Contribute
Register

Fanless (or silent) GPU

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jun 18, 2011
Messages
98
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z370N Wifi
CPU
i5-8600K
Graphics
RX 560
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
Hello,

<- Look at my specs. I am a silent-PC freak, and currently I run a silent Hackintosh on this hardware.

I am intending to upgrade to a Sandy Bridge build, most likely a GA-Z68-... board with Core i5 2500K. Looks like I will be able to keep CPU still fanless.

Question: what would be your suggestions for a good and as powerful as possible fanless (or at least very silent) GPU? Both Nvidia and ATIs are welcome. Of course, lack of headaches on a Hackintosh is also appreciated.

Thanks for your inputs, & congrats for this great community.
 
The best I could find in less then 5 min without knowing much about graphics card is a fanless ATI (AMD...) Radeon HD 6850: http://www.powercolor.com/global/produc ... asp?id=358

Review of the card: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powe ... 3_Passive/

Plus:
Passive cooling - no fan noise!
Good overclocking potential
Native full-size HDMI & DisplayPort output
Dirt 3 coupon included
Support for DirectX 11

Minus:
Triple slot cooler
Requires some case airflow to stay cool
Overdrive limits too low
Runs at reference design clocks only
No support for CUDA / PhysX

After that it seems to be Radeon 6750 or 5750 on the fanless front.

A warning. The cooler blocks two slot under it. Normaly a cooler blocks one slot. Because it is a high performance passive cooled card it is recommended to get some fans to cool the case. Wait with fans and relay test the system hard without extra fans to see how the temperature of the card and CPU will be?

Radeon 6750 has around 40W less power consumption at load:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... .29_series

If you want a cooler system with less fan noice that maybe is a better choice for a more silent system.
 
SMHI pointed me to this thread, as I just asked a similar question - with the difference that I need less power, so am more prepared to trade it off for coolness and cheapness. My thread's at http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=23112&p=148222 and you might be interested in the 5770 Silent Cell someone recommended there (it was too big for my provisional choice of silent case, then Antec Sonata III, and probably more powerful and pricey than I need).
 
Hi SMHI and others,

The 5750 is just above Civ 5's recommended specs (and has been used by Apple, encouragingly for headache free compatibility), so it looks like an option, though perhaps a bit more power and cost than I was after. However assuming you're talking about the Gigabyte Silent Cell version it's too big for my planned Sonata III case, just like the 5770 Silent Cell jbd259 recommended in my thread. I'm open to changing my case if anyone can point me to a larger quiet case. However, my impression is that these cards need these huge heatsinks because they're powerful and so hot, so if anyone can recommend some compatible and slightly weaker quiet video cards that'd be great.
 
SMHI, tog,

thanks for your replies!

So I am between Gigabyte 5770 or the monster 6850 pointed by SMHI, which may be an overkill to my meager gaming needs (ocasional Civ 5, eventual some Battlefield 3 under Windows).

Would also greatly appreciate comments by someone that actually uses one of these.

Tks folks!
 
What case are you thinking of to fit the 5770 Silent Cell partimers? I'm presuming you're looking for a silent case like me.
 
tog said:
What case are you thinking of to fit the 5770 Silent Cell partimers? I'm presuming you're looking for a silent case like me.
I actually already own the case, but I am not sure if one of those monster GPUs would fit. It is an Antec Solo. It can host very nicely the huge Noctua NH-U12P CPU heatsink, but when it comes to lenghty GPUs I am not sure. Will have to make some measurements.
 
partimers said:
tog said:
What case are you thinking of to fit the 5770 Silent Cell partimers? I'm presuming you're looking for a silent case like me.
I actually already own the case, but I am not sure if one of those monster GPUs would fit. It is an Antec Solo. It can host very nicely the huge Noctua NH-U12P CPU heatsink, but when it comes to lenghty GPUs I am not sure. Will have to make some measurements.

From what I've read that won't fit. This thread suggests 10.5 inches is the absolute max for a Solo card, and I know the 5770 Silent Cell is longer. This thread specifically says it won't fit a Solo (some people managed it with some hairy case modding, and one of two may have got smaller than normal cards).
 
tog said:
From what I've read that won't fit. This thread suggests 10.5 inches is the absolute max for a Solo card, and I know the 5770 Silent Cell is longer. This thread specifically says it won't fit a Solo (some people managed it with some hairy case modding, and one of two may have got smaller than normal cards).

Oh my ... life is never easy for powerful computers that are silent :/ I contacted some people from those threads to get some pics of the mods. I am tending to still give it a try with the 5770. It definitely rules out the 6850 I suppose. Will keep you posted.
 
partimers said:
tog said:
From what I've read that won't fit. This thread suggests 10.5 inches is the absolute max for a Solo card, and I know the 5770 Silent Cell is longer. This thread specifically says it won't fit a Solo (some people managed it with some hairy case modding, and one of two may have got smaller than normal cards).

Oh my ... life is never easy for powerful computers that are silent :/ I contacted some people from those threads to get some pics of the mods. I am tending to still give it a try with the 5770. It definitely rules out the 6850 I suppose. Will keep you posted.

Thanks - you may also want to watch my thread at that site.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top