BFG passive 9800GT

[thilanliyan]

http://www.bfgtech.com/bfge98512gthe.aspx

 

[AmberClad]

I wonder how much it'll retail for. (Ideally, less than the cost of just buying a regular card and an HR03 and installing it yourself...)

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable using it as is though, without tying a fan onto it.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
I wonder how much it'll retail for. (Ideally, less than the cost of just buying a regular card and an HR03 and installing it yourself...)

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable using it as is though, without tying a fan onto it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814143169

$159

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: AmberClad
I wonder how much it'll retail for. (Ideally, less than the cost of just buying a regular card and an HR03 and installing it yourself...)

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable using it as is though, without tying a fan onto it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814143169

$159

So $166.99 shipped.

Seems like kind of a "meh" value then. You can get a regular XFX one for $110 AR FS, and an aftermarket cooler (AC S1 R2, Scythe Musashi, or HR-03) for $20-$50. Plus, installing the cooler is half the fun...

Edit: I thought the retail HR-03 comes with ramsinks in the kit. There's nothing on the VRAM on that card . Maybe Zap can provide an explanation...

 

[Raider1284]

cooler looks WAY to small to cool it effectively without a fan.

 

[Concillian]

Well, to be fair you get the guarantee too.

You buy the XFX, then put an aftermarket cooler, you just put yourself in the area of only guaranteed by your own wallet (unless you have no morals and will swap sinks again and try to trick the MFR.)
Also, I bet you're guaranteed a 55nm chip with the passive cooler.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Concillian
Well, to be fair you get the guarantee too.

You buy the XFX, then put an aftermarket cooler, you just put yourself in the area of only guaranteed by your own wallet (unless you have no morals and will swap sinks again and try to trick the MFR.)
Also, I bet you're guaranteed a 55nm chip with the passive cooler.

The reason I gave XFX as an example is that they have a modder-friendly warranty. They require that the original heatsink be put back on when you're RMAing.

The one real advantage I can see is the peace of mind of having someone else install the cooler, if you're not confident doing it yourself.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Well it is brand new, my guess is the price will drop a bit yet. There is a passive 4850 with a small factory overclock for not a whole lot more ($179.99). I would think that because of that this 9800GT would have to drop a few bucks and probably will.

Are 9800GT's made on 55nm yet? That may explain the smaller cooler and why you can get it passive now. A somewhat crippled 9800GTX+ with lower clock speed. Probably runs a good deal cooler then the GTX+. Didn't the 9800GT's come with a pretty smallish cooler anyway?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
Edit: I thought the retail HR-03 comes with ramsinks in the kit. There's nothing on the VRAM on that card . Maybe Zap can provide an explanation...

It's built the way our graphics product manager specified. I don't think memory really needs that much cooling anyways, plus sometimes a full coverage cooler makes the RAM run hotter due to the GPU heating up the aluminum cooler than if the RAM wasn't contacting the cooler at all. Heck, I've tested a 9800 GTX+ with the cooler that we use on our 9800 GT OCX and it ran fine with no RAMsinks or anything else cooling the card.

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Are 9800GT's made on 55nm yet?

Yes, however not all on the market are 55nm. I actually don't remember on the passive card. I do know that the OC2 and OCX are definately 55nm, while the stock, OC and OC+ are not (or were not - they will likely change once 65nm stocks run out). All these are referring to BFG branded 9800 GT cards.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Looks like a winner! That is a dinky little cooler. If you can get away with passive cooling I consider it a big win. And it's nice to see decent NVidia single-slot cards still out there. Along similar lines, I swapped out an old 7800GT for a $100 EVGA 9600GT on my Athlon X2 shuttle and I couldn't be more pleased. It's SO much quieter; performance jumped significantly; and I could eventually look at using the Shuttle as an HTPC now. If this passive card had been out I would have had to take a hard look at it. In fact, I'd even consider it as a replacement for my HD 4850 just for the noise factor alone. I'm not a gamer, so performance between the two is pretty much a wash for me. I am happy with my ATI card though.