I have a PNY 6800 GT.

I have read that it uses the nVidia reference design, so I'd expect it to be
similar to many 6800GTs.

As for noise, the card's cooling fan ran at full speed when the PC started
up, but it dropped back and became inaudible (over the PSU and case cooling
fans) after Windows (XP) finished loading. The 6800's fan didn't noticeably
speed up when it ran flat out in a benchmark (like RTHDRIBL) for a while.

I've since replaced the stock cooler with an Artic Cooling Silencer NV5
(http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40). It reduced the peak load
temperatures by as much as 10C, but mainly I like that it removes the card's
heat from the case. (I assume that the warranty is dead, of course.) In
practical terms, the NV5 is silent. (I purchased it from
http://www.3dcool.com/Details.asp?cid=288&id=1028.) I run the card at 410
MHz core/1100 MHz memory, although it'll go above that without artifacts or
lockups.

The main complaint that I read about PNY is that their "lifetime warranty"
means for the *production* lifetime of the card. Once it's out of
production, the warranty may die. They also have been reported to use
refurbished cards to fulfill warranty repairs. (Some other vendors do that
as well, particularly after the product has been out long enough that they
have refurbs available.)

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"M. B." wrote in message
newsWqqd.3580$_E3.1713@trndny06...
I currently have a BFG 5900 FX Ultra graphics card, and it runs pretty
quitely.

I am considering UPGRADING to the --

PNY nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256 MB card

How "noisy" is it? Anyone with comments?