Hey guys,
 
Got some questions... not sure if anyone else has this card... but after getting it, I discovered that it's a lot louder than I originally expected.
 
I bought the card assuming that the Zalman vf700 cooler they attached would make this thing run near silent based on the reviews of the cooler by other users, but the fan spins so fast and loud...  it's as loud as my old x800 series AGP card in my old system....
 
I understand that loudness is subjective... but I can't imagine watching a movie or something with this thing wooshing in the background.  Is there any way to make the fan spin slower?  Would that be a bad idea?  Any programs to monitor temperature of the gpu as well?
 
Thanks for any advice!

Was there any software that came on the CD to allow you to do that?  If not, you can use something like ATI Tray Tools to accomplish the same thing.

Well, you could upgrade GPU cooler to this:
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118001
 
This has less noise level than your current cooler (I own one and it's not as loud as my CPU fan unless you crank it up to max RPM).  This also comes with FanMate (external fan speed controller), which you could use to turn down the speed of your fan when watching movies, then turn it up when playing games.
 
This thing is also going to be more efficient than the VF700, so you can probably get away with running it slower all the time (I have my fanmate cranked up to max, and I OC'd my card 100MHz over factory setting and under load it only hits 44c, which is cooler than my stock cooler kept card at stock clock settings).
 
You should be able to monitor temp in the ATI control panel (I'm using nV card right now so I forgot where the temp settings are in ATI control panel or if they exist).

@a123456 - I see, thanks for the suggestion.  I will try to see if the ATI Tray Tools application can help me when I get home tonight.
 
@dean7 - yeah, the vf900 looks like a great cooler, I would definitely have gotten that if this card didn't already come w/a vf700.  That being said, I'd rather not spend more money to upgrade the cooler... hopefully I can find a way to undervolt, or tweak the fan speed on this vf700 cooler.  I don't plan on overclocking the video card at all, so as long as I can run it quiet enough while keeping temperatures at a reasonable level, I'd be happy.
 
Thanks again for the help guys.

I used an Artic Cooling X2 on my 1900xt, quiet as a church mouse at 100% fan.
 
Good $30 spent.

yeah, I was looking at that originally, but it won't fit into my HTPC case.
 
Height of that thing is GINORMOUS. =T
 
My case only has like 5.25 - 5.5 inches of height available I think... not too sure.

Get a fan mate and cut the 3 pin plug off of an old fan or the like, cut the 2 pin end off of the cooler on the video card and splice it to the 3 pin plug. Then plug in the fan mate to your power supply instead of the card and the other end to the spliced plug on the cooler. It will work, but probably voids the cards warranty. Or you could get some noise canceling headphones

Probably void the warranty??  

BTW, can you maybe underclock it in 2d so it will run extra cool, making the fan spin down?  Sorry, I'm just throwing suggestions out there based on nVidia control panel and assuming ATI panel has the same abilities.
 
Anyway, on nV control panel, you can set the 2d clock speeds and 3d clock speeds separately.  Just a thought.
 
I'm pretty sure this is possible using "ATI Tool" (I did some research on google and found people changing 2d/3d speeds separately)
 
BTW, you can find more info on ATI Tool here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

You can solve the problem by building a dynamic temp / RPM table in ATI Tool 0.25 Beta 14. Click on Settings, then Fan Control, check "Override fan speeds" and select "Dynamic based on GPU temperature". Enter the following eight temperature and eight corresponding RPM values. I've found this works very well on my overclocked X1900XT, and perhaps with some minor tweaking, may serve you just as well.
 
40c - 23%
51c - 32%
54c - 45%
57c - 55%
60c - 68%
63c - 77%
66c - 91%
69c - 100%
 
When all values are entered click "Apply" and if you've set up custom profiles, then remember to click on "Save" to assign the tables to your profiles. You'll get the idea when you see it.
 
Hope this helps you out, and enjoy!

Computronix - That's exactly what I've been looking for.  I can't wait to get home and try it out.  Thank's for the input. =)

My only concern is specifically X1950 support in ATI Tool 0.25 Beta 14. I checked their website, and although they don't specify "1900 series" I'm confident that you'll be able to set up the tables for your 1950 (nice card), which is a 1900 with GDDR4 memory at 2k. It's possible that the values I gave you may work perfectly without any tweaking. Let me know how it goes.

hmm... I installed ATI Tool, but I don't see the option to change fan speed unfortunately... followed your steps but there just isn't an option to set fan settings. =(

Verify that you installed 0.25 Beta 14, and not 0.24, which is tha latest non-beta release, and doesn't support the 1900.

yeah, that's the version I installed... maybe it doesn't show the option because it doesn't support the x1950pro series yet?

I just did some research and discovered that ATITool 0.25 Beta 16 pre8 is available, and has support your 1950.
 
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak [...] Tool.shtml
 
Give it a try. I'll be interested to know if you can successfully apply the temp / RPM tables.

Still no luck, this is what I'm getting for the dropdown...  I guess it just doesn't have support for the x1950pro series yet? =/
 

Well, I don't have the Gigabyte version, but ATI Tray Tools 1.2.6.955 can adjust my 1950 Pro's fan speed.  *shrug*
 
This is not the same as ATITool.

I see, unfortunately, that there's still no fan control selection in this beta of ATI Tool for your board, so it's probably an AGP / PCIe interface support issue. Plan B may require a different software fan control alternative, but I'm not aware of any viable options. Plan C may be a hardware mod such as a FanMate which has been suggested, or Plan D may involve upgrading to a more suitable cooling solution. I wish we could pull a rabit out of our hats for you. Anyone know of another software solution that will provide AGP fan control?

@a12345 - yeah, tried installing ATI Tray Tools as per your suggestion, couldn't find an option to adjust fan speed either on first glance... I'll try to check more thoroughly again tonight.  Thanks.