New Best Discrete ATI Graphics Card (Passively Cooled & Quiet)

[Fun Guy]

Now that the new bunch of AMD/ATI cards are out, does anyone know which card(s) offer the best performance without active cooling?

I know that most of AT Forum members are performance freaks, but there is a small (and loyal) contingent of members who love our small, quiet, and discreet PCs - either for SFF builds, HTPCs, or just bragging rights - albeit in a different manner.

So, anyone have experience with the new 7xxx lineup from a quiet + cool perspective?

 

[SickBeast]

I don't know this for sure, but I have a feeling that the 7850 could run passively cooled so long as you don't overclock it. My fan doesn't even go above 30% under full load while massively overclocked.

I think the Arctic Cooling passive coolers would work. Don't quote me on it though as I don't have any direct evidence to back that up.

 

[Arzachel]

Taken from an older post I made:

Here are some decent passive options:
Powercolor scs3 HD6850, the fastest passive GPU you can get. $200
Sapphire Ultimate HD7750 $125
Sapphire Ultimate HD6670, should perform about as well as the GTS450 but costs less. $99

Although, if you could get a 7850 running fanless, that would probably be the best option.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Remember most passive cooled GFX cards relies on active cooling from CPU, case etc. Specially people that go 100% fanless etc gets hit hard by that.

 

[SickBeast]

Honestly my Twin Turbo II is so quiet that I see no need to go fanless.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

I heard that the Asus 670 TOP edition is super quiet.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Honestly my Twin Turbo II is so quiet that I see no need to go fanless.

Going fanless is pointless if the motherboard and graphic cards still make that high pitch "coil whine"

It'll only be more apparent as the rest of your devices are silent :whiste:

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Going fanless is overrated as even silent graphics cards need some sort of case airflow.

Not to mention the huge price jump that comes with buying silent graphics cards.

 

[Fun Guy]

Going fanless is pointless if the motherboard and graphic cards still make that high pitch "coil whine"

It'll only be more apparent as the rest of your devices are silent :whiste:

Going fanless is overrated as even silent graphics cards need some sort of case airflow.

Not to mention the huge price jump that comes with buying silent graphics cards.

If you aren't going to contribute positively to the thread (i.e. actually address the OP's question), then kindly take your ignorance and bitterness over to the social forums.

 

[lopri]

You may have to wait for 7600s. It's my subjective opinion, but in order to run truly fan-less:

- fully functional logics designed for less power (i.e. go for the fully functional "Redwood" instead of chopped off "Juniper") Those cards with disabled blocks will spill needless power despite the reduced specs.
- No auxiliary 6-pin power connector
- Look out for bit-rate of memory bandwidth. The lower the bit-rate, the better. And you may want to shoot for less than 50 GB/s for fan-less. This may sounds weird, but GDDR specs haven't changed TDP-wise. They just got faster. So we get to see regular DDR3 memory on some of the lower end cards, then you lose out on the performance (often by a lot) but not much gain on power.

All things considered, I would be uncomfortable running 7750 fan-less.

 

[Arzachel]

You may have to wait for 7600s. It's my subjective opinion, but in order to run truly fan-less:

- fully functional logics designed for less power (i.e. go for the fully functional "Redwood" instead of chopped off "Juniper") Those cards with disabled blocks will spill needless power despite the reduced specs.
- No auxiliary 6-pin power connector
- Look out for bit-rate of memory bandwidth. The lower the bit-rate, the better. And you may want to shoot for less than 50 GB/s for fan-less. This may sounds weird, but GDDR specs haven't changed TDP-wise. They just got faster. So we get to see regular DDR3 memory on some of the lower end cards, then you lose out on the performance (often by a lot) but not much gain on power.

All things considered, I would be uncomfortable running 7750 fan-less.

Even if the fused off transistors leak current, they still use far less idling than when under load? DDR3 shaves off 16W on the HD6570, but I agree that it's not worth the performance tradeoff. Also, wouldn't underclocking and undervolting the core yield far greater improvements than downclocking the memory?

I mean, if you don't feel comfortable running the 7750 fanless, then there isn't anything more powerful than the 5570 that you would.

 

[lopri]

I have to admit that I don't know how big of a power "leak" is on 7750. If it's nearly completely fused off then I agree that the power difference might be minimal compared to an imaginative 7750 natively designed.

Also I did not consider underclocking at all in my earlier post, which is indeed a very good point you brought. I agree again that underclocking definitely helps.

However my assumption was that OP is looking for something that will endure a very small and tight enclosure with very little airflow. (perhaps relying on zero/one intake fan and one outtake) I still maintain that under such an environment that a fan-less 7750 wouldn't last long unless it's built like a rock.

Another assumption I made (perhaps foolish) was that there will be a 7600/7500 series cards that might be performant enough while consuming vastly less power.

I guess a 7750 might indeed be OK running fan-less. Especially taken underclocking into account. I confess that I only have experience of running low-end fan-less cards which are not meant for games. (Such as the one you exampled, HD 5570 and 9500 GT)

 

[MrK6]

What exactly are you doing with the computer and what are the performance requirements? What case/setup is the card going in? For stock solutions there's not much out there and most of it is overpriced. If you want to make a custom solution you'll fare much better. The OP is relatively vague tbh.

 

[Fun Guy]

Alright, after a bit of research I have discovered that the newer generation(s) of video cards & GPUs are much quieter than their predecessors. Last time I built a machine it sounded like a vortex whenever the GPUs would start up. I guess I can get a fairly high-level card with very quiet, active cooling, yes?

FYI, this will be my main box for statistical analysis, video production and occasional gaming. I am looking at the ASUS Maximus V Gene if I go uATX, or the Sabertooth if I go ATX.

 

[lopri]

I guess I can get a fairly high-level card with very quiet, active cooling, yes?

Duh. Yes.

 

[Arzachel]

I guess a 7750 might indeed be OK running fan-less. Especially taken underclocking into account. I confess that I only have experience of running low-end fan-less cards which are not meant for games. (Such as the one you exampled, HD 5570 and 9500 GT)

I wasn't trying to sound condescending by the way, just surprised when I checked to see that the 7750 had a lower TDP than the 5670 and the 6570.