Looking for passively cooled, relatively powerful GPU

Sazar

Sazar

New member
I decided to move my entire HTPC from my Antec P182 chassis to my NMedia HTPC Chassis. Needless to say there is a lot less room. Currently I have a Q9450, 8 GB ram and a few other smaller items chilling in there but I have been unable to fit my 4870 1 GB card. It fits as the power connectors are at the end, there is no space for me to use the product at all.

I have therefore put my G.92 8800 GT card in there instead and it is plugging along nicely, but even at lower speeds, the card is putting out a lot of heat and therefore, noise.

So, I am looking to get a card that will give me similar or better performance without the noise. Looking online, I have seen several AMD and Nvidia solutions but I wasn't sure if there was something new en-route from either side that was powerful and quiet. I think the top of the line product I have seen so far is something like the 7750 range from AMD.

Suggestions please :)
 
You've already picked what would be my suggestion Sazar. I was really looking into a 7770 for my server as it's one of the most power efficient choices. The thing to really keep in mind is if you have the space, you can get a dual slot cooler and that card will be nearly silent. I have a pair of 8800GTs that are dual slot and they are very low noise. If you have the single slot cooler that tiny fan has to spin up to try to keep the card cool.

I probably wouldn't go any bigger than a 7750 if you want completely passive, because you'll still need some type of cooling to keep the case cool.

The biggest thing to note is that an 8800GT doesn't downclock at all, so the GPU is running full speed 24/7. A 7750 or 7770 will downclock significantly and draw < 10W idling at the desktop, and <5W when the display goes to sleep. I don't know the numbers off hand but you can guess the 8800GT was still using 75W just to display the desktop. Even though the might use the same amount of power playing a game, under media playback and web surfing there should be a large gap in power usage.

Here is an MSI 7770 1ghz card with dual fans. The cooler is well oversized for the card so those fans probably never spin up making it a very quiet card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127664
 
bman212121 said:
You've already picked what would be my suggestion Sazar. I was really looking into a 7770 for my server as it's one of the most power efficient choices. The thing to really keep in mind is if you have the space, you can get a dual slot cooler and that card will be nearly silent. I have a pair of 8800GTs that are dual slot and they are very low noise. If you have the single slot cooler that tiny fan has to spin up to try to keep the card cool.

I probably wouldn't go any bigger than a 7750 if you want completely passive, because you'll still need some type of cooling to keep the case cool.

The biggest thing to note is that an 8800GT doesn't downclock at all, so the GPU is running full speed 24/7. A 7750 or 7770 will downclock significantly and draw < 10W idling at the desktop, and <5W when the display goes to sleep. I don't know the numbers off hand but you can guess the 8800GT was still using 75W just to display the desktop. Even though the might use the same amount of power playing a game, under media playback and web surfing there should be a large gap in power usage.

Here is an MSI 7770 1ghz card with dual fans. The cooler is well oversized for the card so those fans probably never spin up making it a very quiet card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127664
Click to expand...

I have an 8800 GT (g92 version) right now and it seems to be on it's last legs. It is running VERY hot, even in non-intensive situations. I would prefer to stick my 4870 1GB model, but unfortunately I can't fit it into my HTPC without bumping against one of the braces :(

A different card which is dual-slot may work quite well. I guess I'll keep an eye out for a sale for a card that is 10" or less :D
 
bman212121 said:
Is this cheap enough for your Sazar?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=1#scrollFullInfo

$90 after MIR for a gigabyte 1ghz HD7770. Only thing that I notice from the reviews is to make sure yours has the latest BIOS on it as they fixed a couple of issues. You can download a tool from their site to flash the card if it isn't up to date.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I think I am going to wait a bit and then just build a new system from scratch and use my current config as the HTPC. The 580 runs relatively quiet most of the time :D
 
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