Anandtech roundup
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2825

XFX GeForce 7950 GT 512MB DDR3 HDCP (PCIe)
It's near the bottom of the list. The 7950 series are due Sep. 15th, but this one might arrive even later(?).

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/listConfigurations.jspa?seriesId=185563

It has a nice big heatsink that is a little taller than the card itself, so it might not fill all cases.

http://www.xfxforce.com/media/product_configuration_large_icon/4d56cbb00d8c2cc2010d8e74837d000e/card-4.jpg

It's the fastest passively cooled card I have seen so far, full specs below.

http://www.xfxforce.com/media/seriesSpecSheet/4d56cbb00d8c2cc2010d902808500018/7950GT_US.pdf

dual VGA/DVI, passive, low profile, cheap: For AGP, you want Dell G0170 which is built around an FX5200. For PCI-E, you want EVGA 064-TC-2N24-SX which is built around 6200. The former is available only through eBay, the latter can be found by Googling for it. You can also find NVS Quadro 280/285 which are built around Geforce4MX category chips and are incapable of any serious resolution. I use a G0170 to drive two 1680x1050 LCD monitors.

These all use a DMS-59 connector and you need a splitter to either dual VGA or dual DVI.

A new card to consider, priced just under 100.

HIS Hightech H160PRH256N-R Radeon X1600PRO 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Silence CrossFire Ready Video Card

Probably now, we can forget lists, and just read the latest reviews to see what a reasonable prices for various levels of performance, and then require passive cooling. Without carefully checking, I bet this card is just similar in performance to any x1600pro 256MB.

good info. Thanks, david.

is it just me, or is the MSI NX7600GS really interesting for a quiet non-gaming rig?

Things about this card that jumped out in this review:
* 512MB at stock speed (the Asus card also has 512MB, but at reduced speed)
* dual DVI
* reasonable price (€144 in a local shop)
* reasonable performance (hey, it's a 7600GS chip, don't expect too much )
* power idle: 4th place out of 20 cards, only 3 watts more than the lowest in the review
* power stressed: average - on par with the other 7600GS cards, except for the Asus card with the reduced memory speed
* heat idle: 4th place
* heat load: 5th place

The eVGA card performs better on heat, but lacks dual DVI and only has 256MB.
As I will be upgrading with Vista in mind and will be using a pair of 19" flatscreens, I'm afraid the eVGA will come short.

Yeah, I've been zeroing in and it's going to be a 7600GS, and your post is good info. Thanks again.

Ah, I see one more to consider. I didn't realize the GT was available silent:

GIGABYTE GV-NX76T256D-RH GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Silent Pipe II

I met this announcement on Sparkle web site:

http://www.sparkle.com.tw/News/news_76GT-HDMI/news_7600GT_HDMI_EN2.html

Seems to be interesting...
Any ideas about price and availability?

I have already order Asus 7600gt HDMI/HDCP card - I will substitute its cooling system with HR-03 Rev.A (ordered from Heatsinkfactory).

I am building "0-noise" computer:
M2NPV-VM, Athlon x2 3800+ (65w) cooled passively with Scythe Ninja, 230w Delta power brick and 200w DC-DC PSU from Mini-Box.

Scorpio WD 2.5'' HDD will be "soon" replaced by an SDD - from RiDATA
- ? $170.00 for 16GB
see below
[/url]http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5645

Sincerely
Kris Sobieraj

Another new passive ATI card, this one an X1650XT:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814161054

I don't have any experience with HIS as a company; anyone know if they are good quality? I'm not sure but this may be the 'most powerful' passive ATI card that is readily available, at least that I've seen.

The XFX GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty is passively cooled, and its already overclocked to 650MHz (from 550 stock I believe).

Here is a link to a canadian retailer who sells it:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?s ... acture=XFX

I have the Gigabyte card and very pleased with it, currently running idle at 44C. I have to admit not being a hardcore gamer, only playing baseball and chess which are not very demanding

For those of you who want to downgrade an older AGP gaming rig to use for non-GPU intensive work, look for surplus IBM Riva TNT cards. I just got an 8MB (!) one locally at PCLiquidator for $10 bucks. No special drivers required for Win2K or Ubuntu Linux 6.1. Saved me ~15 watts idle p/c over a GF2 GTS card.
Many h/w sites complained years ago that unless you are building a gaming rig, GPU memory requirements are very small compared to what manufacturers were offering. Six years ago I had to look very hard to find a GF2 card with ONLY 32MB.
Today PCI-E cards don't seem to come with minimal memory; the smallest one I found on newegg was 128MB! Classic PCI cards can be had with less, but on a new system I'd rather not use a precious regular PCI slot.

Another 7600GS card is http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/lis ... nId=648244 this one also has dual DVI and TV-out and even dual link DVI. Looks similar to the Asus 256MB in the Anandtech roundup just with better connection.

Per the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series handout, the following companies will be releasing passive 2400 Pro AGP cards: Diamond MM (2400PRO256A, 2400PRO512A), GeCube (RX24PG-A2D3), and Sapphire (Radeon HD 2400 PRO). Those are the only passive AGP cards listed on the PDF.

For us PCIe users, the following have passive 2600 XT PCIe cards listed: Gigabyte (GV-RX256T256H), PowerColor (2600XT GDDR3), and while not listed, Sapphire and MSI have announced passive 2600 XT cards.

For the low profile crowd it looks like the best passive cards in this series will be 2400 XT from: Gigabyte (GV-RX24T256H) and PowerColor (2400XT).

+1

The XFX7600GS is a lovely card!

-Huge black heatsink across its surface
-2 dual-link DVI ports (dsub versions available)
-S-Video out
-512MB RAM (on mine )
-no stupid power connectors
-easy on the PSU
-competent gaming performance
-great support under Linux
-designed to run hot

It's quite possibly the perfect video card.

A small update concerning the PCI Express 2.0 realm.

Sapphire HD 3850 ULTIMATE Edition featuring 512 DDR3 and a small OC. More info here: http://www.techpowerup.com/?46312

Also a GeForce 8800GT brought to the world by Sparkle. There's even a review for it: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3165

ECS also chose to launch passive 8800GT on their own: http://www.insidehw.com/Hardware/ECS-re ... oling.html

Add this one to the list:

Asus Silencer 7300GT
Specs:
256M onboard
PCie 16
Both VGA and DVI along with TV Out (HDTV)
SLI Capable

Includes a DVI-VGA adapter along with HDTV Component Out connectors

Yep that's right. It's SLI capable and wont break the PSU needs (I'm using it with the PSU in my Sig.
SLI Mode would only need a 400W PSU to run a pair of these though you'd better direct airflow across them as they'll get hot.

Quattro FX 370.[/url]

Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GH (Radeon HD 4850)

http://www.cpu3d.com/review/5924-1/giga ... ction.html

Galaxy Geforce 9600GT silent heatpipe

http://www.galaxytech.com/Product_Detai ... =1&class2=

Been using it for 6 months now.

Just my two bits (what I just bought)...

Asus EN8400GS SILENT/HTP/512M is passive. Takes up one PCI Express 2.0 slot.

There are a few passive HD4670 out there.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products ... =280&grp=3

http://www.hisdigital.com/us/product2-412.shtml

HIS's version has 1G RAM running much faster than the Sapphire card.

They're both dual-slot, but the cooler is on the top of the card, so you still have your 3 other slots free on a mATX board.

Actually most modern mATX boards have the one and only PCI-express 1x slot above the video card. There's also other things, e.g. Gigabyte 780G Crossfire boards disable all PCI-e 1x slots other then the top slot if you use a 4x card (or higher obviously) in the second PCIe-16 (actually 4x lanes) slot. And some of the fancier mobos have the space below the PCIe-16 slot free I guess with the presumption it's going to be used for a dual slot card. Finally of course there's a risk the HSF is going to have clearance issues with mobo components or even the CPU HSF if the PCI-e 16x slot is the top slot

So while the HIS cards (the 4650 ones use the same HSF) is useful with some mobos, with many others the more traditional dual slot is probably better IMHO. But the heatsink it uses was designed 1-2 years ago which may explain why it was designed in that way.

Personally I think the Sapphire 4670 Ultimate is a better passive design http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/ ... /page1.asp http://www.geeks3d.com/?tag=passive-vga-cooler then the HIS. You could probably fit a slimline card in the upper slot and are much less likely to have cleareance issues with mobo components if the PCIe-16 slot is at the top.


Edit: Ignore that, I read on some stupid site *cough* Fudzilla *cough* that the Sparkle is passive single slot and the Guru3D image (well I believe it's a stock image) is deceptive since from the angle it's taken, it looks like it's single slot. However these images http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... =2498&pg=3 show it's clearly not.

I see, my "old" DFI RS482 isn't that way, and some new boards as well.
Interesting, the Sapphire cooler allows to fit low-profile cards in the PCIe slot if it's over the card.

Anyways, I think waiting for RV770-based cards would be a good thing at the moment. There are probably going to be a few passives.

2 passive ATi 5750's:

Powercolor: http://www.powercolor.com/Global/produc ... uctID=6648
Club3D: http://www.club3d.nl/products/products_ ... uct_id=222

Both heatsinks look quite the same, only the label is noticably different.

And this one from PowerColor is the successor:
PowerColor Go! Green HD5750 1GB GDDR5
(ProductID=6838)

It should be more energy efficient (cooler under same conditions) probably without performance loss. As PowerColor states, 21% less power consumption. They even have removed 6 pin power connector, PCI-E is enough.

In my country sales are about to start. Market promises in February 2010.

Please let the community know if anyone already has such a device.

Got one:



It has standard voltages and the tweakable VT1165 MF voltage regulator circuit! The whole circuit is a complete redesign with less but more efficient parts.

Greetz Audiodude

Well this is the best passive http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... uctID=3104

ASUS Nvidia GT240 'Silent' (ENGT240 SILENT/DI/1GD3)

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=UOAMmxQPE5m52wWL