Passive cooling on high end cards

[RoamDog]

Are there any PCIe mid-highend (i.e. not the absolute top-of-the-line but only a generation back or so) cards that come with passive cooling? I currently have a 6600GT and the fan noise is killing me. Would like to upgrade the 6600GT to the next model up but want to try for a passive cooling setup. May even get 2 cards to take advantage of SLI.
I know that there are 3rd party kits that allow one to rip apart the current card and bolt stuff on, but I would prefer something that is passively cooled out of the box.
Does such a best exist?

 

[TheRyuu]

Probably not because of the heat output.

With the vf700 @ 5v it's near silent. So that might be a better option. (but since you might go SLI then I think the NV Silencer might be better and keep better temps if it can fit).
(maby with a vf700/900 on one card and the NV Silencer on the other?)

 

[rstrohkirch]

there's the en7800gt but it's rather expensive

 

[nitromullet]

What are your needs exactly, absolutely silent or just not annoying? If it's the latter, look for a card with a large fan as opposed to a small one. While the big fan and heatsink will look like an enormous noise monster, chances are it will operate with a low hum that is far more tolerable than a card with a small, whiney high pitched fan.

 

[Matthias99]

You can get completely passive X800XLs or GF6800s... not too much past there unless you underclocked the cards. Take a look at the Sapphire "ULTIMATE" line if you don't want to go with aftermarket cooling, as they come preinstalled with Zalman coolers (fanless heatpipes on the slower cards, quieter coolers with fans on the higher-end ones).

Sapphire also has some swanky new "BLIZZARD" cooling system (read something about this a while ago; it's liquid cooling that circulates a metal alloy solution that's supposed to cool better than water) on their high-end cards. Haven't seen any reviews.

Beyond those, yeah, generally look for big-ass dual-slot coolers. The bigger the heatsink, and the bigger the fans, the slower the fan has to turn to keep the card cool, and the less noise it will generate. Coolers that dump heat outside the case may be quieter overall than ones that circulate air internally.

 

[Zebo]

Watercooling FWIW. I've spent so much on air products only to finally make the move to be satisfied.

Those "passive" or "low flow" HS rely on you having heavy case flow in order to work properly. So in essense you'll find you're just trading one fan for another or higher RPM case fan.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I think this is what you are looking for:

Asus 7800Gt silencer

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Watercooling FWIW. I've spent so much on air products only to finally make the move to be satisfied.

Those "passive" or "low flow" HS rely on you having heavy case flow in order to work properly. So in essense you'll find you're just trading one fan for another or higher RPM case fan.

I came to the same conclusion with my last upgrade. A good watercooling setup also carries over from system to system, so it's only an expensive 1st time payment.

 

[v8envy]

Gigabyte also has a fanless X1600Pro, which costs about the same as a 'normal' X1600. I posted a link to it last year. Dang, can't find it now.

It's not a high performance card by a long shot, but for around $280 for two it may provide performance comprable to a 6800GT if you get two of them to crossfire.

Asus and Gigabyte also have passive cooled 6600s which weigh in at around $200. So once again, two of them SLI should equal the next model up -- the 6800GT.

Silent ain't cheap. BFG10k was on a silent/quiet vid card kick a little while back, search for his findings & benchmarks for higher end hardware.

 

[Zebo]

What to expect from watercooling preety much sums up "the deal".. where highend after market air products can't hold a candle to water

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Watercooling FWIW. I've spent so much on air products only to finally make the move to be satisfied.

Those "passive" or "low flow" HS rely on you having heavy case flow in order to work properly. So in essense you'll find you're just trading one fan for another or higher RPM case fan.

The OP said he doesn't want to use aftermarket cooling, but yes, watercooling is probably THE quietest cooling option, since you can use a big radiator (but you'll probably still need a fan on it for a high-end system, unless it's a VERY large external radiator). You can get a computer that's very close to silent with air cooling (get a good case/PSU, use passively cooled onboard video and underclock/volt the CPU), but it's not going to be fast by today's standards.

The idea with using a bigass passive heatsink on internal components is that then you can use bigger (hopefully 120mm), slower case fans to cool everything, rather than having noisy little fans on your GPU/northbridge/etc.

Hadn't seen the fanless 7800GT before... that's gotta dump a fair amount of heat into your case.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I think BFG10K replaced his passively cooled X800XL with the passively cooled 7800GT.

 

[v8envy]

Here we go, found it:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322313

The passively cooled X1600.

I also keep eyeing walmart 20" box fans. At low rpm they're nearly silent -- quiet enough to sleep with one of them in the room. And they move a * LOT * of air. I keep thinking about a furnace filter duct taped to one of them, with the resulting unit taped onto the side of a tower. It'll be hideous, but effective.

 

[Zebo]

(but you'll probably still need a fan on it for a high-end system
-----------------------

Sure but you can't hear two or three 120mm nexus's at 700 rpm on the 2x120 or 3x120 rad... which provide both cooling for rad and case flow at same time.. as an added bonus you get to run the hottest hardware with no worries.

 

[BFG10K]

The fastest passively cooled GPU available at the moment is the Asus 7800GT. It's also factory overclocked to 420/1240 and uses the same 1.6 ns RAM than the 7800GTX uses.

Here is my review and it includes extensive benchmarks and links to articles describing the cooling solution.

While passivley cooled cards are quiet, keep in mind that they dump a lot of heat into your case so it pays to have good ventilation, especially exhaust fans to get rid of the heat.

 

[Zebo]

Excellent review BFG. I'm sure with the cooler running 7900 series we can expect even more passivly cooled fast cards soon..

 

[BFG10K]

I'm sure with the cooler running 7900 series we can expect even more passivly cooled fast cards soon..

Yup, the 7900GT is a prime candidate for passive cooling.

 

[MrJim]

It would be great to have the 7900GT with the ASUS EN7800GT silents passive cooling solution. Isnt the 7900GT alot cooler than 7800GT?

This will probably be my next upgrade so im pretty curious, i like ATIs AVIVO functions but they are so damn hot and noisy (if you want performance). Havent seen a passive cooling solution on the latest top end ATI cards.

 

[BFG10K]

Keep in mind that while passively cooled cards can be quiet, they aren't always the silver bullet for silence.

With my 7800GT I'm finding the CPU fan tends to spin up more during gaming than it did with the X800XL, probably because the 7800GT dumps more heat into the case.

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Keep in mind that while passively cooled cards can be quiet, they aren't always the silver bullet for silence.

With my 7800GT I'm finding the CPU fan tends to spin up more during gaming than it did with the X800XL, probably because the 7800GT dumps more heat into the case.

Yes that is the problem. Right now I am researching water - as I think it can be very silent and cool - and has the added bonus of not being cheap.

 

[RoamDog]

Thanks for all the great input. With the recent release of the 7600GT, I think that I am going to wait a little bit to see if somebody comes out with a passively cooled 7600GT. After all it is supposed to run cooler anyway right? So, I am hoping that this in not just an impossible dream.