Seeking quiet Geforce GT 220

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:49 pm

[EDIT]
See my July 20 post for the latest...
-----------------------------------------

Hi all,

My HTPC currently uses a fanless Sparkle Geforce 9500GT. It has been great, except that it doesn't do full hardware-accelerated decoding for all codecs. Namely VC-1 is lacking.

So I'm looking at "VP4" GT 220's. I don't see any fanless models in the US market. But the Biostar VN2203THG1 has a massive heatsink. It looks identical to the heat sink on my current 9500GT. The one Newegg review says it runs OK without the fan, as long as the card gets some airflow.

I'm pretty sure that I'd be OK running the Biostar fanless. I have a NSK2400 with some intakes blocked off to direct airflow over the video card area. My 9500GT has been fine in there for years.

Any else have experience with the GT 220's?

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:37 am

That Biostar GT220 disappeared from Newegg, but it's still available through Tigerdirect and Amazon.

Sparkle has announced a trio of passive 2xx series cards, including a GT220 (model# SXT2201024S3L-NMP). I cannot find it for sale anywhere, maybe they're too new.

Zotac's passive GT 220 is expensive, and I would have to remove some the the heatsink "wrap-around" to fir it in my NSK2400 chassis.

Reading various reviews, it looks like the GT 220 consumes from 25%-50% less power than the 9500GT. For example, see this TechPowerUp review of a Zotac GT 220.

What's the deal? This card should be easily cooled passively. There are many passive Geforce 210's, but the 210 doesn't have enough power for advanced HD video deinterlacing. So the GT220 is what I'm after.

I am considering buying the cheapest GT220 I can find, and swapping my 9500GT's heat sink over.

But I can't find any board drawings for it, to determine if the GPU cooler mounting holes are the same as my 9500GT. If anyone out there has a GT 220, and it's not too inconvenient, could you measure the distance between / across the PCB's HSF holes?

Parappaman · Post by **Parappaman** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 1:38 pm

I'd rather get a passive HD4650, better video and audio capabilities and higher performance to boot, all at a probably lower price and power consumption.

themaster1 · Post by **themaster1** » Mon May 03, 2010 2:30 pm

Jay i have a GT 220, i find it quiet though i know there are many different models mine is a Twintech 1 Gb with a rad + fan i can't seem to find a picture on the net but look at here to begin with: http://www.twintech3d.com/en/products_f ... sp?num=280.

Edit:
well it does look a bit like this: http://brakbabord.fr/public/.GT220_m.jpg

But on mine the rad is rectangular not circular, the fan is the same size though

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Mon May 03, 2010 6:55 pm

themaster1 wrote:i have a GT 220

Thanks for the reply! I know it's a pain, but if you happen to have an opportunity to remove the card, would you mind posting the dimensions of the cooler mounting holes? Specifically, I'm interested in the distance from hole to hole, and the distance from the closest holes to the PCI slot bracket.

themaster1 · Post by **themaster1** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:06 am

I have calculated this for ya today:

First of all there are oly 2 screws that maintain the cooler on my graphic card, see this picture http://img689.imageshack.us/i/ssa40155.jpg/
The distance between them is 5.5 cm and for the closest hole to the pci slot bracket the distance is about 2.6 cm

Here is another picture so you can see how the cooler is
http://img688.imageshack.us/i/ssa40154.jpg/

The pics are a bit blurry, sorry for that ,i did my best.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Wed May 05, 2010 12:07 pm

themaster1 wrote:I have calculated this for ya today:

First of all there are oly 2 screws ...

Thanks for the efforts, but if I had known yours had the 2 screw mounting I wouldn't have asked - sorry about that. I'm looking for this info to determine if I can re-use my 9500GT's heat sink on a GT220, and my 9500GT heat sink uses 4 screws. Thanks again, though.

themaster1 · Post by **themaster1** » Wed May 05, 2010 4:54 pm

Jay_S wrote:
themaster1 wrote:I have calculated this for ya today:

First of all there are oly 2 screws ...
Thanks for the efforts, but if I had known yours had the 2 screw mounting I wouldn't have asked

I'd slice you bit by bit just for the principle...*kidding

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Wed May 12, 2010 1:46 pm

I think I've found my test-mule GT220. Compare the backside of this BFG Tech GT 220 (green PCB) to my current 9500GT (blue PCB):

The mounting holes look close to identical! And it's cheap!

[EDIT] DAMMIT. Displayport instead of HDMI? Why BFG, why! So much for the $35 test mule.

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Wed May 12, 2010 10:45 pm

Yes, but at that price even if you add a displayport to HDMI cable it is still a good buy. Besides we really do want you to put that 9500 heatsink on the 220...

themaster1 · Post by **themaster1** » Thu May 13, 2010 6:53 am

Jay_S wrote:I think I've found my test-mule GT220. Compare the backside of this BFG Tech GT 220

I don't know about this one man, a cooler in order to be efficient must be made with copper or aluminium, this one is black i find this suspicious enough.
On mine the temp can go up to 60Â°C when i watch hdtv (assuming i shut off all the fans inside the pc) otherwise it's more about 50Â°C. In both cases the fan is quiet but what happen if you have a cooler that's not effective ? The temp will raise up till the roof fall off.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:01 am

themaster1 wrote:I don't know about this one man...

Yeah, this is an experiment for sure!

I'm pretty sure all aluminum requires surface treatment of some kind to inhibit oxidation. Anodizing is a common surface treatment, and can be done in a variety of colors. The HS on my 9500GT is black anodized aluminum.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:56 pm

Major update.

Originally, 1080p VC1 video with my 9500GT - lack of DXVA on the 950GT = 78% CPU

I bought this EVGA GT220 (part# 01G-P3-1226-LR) because it has DDR3 memory, it's NOT overclocked, and was $38 after rebate!

Physical comparison - GT220 on top (a bit longer!?), 9500GT below. That big honkin heat sink is going on the GT220. The bolt holes are identical to my 9500GT. I had to re-use a metal shim that came with the GT220 - without it the heatsink would not make contact.

Heatsink swapped, making decent contact! At this point, I'm supremely happy:

Mpeg2 decoding (wasn't a challenge previously):

The test - VC1 decoding. These 2 screen captures are uncompressed 1080p VC1 rips, playback using MPC-HC internal filter:

The GT220 with the passive cooler idles around 45 deg C. It peaked around 50 deg C during playback. I'd call this a success. Ambient in my house is currently about 28 deg C (82F). System idles at 54W (previously 56W).

I'm not able to test HDMI audio yet (my current receiver doesn't support it), however Windows shows a new "HDMI Audio Device".

Aloz · Post by **Aloz** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:26 am

Nice!

If this at all helps any one, A local company is selling a passive version, heat sink looks similar

Funny how they just leave the fan header on.

PNY Geforce GT 220 Silent Edition / 1GB DDR2 / PCI Express 2.0 / Graphics Card

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 5:28 am

Aloz wrote:If this at all helps any one, A local company is selling a passive version, heat sink looks similar

PNY Geforce GT 220 Silent Edition / 1GB DDR2 / PCI Express 2.0 / Graphics Card

Your image URL leads to play.com ... this is a UK retail store? I can't find this model in the US.

Seeking quiet Geforce GT 220

Seeking quiet Geforce GT 220

(Lack of) passive GeForce GT 220 cards