Thanks to Steve Hayashi (sthayashi), this is finally coming to pass. I will let him speak for himself.... his email to me:

And my email back to him, along with his reply:


Steve's reply...


A CALL to VGA OBSESSIVES: (you know who you are )
If you would like to help out by making a brief summary of each ATI / nVidia / Matrox / other card type to go into this next reference Recommended Article, please either contact me or go ahead and post directly here. Thanks!

Matrox:

G400 is passive (I'm pretty sure, anyway).
G400MAX is active.
G450 is passive.
G550 is passive.
P650 is passive.
P750 is active.
Parhelia is active.

For the P series cards, it is possible to buy separately the bits to turn the passive P650 into a triplehead card (effectively a P750). This the most "powerful" passive option from Matrox.

I included the G400 (non-max) above because although it's no longer available first-hand (check ebay though), it has the best quality TV-out with minimal CPU impact. So makes for a good HTPC card

Also check http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/comp ... rhelia.cfm for a nice comparison.

Ahh... Finally, something I can verify. The G400 IS passive. The TV-Out quality is very nice, though I've never tested exclusive TV-Out capabilities.

ati 9000 np is passive cooled

MSI FX 5200 is passively cooled.

(admittedly a little on the low end tho...)

Asus V9520 Magic/T (FX5200)
Asus V9400 GE/TD and V9400 Magic/T (MX4000)
Asus V9180 Magic/T and V9180SE/T (MX440)

Abit Siluro GF4 MX420
Abit Siluro GF4 MX-8X
Abit Siluro GF4 MX-8X / MX-8X LP

ATI Radeon 7000LE
ATI Radeon 9600SE

Gainward Geforce4 PRO/620 TV-DVI Geforce4 MX 4000
Gainward PRO 660 Geforce FX 5200

Gigacube Radeon 9200SE

MSI Geforce4 MX440-T8X
MSI MX400-T64 Geforce MX4000
?MSI Geforce FX5200 TD128 (seems not to be)

PNY Quadro4 550 XGL

Sapphire Radeon 9550

Soltek ATI Radeon 9200SE

Edit:

Inno3D Tornado GeForceFX 5200 ( this one has a nice huge heatsink - http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... de-42.html )

At least two different MSI fx5200's (VTD128 & TDR128 ) aren't passive, but the MSI FX5600-VTDR128 has a very efficient looking HSF which THG says is very quiet

There's one piece of information that might be useful in this compilation of passive cards. And that's how many I/O slots they take up in the back panel. Although IIRC, the Sapphire Ultimates are the only passive video cards that take up more than one space. Can anyone confirm or deny this assertion?

I've got a Sapphire 9600XT Ultimate, and it only takes up the AGP slot, with that glorious heatpipe solution for a totally fanless product. AFAIK, it is currently the most powerful completely-passively-cooled graphics card out there IIRC the 9800XT Ultimate has to have a Zalman fan to cool it down, heatpipe and all.

You know, I only looked at the 9800 Pro Ultimate and thought it was the same as the 9600Pro/XT Ultimates, since it was a Zalman Heatpipe. And up until now, I thought that the Zalman ZM80 series required 2 expansion areas, not one.

Oops.

Has anybody seen anything on this card?

Gigabyte GV-N68128DH

http://www.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_GV-N68128DH.htm

This card is listed on NewEgg (out of stock, though) and appears to be a passively cooled, 128Mb GeForce FX6800. Seems like this would be a very powerful card for a silent system! I can't find any reviews on the net, though.

It's a GeForce 6800; there's no such thing as a GeForceFX 6800; there are GeForceFX cards, but this is not one of them.

Good eyes, peoples... It does appear to be passive and may very well be THE card to get in terms of stock-passively cooled performance.

Any idea whether that HS requires an additional PCI slot?

Well, GeForce 6800 NonFX NonGT NonUltra then, my point is does anyone know anything about the card other than the fact that I mis-typed its name?

I couldn't tell for certain from the photo on Gigabyte's webpage, but the heatsink did not look overly large to me (ie, did not look like it would eat a PCI slot).

This thread's a god-send, I've spent ages searching for pictures of cards in my price range before thinking to look here.

I can add Sapphire's Radeon 9250 to the ATI list, images of the Sapphire cards are here. The Asus A9250, Elsa Falcox 925L, HIS Excaliber 9250 VIVO and PowerColor 9250 are also passive (reviewed here.

And Sparkle's GeForce MX4000 is passive.

It's definitely passively cooled (confirmed on the Gigabyte website).

It's also a 12 pipeline card.

Yah, not as powerful as a 6800GT or Ultra, but silent. I have been hoping to find a review that tells if Gigabyte had to underclock it or anything to allow it to run with only passive cooling.

Credits/Copyright: Based on information from the following thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=14366, other threads at SPCR, and other locations on the internet. (May not be redistributed under the GPLD.)

Organization:
The list is sorted by brands and models. Under each model is a list of companies who sell that model. All items are for passive heatsinks, unless the word "(fan)" or "(water)" are beside the manufacturer's name. In the case of "(fan)", the particular card has a low noise fan. "(Water)" refers to a card that comes with a water block.
Model names:
In some cases, only certain models have the special heatsink or fan, and thus, the exact model name is given.
Caution: Not all brands mentioned are good brands (in terms of quality), nor can many of the models be considered a good purchase compared to some of the others.
For some recommendations see the folowing URL: <Tomshardware forum post> It recommends a number of cards based on price/performance in 3D. In addition, it contains a list of recommended manufacturers. There is also another thread here, that recommends cards as well.
Guides
Fastest 3D card? and/or Best price/performance ratio for 3D?
[*] Consult various video card reviews online: (http://anandtech.com/, http://xbitlabs.com/, http://hardocp.com/, http://guru3d.com/, http://techreport.com, http://hothardware.com/) {source for last two sites}
[*] Take a look at the recommendations listed in the two tomshardware forum posts here and here.
PCI, AGP, or PCI-Express?
[*]Use Pricegrabber to find some cards first, then see which ones are on the list below.
[*]You could also try a newegg search for the info, and then see which ones are on the list below.
Dual DVI?
[*]You could try a newegg search for the info, and then see which ones are on the list below.
[*]A Pricegrabber search may help, but it will not let you search for dual DVI.


ATI

AIW VE
ATI

AIW 9200
ATI

AIW 9600
ATI
HIS

AIW 9800 Pro
Sapphire - "Sapphire All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro Ultimate"

--------------------

Radeon 7000 VE
ATI
Dell? unconfirmed
Sapphire

Radeon 7000
Asus
Celestica
ECS
Diamond
Sapphire
Transcend
Gigabyte
Hightech HIS
Info-Tek Gecube
Powercolor

Radeon 7500 LE
Sapphire

Radeon 7500
Gigabyte

Radeon 9000
Gigabyte
Powercolor

Radeon 9200 LE
Jetway
Rosewill

Radeon 9200 SE
ATI
Abit
Apollo - {64MB} (...more-to-name...)
Apollo - {128MB} (...more-to-name...)
Asus
Celestica
Connect3D
Diamond
ECS
Gigacube
Hightech HIS
Info-Tek Gecube
Jetway
MSI
Powercolor
Rosewill
Sapphire
Transcend

Radeon 9200
ATI
Celestica
Connect3D
Diamond
Gigabyte - (models: GV-R92128D and GV-R92128TE only; = 128 and 64bit memory bus)
Transcend
Hightech HIS
Sapphire
Powercolor

Radeon 9200 Pro
ATI

Radeon 9250
Asus - "Asus A9250"
Elsa - "Elsa Falcox 925L"
HIS - "HIS Excaliber 9250 VIVO 128bits 256M"
PowerColor
Sapphire

Radeon 9550 SE
Connect3D
MSI


Radeon 9550
Abit
Connect3D
Gigabyte
Gecube[AGP] - {128MB} (GC-HP9550GU-C3)
Jetway
Rosewill - {128MB} (RW9550-128D)
Rosewill - {256MB} (RW9550-256D)
Sapphire
Soltek (models: SL-9550-PD & SL-9550-XD)

Radeon 9600 LE
Rosewill


Radeon 9600 SE
Apollo - {128MB} (...more-to-name...)
ATI
Celestica
Connect3D
Diamond
ECS
Hightech HIS
Info-Tek Gecube
Jetway
Powercolor
Rosewill
Sapphire
Transcend

Radeon 9600
ATI
Connect3D
Rosewill
Sapphire

Radeon 9600 Pro
Sapphire - "Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Ultimate"[/b]

Radeon 9600 XT
Sapphire - "Sapphire Radeon 9600XT Ultimate"[/b]

Radeon 9700 Pro
Sapphire - "Sapphire Radeon 9700 Pro Ultimate"[/b]

Radeon 9800 Pro
Sapphire - "Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Ultimate"
HIS (fan) - "Excalibur R9800Pro IceQ"

Radeon X300SE
Asus [PCI-E] - "EAX300SE/TD/128M" (source)
Asus [PCI-E] - "EAX300SE-X/TD/128" (source)
Gigabyte
MSI [PCI-E] - "RX300SE-TD128E" (source)
Sapphire
Sapphire [PCI-E] - "100110" (source)
Sapphire [PCI-E] - "100586DVIL-GN-B (source)
Sapphire [PCI-E] - "586L" (source)

Radeon X300
Gigabyte
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - {128MB} "GV-RX30128D" (source)
MSI [PCI-E] - {256MB} "RX300-TD256E" (source)
Sapphire

Radeon X550
Gecube[?]

Radeon X600 XT
Gecube[PCI-E] - {128MB} (GC-HP600XTG-C3)

Radeon X700
Gecube[PCI-E] - {512MB} "GC-HP700(PRO)G-E3"
Gigabyte - {128MB} - "GV-RX70128D"

Radeon X700 Pro
- - - - reference card: fan whines "under . . . load," but is "pretty quiet" otherwise (source)
GeCube [PCI-E] - {128MB} "GC-HP700PROG-C3" (source)
GIGABYTE [PCI-E] - {256MB} "GV-RX70P256V-SP" (source)

Radeon X700 XT
Powercolor - "SCS X700XT" (may have dual DVI?)

Radeon X800 XL
Gecube[PCI-E] - {256&512MB} "GC-HP800XL-D3 & GC-HP800XLD-VIE3"
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - "GV-RX80L256V"

Radeon X800
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - "GV-RX80256D"

Radeon X800 Pro

Matrox
Notes: "LP" appears to stand for "Low form factor" (source)

G200? unconfirmed

Millennium G550 [PCI-E]
Millennium G550 [AGP]

Millennium G550 LP [PCI-E]
Millennium G550 LP [PCI]

Millennium G450 [AGP]
Millennium G450 [PCI]

Millennium G450 LP [AGP]

Millennium P650 [AGP]
Millennium P650 LP [PCI]

G400


Nvidia
Geforce 2 MX200
BFG [PCI]

Geforce 2 MX400
Apollo [AGP] - {64MB} (...more-to-name...)
BFG [PCI]

Geforce 4 MX420
Abit - "Abit Siluro GF4 MX420"
BFG [PCI]

Geforce 4 MX440-SE
BFG [PCI]
BFG [AGP]

Geforce MX440
Abit - "Abit Siluro GF4 MX-8X"
Abit - "Abit Siluro GF4 MX-8X LP"
Asus - "Asus V9180 Magic/T and V9180SE/T"
MSI - "MSI Geforce4 MX440-T8X"
Evga [AGP] - {64MB} Comes with remote, video capture, & connection box.

Gerforce MX4000
Apollo - {64MB} (...more-to-name...)
Asus - "Asus V9400 GE/TD and V9400 Magic/T"
BFG - {128MB}
BFG - {64MB}
Evga [AGP] - {64-128MB} 2 Models
Evga [PCI-E] - {64-128MB} 2 Models
Gainward - "Gainward Geforce4 PRO/620 TV-DVI Geforce4 MX 4000"
Leadtek
MSI - "MSI MX400-T64 Geforce MX4000"
Sparkle

Geforce FX 5200
Apollo - {128MB} (...more-to-name...)
Asus - "Asus V9520 Magic/T"
Evga [AGP] - {128-256MB} 4 different AGP Models. Warning! The 256MB model may have a fan as noted here. Also, Evga's website shows the image for the wrong model.
Gainward - "Gainward PRO 660 Geforce FX 5200"
Inno3D - "Inno3D Tornado GeForceFX 5200"
MSI - "MSI Geforce FX5200 TD128" (only model: MS-8911; see here.)
Rosewill - {128MB/64bit} (RW5200-128)

Geforce PCX 5300
Leadtek - (WinFast PX340 TD)

Geforce 6200 TC
AOpen [PCI-E] - {16MB/32bit} (source)
AOpen [PCI-E] - {64MB/64bit} (source)
Apollo [PCI-E] - {16MB/32bit} (source)
Asus [PCI-E] - {64MB/128bit} "EN6200TC256/TD/64M" (source)
eVGA [PCI-E] - {16MB/32bit} "016-TC-1N01-SX" (source)
eVGA [PCI-E] - {64MB} "064-TC-2N22-SX" (source)
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - {16MB/32bit} "GV-NX62TC128D" (source)
Leadtek [PCI-E] - {16MB/32bit} "PX6200 TC-16" (source)
Leadtek [PCI-E] - {64MB/64bit} "PX6200 TC -64" (source)
MSI [PCI-E] - {16MB/32bit} "NX62000TC-TD64E" (source)
MSI [PCI-E] - {128MB/32bit} "NX6200TC-TD32E" (source)
XFX [PCI-E] - {64MB} (source)

Geforce 6600 LE
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - "GV-NX66L128DP"

Geforce 6600
Gigabyte [AGP] - "GV-N66256DP"
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - {DDR} "GV-NX66256DP"
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - {DDRII} "GV-NX66256DP2"
Gigabyte [PCI-E][BTX] - "GV-NX66128DP-SI"
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - {128MB} "GV-NX66128DP" (source)
XFX [PCI-E] - {256MB} "PVT43PUD" (source)


Geforce 6600 GT
- - - - reference card: fan "audible" "at full speed," but not Very annoying (source)
Gigabyte [AGP] - "GV-N66T128VP"
Gigabyte [PCI-E] - "GV-NX66T128VP"

Geforce 6800
Gigabyte - "GV-N68128DH" [Note: if you get this card, make sure to flash the video card's BIOS with an updated verison or else it will run slower than it should! See here, here, and here for an explanation and step by step instructions.]

Geforce 6800 Ultra (+25Mhz "core") {source}
BFG (water) - "Geforce 6800 Ultra OC GPU with Water Block"

Geforce 7800 GT (overclocked)
BFG (water) - {+70Mhz core; +50Mhz memory}[link]

Geforce 7800 GTX (overclocked)
BFG (water) - {+60Mhz core; +100Mhz memory}[link]

--------------------

Quadro4 550 XGL
PNY

Quadro FX330
PNY [PCI-E] - {64MB} "VCQFX330-PCIE-PB" (source)



Unknown/Unconfirmed/Potential:
Geforce FX 5600
MSI (fan) - "MSI FX5600-VTDR128" (source: tomshardware.com; however, the following site says quieter, but not necessarily quiet: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1440)

Thanks Kevin Ar18, that's an awesome list you've put together.

Nice work, Kevin.

I'd like your OK to convert this to a Recommended VGA article on the main site (w/your byline). Perhaps you'd like to help keep it up to date? About the only thing that would be worth adding is a comment on special / unusual features, plus general use recommendation -- 4 main categories I would consider: games, biz apps, 2D graphics, video editing. Applicability could be just a check in a column box.

Also, what is the significance of the BOLD text products?

Thank you, Kevin. Sorry I got lazy with the original promise of getting other information out, but clearly, what you've posted is above and beyond what I could have done.

I think it would be good to have the information so people can find it. What about a link to a thread on the forum?

Additions:
What features do you have in mind? You mentioned special features, what specific examples do you have in mind?
Someone else in the forum suggested to include whether it takes up the PCI slot next to it.

4 main categories:
Games - 3D (the bold items kind of reflect that, as well as the external link to tomshardware)
2D graphics - I've thought of that, but with a lack of information I can't really give a good recommendation. I can say that a Geforce level or higher is recommended due to some feature(s) that are accelerated in 2D, but are not available on pre-Geforce cards like the TNT (or so I assume). Also, Matrox has a good reputation for 2D quality, however, I cannot comment on ATI's or Matrox's hardware acceleration in the 2D area mentioned above.
biz apps - Are you referring to CAD perhaps? I'm not sure if there's any special features that might be needed there. Would the 2D category cover this?
Video Editing - I'm not familiar with this at all. The AIW cards (for watching TV) are lumped together, but there's nothing in regards to Nvidia's TV capable cards.

Bold items were a combination of two things:
1) Items that I was interested in now or at some point (so it is partially personal).
2) Items that are towards the higher end of the spectrum in terms of 3d performance. They are the some of cards that you would want to consider if you were purchasing a reasonably fast 3D card today. The reason for putting them in bold it to help distinguish them from the many, many other 3d cards that are fairly old (and thus wouldn't be of interest to people looking for special cooling for a new 3D card for their computer).

Some features worthy of note on certain cards:

Dual DVI connections

Takes up two slots

Requires additional power connections

TV tuners (are there passively cooled combo cards with TV tuners? They'd be great for HTPCs)

Lifetime warranties (I know at least one manufacturer who does this, BFGTechnologies) and 24/7 free support--okay, don't go overboard with things like this, but I think it happens to be important in the case of BFG

etc. etc.

I think you get an idea, no?

-Ed

PS Let me not forget to thank you for the hard work you've put into this already!

Apparently, there are two flavors of Gigabyte 9200 that is NOT passive:
The R92128DH and the R92128VH.
This is a little strange to me why they have several different designs for the same chipset, but it should be noted.

Thank you,
I added the info.

-----------------------
On another note...
As for expanding the list to include more stuff, it can be done, but it would require a lot of work. Most of it could be handled by volunteers willing to look up the specifications for the hardware and then record it. (For examle assign the task for checking on such and such companies to one person, and several other companies to another individual, etc...) If you wanted to do something like this, then I think you could keep the info up to date pretty well.
I also have an even better idea for a site that I was interested in making, but I don't want to promote it here (in case that would not be appropriate). Besides, I couldn't make it right now anyways, and I don't know if I ever will make it (or even be able to make it).

I'd volunteer, but I'm worried that I'll just get lazy again. Still if it's simple or routine enough, I could do something. What have you got in mind?

These lists are great, but... Perhaps someone with enough knowledge can create from them a leaderboard with the one to three recommended cards for each price range.

Useful price ranges are probably
< $100
$100-200
$200-300
> $300
(but that's just a guess).

To be honest, that's not a terribly good thing to do. Prices can change a lot depending on location, retailer, availability and even brand. Heck, I'm reluctant to even support performance catagorization outside a chipset line (i.e. Ranking a 9800 Pro to a 6600 or whatever).

I would only suggest adding visually confirmable information. That way we aren't biased towards any brand.

Hmm... Somewhere along the way, Rosewill started making passively cooled videocards.
RW9550-128D
RW9550-256D
RW9600-128VD
RW9600-128D
RW9600-256D
RW5200-128
NOTE: The RW5200-128D and 256D are NOT passively cooled.

EDIT:
Also noticed that Leadtek also makes some passively cooled cards.
The MX4000 series appear to be passive, and their A340T appears to be passive (not A340TD, TDH or cinema). Also their PX340TD seems passively cooled.

In addition, it seems that Apollo has a few passive nVidia offerings, even though their own website doesn't mention it. This makes tracking model numbers much more difficult. SOME of their FX5200s are passive. I think their MX4000 offerings are passive

This is a great resource for video cards. Nice job!

I thought I'd post a comment here. At the end of the VGA list posted at Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:51 pm there is the following entry:

"Geforce 6800 GT
Gigabyte - "GV-N68T256DH" (possible small fan? See here.)"

I just built my first system last week and used this card. While it has a small fan (it's actually a blue LED fan - pretty spiffy ) it's not quiet at all. This is easily the loudest component in my system. When the system is booted all other components are reasonably quiet until this card kicks in. It sounds like a jet engine revving up. I would not recommend this card to anyone who is planning to build a silent PC.

I actually visited this site today because I'm hoping someone can recommend a mod for it or maybe some other solution to quiet things down a bit. As I said, I'm happy with the low noise output of all other components in the system. The video card is the only one I have a problem with due to noise.

Keep up the good work!!