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[Raven.]

I'd like to know what's the highest performance low-power/temperature(passive cooling if possible) gphx card out there.


Thanks in advance,
Divus

 

[Tekky]

Do you want low power, or passive cooling? You can get high-power cards with passive cooling too.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/gigabyte-x800xl/index.x?pg=1

Just be sure your case has enough overall ventilation.

 

[Raven.]

Well, the case I'm likely to buy is the mutant x one ( a cheap good looking one, with not too good ventilation).

But in any case the thing is I'm currently planning on putting 320GB, and later on multi-TB capacity on it, so I'd like to reduce the possibility of it all going out in some meltdown/fck off. That said, I live in a pretty hot place over here, and I do not want my pc to become some sort of heater/radiator. It's important for me that it does not radiate/emit excesive heat.

 

[NohWun]

Well, I'm still not clear what it is that you want.

If you want a high-performance card, it's going to put out heat.
Only way to avoid that is to go with lower performance.

There are lots of cards available with only passive heatsinks.
You can pretty much judge the heat output by the size of the heatsink.

Of course, the latest generation lower-end cards can have a better performance/heat ratio than older cards. But it's always a moving target.

 

[Raven.]

Well, I'm still not clear what it is that you want.

If you want a high-performance card, it's going to put out heat.
Only way to avoid that is to go with lower performance.

There are lots of cards available with only passive heatsinks.
You can pretty much judge the heat output by the size of the heatsink.

Of course, the latest generation lower-end cards can have a better performance/heat ratio than older cards. But it's always a moving target.

Yeah I mean mid-range stuff. I've been considering the 6600GT, but I'd like to confirm whether it runs cool or not.(I've also been considering something I heard but've not yet verified... a $900 cooling system from frozencpu, that keeps yer 5Ghz overclocked p4 at below zero temp. I supposedly works much like a fridge, from what I heard, so I'd imagine it doesn't heat the surrounding environment too much. Maybe there's one for gphx cards, if so I may sli in the future with a different rig.)

BTW, since the next-gen geforce was recently announced I was wondering... How long do I've to wait till the next mid-range cards are available?

 

[NohWun]

Actually all fridges do is move heat from one place (inside the fridge) to another (outside the fridge), and create even more heat in the process (from the motor & moving parts).

As for release schedules, I dunno.