passive heatsink actually will fit in a low profile case. I can't tell from the photo about how tall the heatsink is.

Thanks,
Mike
 
mikesm said:
This HS 2400 low profile card http://www.directron.com/2400proscs3256.html looks like the best of all worlds. HD 2400 UVD acceleration, low profile, passive cooling and cheap.

The only question is whether or not the passive heatsink actually will fit in a low profile case. I can't tell from the photo about how tall the heatsink is.

Thanks,
Mike
Click to expand...

eh...that card's specs look hardly better than my current card (PowerColor Radeon X700)...and i paid $109.00 a year and a half ago for it...my current card has the following specs:

Memory & Bus Width: 256 MB DDR2 / 128bit
Core Speed: 400 MHz
Memory Speed: 266 MHz x 2
Output: DVI/ TV Out/ CRT/ / HDTV
Interface: PCIEx16
Pixel Pipelines: 8
Direct X Support: 9
TV Connector: S-Video

the HD 2400 doesn't look too much better, IMO...plus it's ati and i'm switching to nvidia...
 
The ATI 2400 series are indeed good cards for pure HTPC, but keep in mind we're looking for a good Low Profile card to play games as well.. and in this case, the 2400 series are a complete no go :-(

That's why some people here are looking forward to the Galaxy 8600GT low profile, which is supposed to be shipping these days, but it's hard to get fresh news about it ! Let's hope Ajax can keep us updated with insider's informations ;)
 
Hate to resurrect this thread from the dead, but I have a Dell e531s on it's way and I need a better video card than the integrated video.

I am probably going to get the Visiontek x1650Pro low-profile, it appears that is the best card I can find that is low profile now. Everything else seems to be sold out.

P.S. I'm here in the states, I wish Galaxy had a better presence here.

Thanks!
 
Well, I went ahead and got the Low Profile x1650 Pro from Visiontek at buy.com for $111.

Who knows when the 8600gt's will make it here to the states, I'll probably pick one up when they do, until then I can at least enjoy some casual gaming. :D

For anyone interested, I picked up the Low-Profile x1650 Pro here.
 
was there a database crash? ...i know we had more updates than this on the 8600gt low profile...

and are those MSI cards low-profile Ajax? i didn't see it mentioned anywhere on their site...would be sweet if MSI picked up the low-pro though...better chance of getting one in the States...
 
I just bought a passive cooled 8400GS from Newegg before reading this thread for 40 bucks after rebate.

XFX 8400GS

How much better is the 1650 from ATI than the 8400GS?

The HP slimline this card is going into only has a 160 watt PSU, so I also have to keep that in mind. I know there have been other claims of people using the 8400GS without a problem in the HP Slimline PCs...so I feel a bit more comofortable that way.
 
well...shucks...

Sounds like the 8500GT is quite a bit better card than the 8400GS I just bought.

The question is though would it run on a lower rated PSU.
 
honestly, if a card is made for low-profile (half-height) systems, it should work...keep in mind there are low-profile cards that require 300W+ and there are low-profile (aka half-height) cards that at most require 250W...but that's pushing it....anything made for low-profile will work for low-profile...
 
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