Passive HD 5xxx options in the UK

[Jordan]

Currently playing StarCraft 2 beta on my 7300GT @ 1600x1200 on lowest settings but with no slowdown. Looking for a GPU upgrade just to see a bit more detail. SC2 beta GPU comparison here.

Idle power draw is what matters most to me, don't mind turning fans up for gaiming. The PowerColor Go! Green HD5750 would be perfect but not sure it will ever see the light of day over here

Any other options?

[Spod]

YoYoTech have it for about £120 delivered, but it's out of stock.
Alternatively, there are discussions here about fanless or very quiet third party coolers for the 5000 series. Mostly quite bulky, though, which might be an issue for you.
There is, of course, the 5450, but I think you want something faster than that.
Otherwise, you could look further afield, and buy from elsewhere in the EU or US.
I'm looking for a passive 5570, and Powercolor have announced one (AX5570 1GBK3-NS3H), but it's only listed in the US so far, and Newegg don't ship internationally.
Asus also has one, the Asus EAH5570 Silent. It's not tall, so it should fit in any case with full height PCI slots, though it does of course use the adjacent PCI slot. Encouragingly, it's listed at several UK web retailers for about £70, but no-one has it in stock yet.

Failing that, the HIS Radeon 5670 IceQ is supposed to be fairly quiet. And it's in stock in the UK. For example, YoYoTech.

[Jordan]

Thanks a lot for your detailed response. The Asus 5570 looks like a very decent option.

I have seen a few Sapphire Ultimate HD 4670s on ebay and I'm wondering if for the price they go for (~£50) they'd be good value for money performance and power efficiency wise?

I am trying to get a hold of another identical monitor and I'd need 2xDVI connectors so might need to get something soon.

[dhanson865]

Thanks a lot for your detailed response. The Asus 5570 looks like a very decent option.

I have seen a few Sapphire Ultimate HD 4670s on ebay and I'm wondering if for the price they go for (~£50) they'd be good value for money performance and power efficiency wise?

I am trying to get a hold of another identical monitor and I'd need 2xDVI connectors so might need to get something soon.

I covered the 5570 vs 4670 comparison here

Don't forget a HDMI to DVI cable is often cheaper than paying the difference in price on getting a card with 2 DVI connectors on the 5xxx series cards if you don't care about the gaming performance difference.

[ces]

Don't forget a HDMI to DVI cable is often cheaper than paying the difference in price on getting a card with 2 DVI connectors on the 5xxx series cards if you don't care about the gaming performance difference.

Do you lose anything gong from HDMI to DVI?

[dhanson865]

Don't forget a HDMI to DVI cable is often cheaper than paying the difference in price on getting a card with 2 DVI connectors on the 5xxx series cards if you don't care about the gaming performance difference.

Do you lose anything gong from HDMI to DVI?

That's a two parter

1. Not in image quality. The HDMI spec is a superset of the DVI spec.

2. You lose all the audio that the HDMI port might be offering to send down the cable.

Because HDMI is electrically compatible with the signals used by Digital Visual Interface (DVI), no signal conversion is necessary, nor is there a loss of video quality when a DVI-to-HDMI adapter is used.

The big plus of using HDMI over DVI is the addition of audio on the video cable for home theater setups. On the desktop using HDMI to DVI cabling is just fine as you are either not concerned about audio or are probably handling your audio through a source other than the video card and feeding it to a device other than the LCD monitor.

The downside of HDMI for me is keeping all the spare cables around for the dozens of PCs I manage. Displayport is another issue even worse than HDMI in this respect but cost and convenience are the up or down sides not quality.

[ces]

Can I take an HDMI port, run it through an HDMI to DVI adapter and then use it to run a 1920 by 1200 lcd display?

[Jordan]

Don't forget a HDMI to DVI cable is often cheaper than paying the difference in price on getting a card with 2 DVI connectors on the 5xxx series cards if you don't care about the gaming performance difference.

Indeed. Just my current card only has DVI + VGA so it needs to go.

Can I take an HDMI port, run it through an HDMI to DVI adapter and then use it to run a 1920 by 1200 lcd display?

Yes, as long as your graphics card can handle that res normally.

[Spod]

See the post dhanson865 linked for the 5570 vs. 4670 comparison, but this is just to mention that a couple of sites list availability for the Asus passive 5570 as 21st or 27th April. Powercolor's passive 5570 and 5670 still haven't been listed in any UK web retailers AFAIK. I don't know of any other planned passive 5570 / 5670 cards at present.

[Jordan]

Right now I'm considering just getting a GT 240!

I've seen a passive version already and performance figures suggest it's better than the 5670 (in StarCraft bet at least!).

[dhanson865]

Right now I'm considering just getting a GT 240!

I've seen a passive version already and performance figures suggest it's better than the 5670 (in StarCraft bet at least!).

Even if you can't find the Go Green easily there is a non Green version of the fanless 5750 that will still beat the GT240 and is sold in the UK.

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop ... ID=1873867 seems to be the price to beat.

[Jordan]

Right now I'm considering just getting a GT 240!

I've seen a passive version already and performance figures suggest it's better than the 5670 (in StarCraft bet at least!).

Even if you can't find the Go Green easily there is a non Green version of the fanless 5750 that will still beat the GT240 and is sold in the UK.

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop ... ID=1873867 seems to be the price to beat.

Thank you! I wasn't aware of ANY fanless 5750s or 5670s in the UK. I did searches for fanless/passive/silent 5750/5670 in the UK and came up with nowt. The 5570 also looks like awful value for money compared to the 5670.

However, I'm now wondering if I'd be better off just getting a Sapphire Ultimate HD 4670 for hopefully ~£50 on ebay for how little I game... The 5750 is amazing value for most casual gamers but I'm not sure if spending ~£125 is worth it for me. I also have a pretty weak system otherwise.

[dhanson865]

The 4670 Green is available in the UK if you want a cheaper option than the 5750.

Oh, and the 5450 is fanless (though not much of a gamers card).

[Jordan]

Yeah seriously considering a 4670. Think the 5450, though an upgrade on my 7300GT, is just too weak.

Is there any warrant to that 4670's green claims?

[Spod]

For info, the Asus 5570 is now in stock at several UK retailers.
The cheapest I spotted (with free shipping) was here: Ginger6.com

[Jordan]

For info, the Asus 5570 is now in stock at several UK retailers.
The cheapest I spotted (with free shipping) was here: Ginger6.com

Thanks for the heads up

The 4670 seems to perform marginally better in most reviews (except Tom's) and I can get it about £8 cheaper. Which has the lower idle power draw seems to be debatable! Tough call...

Still hoping someone will bring a passive 5670 out in the UK! I want to purchase something soon...

[Jordan]

Ordered a Sapphire HD 4670 Ultimate in the end from ebuyer for £58 delivered. They are fetching more than this on ebay so if a passive 5670 comes along at a good price I might just upgrade at the time.

Unfortunately I can't find my power monitor to do a before and after measurement against my 7300GT

[echn111]

You could consider attaching a 3rd party cooler with a slow running fan.

I am running an ATI 5870, a much more powerful card than you're considering, with a Thermalright T-Rad² and a 700rpm 120mm fan. It is quite quiet and idle power usage is also quite good.

I'm fairly confident that my active cooling GPU competes very well with full passive systems in terms of sound. But if your hearing is so sensitive that 700rpm is too loud, then you could go with your lower powered card and run with .. say 600 rpm instead. If you can hear that through a sound proofed case well...

Edit: Oops just noticed you already bought your card.

[Jordan]

But if your hearing is so sensitive that 700rpm is too loud, then you could go with your lower powered card and run with .. say 600 rpm instead. If you can hear that through a sound proofed case well...

My HDD does annoy me. My storage requirements are pretty low so as soon as a decent performing 256GB SSD falls into my price bracket I'm on it!

I used to run a 5,400RPM 2.5" drive but it was too slow and decided the noise sacrifice going back to a 7,200RPM desktop drive was worth it.

My case actually faces side-on (my desk won't accommodate it any other way) so when that rear fan I have spins up at around 500-600RPM I hear it. I'm just very irritable