SPCR

I'm always on the lookout for new graphics cards with stock passive cooling options, especially in the single slot configuration. Not because i cant take another card and put an aftermarket fanless cooling option on it, but because when a manufacturer is comfortable enough to employ a stock passive solution, i know that power dissapation wont be astronomical.

The fastest stock fanless video option i see is the XFX 7950gt, which can be had for a mere $220 now at newegg.

Has anyone seen a geforce 8 flavor card with a stock fanless option on it?

Can you send a link, I couldnt find it.


Andy

Won't be long with the 8600 series being released soon. For the 8800 series, the Thermalright HR-03 Plus offers passive cooling if you have really good airflow....but it's anything but a single slot solution (more like three slot).

I haven't seen one that comes pre-installed, and I think that task would be incredibly difficult. Thermalright has made a HR-03 PLUS to fit 8800GTX's, but I don't think running it passively is recommended. (But still possible though ) And just a note, It is possible to run a X1950XT passively with a HR-03, and performance is comparable to the 7950GT.

angelkiller wrote:It is possible to run a X1950XT passively with a HR-03, and performance is comparable to the 7950GT.

That would mean HR-03 can dissipate app. 120W of heat (roughly speaking). Which in turn would mean it would handle 8800GTS and anything below that.

And what do you exactly mean by comparable performance? The temps of the heatsink or the FPS of the card? I guess it's the cooling performance, but I'm not sure.

IMO running the HR-03 fanless on a card that produces +100W of heat would only be possible with a v v v good airflow in the case. Such airflow could be provided courtesy of several fast spinning & noisy fans. So I guess I'd personally prefer a 92 mm fan on bungee under the HR-03, and I would like to be able to switch off the fan in idle or just keep it at its lowest RPM and crank it up for gaming. One also has to remember that 8800xxx cards idle with bigger watts than other cards, even the likes of XTX.

kater wrote:That would mean HR-03 can dissipate app. 120W of heat

I don't think the X1950XT produces that much heat. An hevily OC'ed CPU might use that much power. I think the x1950XT is more around 75 or less. Under load, a 7900GS uses ~50W. (for reference)
In this thread, st_o_p (sixth post down) runs his XT passively with a HR-03.

When speaking of watts and heat I was taking data from this test by Xbit Labs. No X1950XT but there's X1900XT and XTX there and I assumed X1950XT falls somewhere between these. Ok, maybe 120 is a little high, but even if you consider some power is lost in the card's other components like VRM, memory etc. I'd guess you still have to deal with +100 watts. Lots of heat even for a Ninja or Ultra 120. Naturally, working temps for GPU's are considerably higher, but still we're talking heatsinks of different sizes and we're talking passive cooling.
Wait a minute - I just found this thread where a staggering +150W is mentiond - linky. Unfortunately, when I try to open the original VR-Zone test it won't display correctly. Anyhow. Hard to say what's correct number here, but it's a lot of heat IMO :/

I will admit that the 1950xt is a hot card. But I find anything over 100W to be unbleviable. Maybe it's because I'm stubborn. The most a PCI-E slot and an external power connector can supply (together) is 150W. From what I can see, the 7950GX2 only has ONE power connector. So two 7900GTX's together should not draw more than 150W? If I messed up any info please tell me. If I do happen to be right, how can a single R80 (I think) core, which is more efficient than the x1900 series, use as much power as a two GTX's? Again, if I messed up on my facts, tell me. But what about the guy in the other thread? He said he had one running passive?

Further GeForce 8600-Series Details

Cooling a 8800 fanless will be very hard.

The 8600 series have more "down to earth" specs:

8600GTS:

GeForce 8600GTS-based cards still require external PCIe power. NVIDIA estimates total board power consumption at around 71-watts.

8600GT:

NVIDIA rates the maximum board power consumption at 43-watts – 28-watts less than the 8600GTS.

8500GT:
No heat dissipation listed. Performance will be "like the 7600GS" which is passively cooled by some manufacturers.

Link to post and pic of 8500 passively cooled: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=8126

i refuse to buy any video card that ever has a thermal output greater than 100watts. just out of principle.

Personally i prefer to get cards that ouput around 50watts or less.

at only 43watts, the 8600gt could easily be cooled by a similar single slot passive cooling solution like the current 7600gs cards. hopefully some manufacturers do this. I think this is the card to keep my eye on as my next upgrade.

The GeForce 7950 GT shoud have max power consumption at about 60W.
I suppose you need good airflow for 'passive' card.

I have my hopes on 8600GT for a passive solution (similar power consumption as GeForce 7900 GS).

I have a 8800GTX and its pretty damn quiet...

The included slot fan is pretty good.

avi_dan wrote:I have a 8800GTX and its pretty damn quiet...

The included slot fan is pretty good.

what version did you buy?

avi_dan wrote:I have a 8800GTX and its pretty damn quiet...

The included slot fan is pretty good.

At what speed are you running your stock case fans?

andyb wrote:Can you send a link, I couldnt find it.

Andy

There you go mate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150220

Mines pretty damn loud. Loudest thing in case.

Gainward 8800 GTX.

avi_dan wrote:I have a 8800GTX and its pretty damn quiet...

The included slot fan is pretty good.

yeah um. hows that?

Passive GPU cooling is overrated for silence. It just means you need fans (that will make noise) elsewhere to pick up the slack rather than the one on the videocard.

And for any reasonably powered 8 series card, the fans to generate that airflow will not be silent. Might get away with the underpowered cards coming targeted at the budget customer, but many silence enthusiasts would not want to compromise on either power or silence.

echn111 wrote:Passive GPU cooling is overrated for silence. It just means you need fans (that will make noise) elsewhere to pick up the slack rather than the one on the videocard.

Yes but case fans are generally MUCH quieter than GPU fans.

Well it looks like there is some good "quiet" potential there. Definitely time to take a wait and see attitude - at least for me.

Unless DX10 is absolutely necessary and you've got to live at the cutting edge (remember, the heroes always had arrows in their backs), justifying being the first out of the gate to purchase computer hardware - especially when it comes to video cards - can be a frustrating experience.

echn111 wrote:Passive GPU cooling is overrated for silence. It just means you need fans (that will make noise) elsewhere to pick up the slack rather than the one on the videocard.

No, not true. It's only one part of a true quiet PC, but you must take care of other componentst too. You must have all components with low power consumption, HDDs in enclosures ...

8800 series will not be silent not even quiet, it can't be - with the power consumption above 100W.

So even if you mount HR-03 on it you still have much heat in the case.
Let's wait for 8600 series.

I understand that April 17th is the launch date for the 8400 and 8600 series. Can anyone confirm this?

lechuck wrote:

echn111 wrote:Passive GPU cooling is overrated for silence. It just means you need fans (that will make noise) elsewhere to pick up the slack rather than the one on the videocard.

No, not true. It's only one part of a true quiet PC, but you must take care of other componentst too. You must have all components with low power consumption, HDDs in enclosures ....

That theory has flaws. I have a few high powered components and both my GPU and CPU are slightly overclocked. But I am confident that my system is more quiet than most. And it will remain quiet when I upgrade to a full 8800GTX SLI set-up. I want my system as close to silent as possible, but also reasonably fast.

crispyfish wrote:

echn111 wrote:Passive GPU cooling is overrated for silence. It just means you need fans (that will make noise) elsewhere to pick up the slack rather than the one on the videocard.

Yes but case fans are generally MUCH quieter than GPU fans.

Agreed under some circumstances. A passive solution with undervolted case fans will be quiet. The problem with this is that this solution is that it works for low power cards especially those targeted at the budget market.

Medium and high powered cards will need more airflow. And that means noise. Certainly the "bleeding edge" hardware targeted at enthusiasts (of all kinds) will need case cooling that will generate noise if you're trying to use passive cooling.

I bet $20 Gigabyte will come out with a 8600GT with passive cooling. They did with the 6600Gt, and 7600GT. Just seems like the next step. That's what I'm waiting for. Otherwise, the Arctic Cooling devices ($30) are so quiet, one is not able to tell the difference between that and passive. I've used both and while inside the case, you can't tell.