Hello,


I thought some of you would like to know that Gigabyte is also releasing a passive version of the HD4850

Model number GV-R485MC-1GH with 1GB GDDR3 and reference clocks.
Here's a pic:




Source: Matbe


EDIT: Product page at Gigabyte Taiwan. Anyone speaks Chinese?

About friggin' time! Thanks for the heads up.

Very interesting cooler... Wonder how it performs...

Is it just me, or does the card not have any heatsinks on the power circuitry area?

Added the product page on Taiwanese Gigabyte website. It's pretty low on details though.

Maybe I'll buy this one (or the Powercolor) when it's time to upgrade. Passive out of the box = FTW Even though it might get crappy temps compared to an Accelero S1.

You will need good case airflow for this heatsink to work, that's a given. It does not overhang the PCB by much, so don't count on convection to do the job.

Personally, I want it exactly because of the relatively small heatsink. Bigger solutions, like the one based on Auras Fridge, won't fit my case.

To me it looks like a triple slot solution, and not a smart one - a smart one would be something like the AC S1 with wider fins.
This cooler IMO won't be able to cool the 4850 properly, I'd stay away from it for passive operation, but with a quiet 92 mm fan it should do fine.

Thanks for the post. It looks like a decent silent cooling solution. I still have a Gigabyte 7600GT Rev. 3 SilentPipe running strong in a rig.

I can't believe all the heat/fan related posts about the 4850 I've seen at various places on the web. I thougt (hoped) AMD's next GPU iteration would be at least as power efficient as the last one. Who the heck should have to edit an XML file or flash a bios to get something to work right out of the box.

*steps off soapbox

I guess I'll be sticking with my Sapphire Tech Ultimate HD 3850 (silent) for a while longer. It does great in my Dell e521 BTX setup. I wish I could find an Ultimate HD 3870 in the U.S. somewhere.

I think that now everyone has sort of realised that for whatever reason, the 48x0 series consumes more power than early specs said it would. The stock cooler is very poor (done likely to keep the cost down and to make sure there was enough stock ready to meet demand at launch), but the card itself doesnt run that hot. I think msot people are shocked if you tell them you can run a 4850 passively when their stock cooler with high speed fan runs very hot.

It's designed to fit small cases, and take advantage of system airflow, ulike the Accelero, which is big, and works with self-generated convection.


You only won't be able to do what Accelero does: Good cooling without system fans. Add two system fans, and you'll be fine.

Good, maybe this will make PowerColor hurry up with their passive 4850.

Is it just me, or is that rather small heatsink sitting extremely close to the board...?

How the hell is any air going to pass through it?

Convection does that for the part inside the case. The part sticking out of the case uses case ariflow (it has openings for that). The design is good with negative or positive pressure, better with negative pressure. I have their 8600GTS model, which uses a similar heatsink, so I know it works.

Is there a lead time for reviews - this would certainly be a prime card to be reviewed here, to compare against the Accelero S1 ... if the difference is not that significant (it depends on how smart they were) ... certainly seems quite promising .

Hi

Can someone confirm if this is definitely a 3 slot card? Sorry, I'm quite new to the world of GPUs!

CHeers

Max

@shathal
This cooling solution will not get temperatures as low as the Accelero. I'd expect 80-ish load temps in a system at the SPCR noise level, a little lower with more case airflow. Definately don't try using this card without system fans.

(I'll know exactly how hot it runs when I buy this baby, but that won't be until the Christmas upgrade. )


It's exactly 2 slots, not 3. You can find more pictures of the fanless 9600GT (with exactly the same heatsink design), which show two slot covers at the back, one of them open with the fins sticking out.

Hmm - thanks for that info, Modo. Most kind

Guess I'll be sticking with the original plan of the S1 then (and either the 4850 or 4870 - undecided yet).

Meh - the least they could've done is put a proper passive heatsink on one would've thought... ah well .

According to this article at Madshrimps, a better cooled 4850 draws 4-5W less than a poorly cooled one:
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getart ... rticID=849
So IMO it's better to have the AC S1 and a 500 rpm fan than purely passive. The power difference is probably due to VRM efficiency.

Hmm - that makes sense about the VRM's (I was trying to figure out out how cooling can reduce draw) - should've thought of that - duh .

Guess it's deffo an S1 then ... (likely with a 4870)...

I've got that card since yesterday. I haven't tested it in 3d mode yet - no games installed so far - but gpu temps idle at 50C at Vista Aero and simple browsing, reading etc.

I have two chassis fans - front and rear - so airflow in my case is rather good.

I don't think 50W idle is that bad considering its passively cooled how much power the HD 4850 draws... I think temps would drops significantly if you put 120mm fan blowing towards the heat sink... Besides with stock active cooling temps were over 70 degree's C at the best, over 80 at the worse in idle and over 90 in load...

I'm considering this, in part because i get 'nice price' on it, and because it'll probably handle just fine in a p182 with a little ducting...

I picked up an ASUS 4850 last week and promptly installed an Accelero S1 on it after running it through the paces to make sure it wasn't a DOA card. My main concern with this card is not the core temperature at all, but rather the memory temperature. If the sensors are telling me what I think they are (and Everest and GPU-Z both give the same numbers), the memory on this board runs hot... really hot. The S1 RAM heatsinks just couldn't cut it for passive cooling (temps shot past 100C with any load), and the aftermarket heatsinks I had kicking around are slightly better, but still run very very hot (88-89C at load - 22C ambient).

I'll be picking up some of these in the next few days and installing them to see how they fare.

I'm also considering to get GV-R485MC-1GH. My main concern is if it will fit the Antec Fusion, which I believe it will but it will be very tight and get some more airflow around the PCI-slots. It should be a lot quieter than a card with active cooling. Just waiting for the card to get in stock again..

bought this one...have an antec p182....any guesses on what the temps will be at?

What about the Powercolor 4850 - it has a fan, but is said by this review:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powe ... CS/30.html
to be the quietest fan-cooled card they have ever seen.

It makes no sense to me to get a hot passively-cooled card which necessitates two system fans to make the passive cooling effective.

No, but please do tell

inti: I would consider it but as far as I can tell, the card is slightly higher than the passive card from gigabyte and thus won't fit in my case. Otherwise I agree it's a good option.

Sadly to my eye's this card looks like more favouring the aesthetics than good engineering. Few simple thoughts:

Why is the fins directed to two differend directions in right-angle? Doesn't it impede the incoming (or outgoing) airflow unnecessarily.

Fins that are attached to heatpipes are too close to each other for good convection airflow. And what happens when dust settles in?

Those heatpipes and fins could use the full length of the card!

There sould be connections to attach fan if wanted.

There should be only one larger heat sink so that hottest components can dissipate heat to larger area.

(Sorry about my English, I'm not native speeking)

-Antti from Finland

apparently the temps are kinda high. if u up the fan speed to keep the temps down on that card the sound level isn't that low anymore

If u haven´t already seen some test of this gfx, I can thell u that it runs hot. I have an AeroCool Nitron case with a 250mm fan at 5V. I ran the Furball (atitool) on the card for 30 min. and I reached 107 deg. celcius but it didn´t fail/artifact but I wrote gigabyte to make sure that the temps are within their design specs. Well the Sparkle 8800GT passive reaches 111 deg. celcius so....

i bought this gpu.....the temp was 44 degree celcius in my antec performance p182 box