Passive VGA with no airflow?

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 6:56 am

Its been a long time since I posted, but I'm still running the same rig. See signature for details. Anyway, I want to make the move to a passive VGA card, but I have a concern about whether or not it is a viable solution.

The CPU is passively cooled, and in a wind tunnel with two 120s. The only air movement in the other part of the case is the fan on the VGA (which I want to remove) and the power supply. My question is, will a passive VGA work in this setup, or are they too reliant on air movement from the CPU heat sink?

I'd hate to buy a card and have it overheat because of little to no air flow.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:30 am

I think you'll struggle with a passive card with the power consumption of the 6800GT/7800GT/7900GT and obviously anything higher as they tend to idle at about 60-70C with nominal airflow and under load at about 80-90C. A passive card will definitely work - I've run a 6200 with no airflow before - but beyond that I'm not sure how powerful you could get away with.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:24 pm

You could buy a Thermalright HR-03, replace the VF-700 and test it on the 6600 (from your sig).
If your temps won't jump a lot on the 6600, you could try replacing it with a 7600 GS or even a 7600 GT.
But I doubt a 7600 GT would be acceptable for today's games. With a very low speed 92 mm fan on it you could cool a 7900 GT.

kentc · Post by **kentc** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:32 pm

a fan-modded vf900 running at 5v will not be audible. neither would a passive card with a quiet 92 or 120mm fan. some clever ducting and it would be running cool and quiet (r).

kent.

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:46 pm

davidstone28 wrote:I think you'll struggle with a passive card with the power consumption of the 6800GT/7800GT/7900GT and obviously anything higher as they tend to idle at about 60-70C with nominal airflow and under load at about 80-90C. A passive card will definitely work - I've run a 6200 with no airflow before - but beyond that I'm not sure how powerful you could get away with.

That is what I was afraid of. I guess I need to figure out a better way to get air on the card.

Right now I have the VF700 at 7volts, but it is still, by far, the loudest thing in my case. The VF900 looks interesting, but I think I will have clearance issues with my northbridge heatsink. The HR-03 is not compatible with my card.

I'm going to have to do some thinking. Thanks for the input guys!