Passive card with the lowest idle power draw?

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:42 am

I currently have a passive 7300GT (DVI + VGA outputs) but I now need a card with 2 digital outputs.

I don't play any games currently, but I will be buying StarCraft 2 when it comes out (rumoured system specs here) so if I might need a better card to play see it at it's best(?) I'd rather kill two birds with the one stone now.

Load power draw isn't a worry as I'll have music playing and will be too engrossed in the game to notice any fans ramping up!

rei · Post by **rei** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:34 pm

ATI HD 4350?

johnoh · Post by **johnoh** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:10 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814161274

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:19 pm

I don't know if it is the absolute lowest, but AnandTech just tested the Nividia GT 210 and 220. A quote from their article:
"At idle, the GT 220 is one cool card. Weâ€™re a bit surprised that it couldnâ€™t beat the 5850 here given the tiny 7W idle power usage" AnandTech.
And MSI has a passive 210 version at Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127454

While it isn't as powerful as ATI offerings for the money (or even other Nvidias actually) , it appears it would have some very good qualifications for HTPC.

swivelguy2 · Post by **swivelguy2** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:12 pm

For Starcraft 2, I'd go with any of the Radeon HD 4x50 cards, where x is a number that isn't 8.

Meato · Post by **Meato** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:12 pm

Take everything from Tom's with a grain of salt, but here is their power testing of the GeForce 220 and 210.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef ... 45-16.html

The 210 has the lowest idle draw on that chart, but also the lowest performance of any card on that chart. Also, note that in the Blu-Ray playback test, the 210 had issues playing full 1080p video.

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:25 am

Thanks folks.

My screen res will be 1680 x 1050 (x2) and my only requirement really is that it'll play StarCraft 2 - I just wish we knew at this stage exactly how demanding it is going to really be. Other than that it's purely a work PC.

I've been looking at 5750 reviews and it has impressive idle draw and will hopefully be available in passive form.

I'm worried the nVidia 2** cards won't run SC2...

Post by **CA_Steve** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:22 am

Blizzard is pretty good about having lower gfx requirements than other games. If Starcraft 2's needs are similar to WoW, then a mid-range card will work well. The 57x0 cards look great for low idle power and at 16x10 (one gaming monitor + one 2D monitor) should work fine.