[Lilug] Recommend nvidia card

[Chris Knadle]

On Monday 09 February 2009, Peter Capazzi wrote:
> Assuming full effects are on... Would battery life benefit from
> intel over nvidia? I bought a dell 1330 with nvidia (amd love it)
> but also wondered if Having Intel graphics card and a 5500 intel
> cpu instead of 7500 would give noticable increase in battery life

In videocard reviews of 3D performance, in terms of power the two main 
things I look for are "idle" power requirements and the "at load" 
power requirements.  This is another area where I like a fanless 
video card, because that alone generally means that the card needs to 
dissipate less heat than one with a fan, and less heat means less 
wasted power and greater efficiency.  It *also* means more 
reliability, because you don't have to worry about the fan freezing 
up with dust buildup for bearing failure, both of which can lead to 
heat death.

Newegg now gives the ability to search for cards that are Fanless, and 
I'm really surprised at the level of performance that's available vs 
the cost.  Take for example: GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit, Fanless... 
and only $40.

     http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121235

And buying a fanless card off the bat is also a lot better solution 
than installing an after-market silent cooler.  Depends a lot on what 
interface to the computer you need, though -- if you need AGP, the 
choices are far more limited.

   -- Chris

-- 

Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us