Actaeon
If it is a massive heatpipe, and if the fan is a variable speed fan that runs at 7dB when the card is in 2-D mode (and faster & louder when in 3-D mode, then you may be right.
The problem is that the FX is dumping ~70W of heat. Do you know of any completely passive Pentium 4 or Athlon coolers? The P4 and Athlon are generating about 70W as well. Even the copper Zalman flower heatsinks for these CPUs come with a 92mm fan that runs at 20 dB in "silent" mode. The entirely passive Zalman heatsinks for video cards, by definition, make no noise. However, look at what Zalman says: "For GeForce 256 DDR, RADEON DDR, and higher classes of video cards, the ZM17-CU must be used with Zalman's FB165". The FB165 is a 20dB to 34 dB fan, depending on whether you run it in "noiseless" mode or normal mode. This is why I am so skeptical.
If it is a massive heatpipe, and if the fan is a variable speed fan that runs at 7dB when the card is in 2-D mode (and faster & louder when in 3-D mode, then you may be right.
The problem is that the FX is dumping ~70W of heat. Do you know of any completely passive Pentium 4 or Athlon coolers? The P4 and Athlon are generating about 70W as well. Even the copper Zalman flower heatsinks for these CPUs come with a 92mm fan that runs at 20 dB in "silent" mode. The entirely passive Zalman heatsinks for video cards, by definition, make no noise. However, look at what Zalman says: "For GeForce 256 DDR, RADEON DDR, and higher classes of video cards, the ZM17-CU must be used with Zalman's FB165". The FB165 is a 20dB to 34 dB fan, depending on whether you run it in "noiseless" mode or normal mode. This is why I am so skeptical.
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