super low power agp card? (for server)

[webwalker]

Here's the deal: I'm running a Shuttle XPC AMD64 2ghz system as a Sage Server + Comskip and doing hardware encoding.

The shuttle has a pretty constrained power supply, and I'd like the rig to run cool for many many years. Unfortunately in the windows world, a PC implies a Video Graphics Adapter. The Shuttle also has only two slots: PCI and AGP. The PCI is occupied with the PVR-150 hardware tuner/encoder, so my graphics card has to be AGP.

What I want to find an AGP card that is going to *sip* power. Remember: server mode, headless, never gonna look at the screen, cause there ain't no screen. Turn off the video acceleration, and make the AGP BIOS aperture as small as it will go. Then stick a 1mb AGP card in it. I'm hoping that falling back to a Permedia2 or Rage2c card will really trim down the heat.

What leaves me baffled (and I think I am more confused now that I've researched it) is the weirdo variety of AGP versions: 1.0,2.0 x1, x2, x4,x8, 3.3v 1.5v,, 0.8v.... Agh!

So if I have an 8x AGP port (not Pro) does anyone have any idea what the most efficient (NOT performant) AGP card I can run in it is? I'm looking for something that fulfills the bottom line demand of a PC that there be a graphics adapter inboard. The only way I'll be interacting with this machine is via VNC or RDP so the display quality doesn't matter only the amount of POWER it consumes.

Suggestions?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by webwalker

Here's the deal: I'm running a Shuttle XPC AMD64 2ghz system as a Sage Server + Comskip and doing hardware encoding.

The shuttle has a pretty constrained power supply, and I'd like the rig to run cool for many many years. Unfortunately in the windows world, a PC implies a Video Graphics Adapter. The Shuttle also has only two slots: PCI and AGP. The PCI is occupied with the PVR-150 hardware tuner/encoder, so my graphics card has to be AGP.

What I want to find an AGP card that is going to *sip* power. Remember: server mode, headless, never gonna look at the screen, cause there ain't no screen. Turn off the video acceleration, and make the AGP BIOS aperture as small as it will go. Then stick a 1mb AGP card in it. I'm hoping that falling back to a Permedia2 or Rage2c card will really trim down the heat.

What leaves me baffled (and I think I am more confused now that I've researched it) is the weirdo variety of AGP versions: 1.0,2.0 x1, x2, x4,x8, 3.3v 1.5v,, 0.8v.... Agh!

So if I have an 8x AGP port (not Pro) does anyone have any idea what the most efficient (NOT performant) AGP card I can run in it is? I'm looking for something that fulfills the bottom line demand of a PC that there be a graphics adapter inboard. The only way I'll be interacting with this machine is via VNC or RDP so the display quality doesn't matter only the amount of POWER it consumes.

Suggestions?

My recommendation would be a Geforce 6 series (probably 6200). I used to use that in my old server (still in my signature I think). It didn't use a lot of power, but could still do some playback if I ever needed to do some playback when I had difficulties (can't do h.264). Just my suggestion. They can be had for 30 bucks or less (haven't checked newegg recently).

[Menehune]

I have seen TNT2 cards in "basic" win2k machines and I have a Nvidia 5200LE in a stripped down WinXP machine. Both are 2D cards with little to no 3D support so they work fine for desktop only viewing.. Both are fanless. I've seen the 5200LE for under $30.

[webwalker]

I'm actually using a 6200 right now, and I find the heat output unacceptable (its fanless.) The cooling input for the Shuttle pulls the input air across the video card FIRST before it gets to any of the rest of the components. I was alarmed that, in an enclosed space, how much this raised the temps across the entire system.

So add on to that, the idea that I'm hoping to not only go fanless on the AGP card, but also go heatsink-less as well, .e.g find a card that is so limited in it power consumption that it never even shipped with a heatsink on the GPU. I remember that both my Rage2c and my Permedia2 cards had no cooling considerations built in to their design at all. I'm just baffled by the number of incompatible (and potentially damaging) incompatibilities in the AGP space.

M

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by webwalker

I'm actually using a 6200 right now, and I find the heat output unacceptable (its fanless.) The cooling input for the Shuttle pulls the input air across the video card FIRST before it gets to any of the rest of the components. I was alarmed that, in an enclosed space, how much this raised the temps across the entire system.

So add on to that, the idea that I'm hoping to not only go fanless on the AGP card, but also go heatsink-less as well, .e.g find a card that is so limited in it power consumption that it never even shipped with a heatsink on the GPU. I remember that both my Rage2c and my Permedia2 cards had no cooling considerations built in to their design at all. I'm just baffled by the number of incompatible (and potentially damaging) incompatibilities in the AGP space.

M

Unfortunately in the 4x/8x AGP world, about the "lowest" end card you can get is the FX5200. That still requires a heatsink (my last and only FX5200 even had a fan). It really is too bad that the old Rage2 (which I have or was it a Rage 1?) won't work in the 8x AGP ports. It currently is running in my file server (an old Athlon T-bird 1.1Ghz).

[webwalker]

Argh. So basically the 4x/8x is a completely different world, even though slot compatible?

And guess what type of video card I just dumped as being 'too old to be useful...'

I may have an Oxygen Vx1 floating around that should work, too. I seem to recall that it is fanless. I'm going to try to do a power test tonight to see what the power consumption difference is running with accelerated and unaccelerated.

M

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by webwalker

Argh. So basically the 4x/8x is a completely different world, even though slot compatible?

And guess what type of video card I just dumped as being 'too old to be useful...'

I may have an Oxygen Vx1 floating around that should work, too. I seem to recall that it is fanless. I'm going to try to do a power test tonight to see what the power consumption difference is running with accelerated and unaccelerated.

M

Are you sure they are slot compatible? 1x and 2x are 3.3v signalling and 4x and 8x use 1.5v signalling. The AGP slot should have a notch that doesn't allow 3.3v cards to fit in 1.5v slots. Some boards do have "universal" slots, but I am not sure how it handles using the correct signalling. Wikipedia is very hepful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGP

[webwalker]

yea, I read the wikipedia article about a week ago. My after double checking my board, the slot is spec'd for 4x/8x @ 1.5v signaling, and is not universal (it has only one key to the rear of the slot.)

This both makes the situation easier (mainstream cards seem to have settled their compatibility issues by the time 4x/8x hit the scene) and more difficult (the 4x/8x cards all had a lot more 3D whoop-ass in them, which sucks more power, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place.)

One thing I did stumble on during research was that many of the S3 Virge and Matrox cards very early in the 4x world were rapidly adapted holdovers from the previous product line, so while they use the 1.5 signaling, they have virtually NO 3D augmentation and run cool enough that the GPU doesn't even require a heatsink. (I would probably put one on, because that's the kind of engineering I am; but the point is that they are cool enough not to fry themselves without it.

Thanks for all of the input.

[webwalker]

as a handy wrap up for anyone silly enough to try to follow in my footsteps, I weedled this ancient article from anadtech out of the waybackmachine....

The Intel i845 and i850 chipsets only support AGP video cards compliant with 1.5Volt signalling. All true AGP4X cards are able to operate on 1.5Volt signalling. AGP2X and AGP1X cards support 3.3Volt signalling as well as 1.5Volts. In fact, many of these older cards operate at 3.3Volts only.

Signalling AGP1X AGP2X AGP4X
3.3 Volts Yes Yes No
1.5 Volts Yes Yes Yes

Because of the lower voltage signalling, the AGP4X slot on i845 and i850 motherboards is notched so that 3.3Volt only cards cannot be inserted. A problem arises where older AGP cards exist that have the correct notch, but do not comply with 1.5Volt signalling, asking for 3.3Volts from the motherboard instead. In such cases, the video card and the motherboard can be permanently damaged.

A number of cards have been identified that have the 1.5 Volt notch, but are actually 3.3Volt cards. These are:

- some nVidia Riva TNT2 cards
- all nVidia Vanta, Vanta LT cards
- all SiS 6326, SiS 305 cards
- all S3 Savage4 cards up to, but not including revision 3.0
- all 3dfx AGP Voodoo 3, 4, and 5 boards (officially non-AGP 4x anyway)
- some nVidia GeForce2 GTS/Pro.

These cards will short the Vddq and VCC3.3 lines and permanently damage the i82845 Memory Controller Hub, rendering your motherboard useless.