Best Passively Cooled Video Card

Clocker

Clocker

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Jan 14, 2002
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I'm slowly building up a system as I find good deals on parts at techbargains.com etc. The system is a gift for my syster-in-law and her husband.

He likes to play games so I want to get him a pretty good 3D card. Since I will be the tech support person for failures etc. I want to the everything in the system to be passively cooled (including the 3D card).

Any recommendations for a good 3D card that is passively cooled? It definitely does not have to be a top-line card but something that is pretty good....

Thanks,
C
 
Everything except the CPU will be passively cooled that is (notherboard & video).

Thanks,
C
 
The ATI Radeon 9600, while it might not be passively cooled, is supposed to be relatively quiet. I haven't tried one myself though. It's made on a thinner process than the other members of the Radeon 9x00 family so it runs cooler.

But ok, it isn't passively cooled...
 
Radeon 9000s can be passively cooled. Probably the whole 9100 and 9200s as well. They aren't super high end cards, but they're more than good enough for someone who doesn't have designs on playing Doom3.

You might have to check the various ATI OEMs to find what you're looking for. Tyan, Gigabyte, Sapphire, Powercolor et al.
 
yeah the Zalman way is the only passive cooling i know of
here's a link with info hxxp://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/zm80a-hp.htm
 
Some GF 5200's have passive cooling. The performance: You decide. Zalman could be a good idea, if You are willing to void warranty. It comes pre-installed only with some Radeon 9700/9800 cards, which tend to be overclocked, and priced to match performance.

Cheers,

Jan
 
The Sapphire 9700Pro I linked to has it's heatpipe HS installed by Sapphire themselves and comes with a full warranty. This is by far the fastest, passively cooled vid card available from any manufacturer today.
 
Jake the Dog said:
The Sapphire 9700Pro I linked to has it's heatpipe HS installed by Sapphire themselves and comes with a full warranty. This is by far the fastest, passively cooled vid card available from any manufacturer today.
Click to expand...
Roughly a month ago I installed one in a system of mine. I haven't noticed any visual hiccups after 10-12 hour sessions of intensive gaming with all the eye-candy maxed out. The retail package includes an overclocking utility, which may be overly optimistic on Sapphire's part since I would be hesitant to overclock a passively cooled GPU.

This card is rather dear in price though still. The respective heatsink can be found online for roughly $30 U.S., a relatively cheap option for Clocker if he is open to installing it himself on an adequate video card that he may having lying around.

Note: once one has rid oneself of the little screamer (i.e., 60<= mm.) fans in their systems, this basically unmasks the other noisemakers in the system (e.g., PS and case fans). A completely quiet performance system is much like the a quest for the holy grail nowadays--particularly since 'noise' is a relative matter.
 
Well...an R9700 is a little on the pricey side for this 'gift' system.

I'm looking for a part that comes with a passive sink installed from the factory and isn't over $100. I might be able to go a little higher depending on the performance of the card...

C
 
dell had msi geforce3 ti200s that were passively cooled

my girlfriend has one in her pc now, and she's been debating an upgrade. would you be interested in buying it? are you in the us?
 
Most R9000s are passive cooled and offer decent performance. I use the ZM80 heatsink (different to ZM80-A which is 30% larger) on my LeadTek GF4 Ti4200 and never had any problems with it. Runs reasonabl cool, I expect the ZM80-A would be significantly better.
 
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