Passive 8800GT (Sparkle) Preview!

@Anandtech: Sure it's hot. You can probably fry an egg on it at that temperature. It's the 8800GT for me. I don't see it being overclockable, but as long as it's stable at stock, I would be happy with it. And it takes a lot less space than the HR-03 GT.

It would be nice if it was possible to add/mod a slow fan to it. Silence is not what I am going for now, till now decent GFX card shift a quiet PC to a not so quiet one. A slow fan can make a big difference in terms of heat of a system without being too noisy.

Someone nudge Scan to stock those :)

Has Nvidia actually published figures about safe operating temperatures for these cards? 111 degs is crazy! LOL @ Mr. Sparkle too ^^

Not just the safe operating temp of the cards either, any wires inside the case that come too close risk melting. Or worse, catching fire.
With a ventilation problem (eg. dust), you could end up melting/ setting your PC on fire!
However, you will have a PC able to make you coffee and toast/bacon/eggs, etc! :D

Why didn't they test it with a 120mm fan blowing directly at the heatsink?:angst:

That's too hot for my liking. I'd love to see a Sparkle card with a Mr Sparkle graphic though.

Why the hell would anyone buy this?

THe normal GT's are hot so this must be molten.

I don't understand why the 8800GT has that crappy cooler? The old GTS one was great, why did they go backwards?

so the looks by itself wont fool the uninformed.. :P.. well just my guess anyways

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Originally Posted by Blitzen

Why the hell would anyone buy this?

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Performance without the noise without the loss of most of your expansion slots [Referring to the Thermalright HR-03]? Can't have everything - of course passive is going to be hot. What matters is if it's stable at stock, and according to Anandtech, it is.

Also according to Anandtech it comes with only a 1 year warranty, which is worryingly low considering the nature of the product, and I think shows Sparkle's confidence in the long term durability at the sort of temperatures it reaches.

At 111C it wont make a great GPGPU card, but lets face it, nobody buys nvidia cards for number crunching, that kind of heat is fine for playing games.

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Originally Posted by oOLimesOo

Also according to Anandtech it comes with only a 1 year warranty, which is worryingly low considering the nature of the product, and I think shows Sparkle's confidence in the long term durability at the sort of temperatures it reaches.

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Won't argue too strongly with that, 12 months is disappointing and puts it in line with Scan's own brand. Still, while I don't doubt for a second that heat will decrease the lifespan of any hardware, the question is, how much? I've never really killed an CPU during it's lifespan even running it near the edge of instability back in my 'must get every last mhz' days. The heat generated was absurd (I could spend the whole winter without ever switching my heater on even if I leave a gap on my windows the entire day to improve the airflow) and while I am sure I've shaved a few years off it's lifespan, many years past it's retail warranty (and I would buy OEM, which only has 1 year).

Well, I'll definitely welcome an alternative low noise solution. But chances are, but nothing shows up by the time the Sparkle Passive shows up over here, I'll grab one anyway and find a way to improve the airflow in that area of the case. With a bit of work, sub 100C even in the worst case scenario (pretty much where the 111C comes from - how many people run with no case fans?) is probably feasible.

Here's one for giggle: SPARKLE Computer

Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 on a 8800GT for the win.

silentpcreview.com | View topic - AC Accelero S1 is the BEST cooler for 8800GT / ATI38?0 cards

It gets even better with a fan.

Also officially supported now.

Personally I would get a Thermalright HR-03 GT (assuming it has been released and is available now!) have it in wrap around mode and let the case fans do the work for you :) still gets hot mind but (the HR-03 Plus) can cool a GTS better in passive than the stock cooler on auto :P and wrapped around it wouldnt even steal all your expansion slots! Unlike mine...

http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/3264/img1269ug3.jpg

Well, i've been keen to get a decent silent card for a couple of years to replace my X1900XTX. and have now got a Sparkle 8800GT Coolpipe sat at home waiting to be installed when I get in this evening. If anyone has any questions about it then let me know, but be warned I don't have much tech savvy so will probably not be able to provide detailed technical feedback, but i'll do my best.

I'm still waiting for more news on there calibre 8800gt as that looks like a far better cooler than the stock one (unlike the 7 serives calibre card the 8 series only seem to have 1 gpu on the card)
SPARKLE Unveils New Calibre P888 Graphic Card For High-end Gaming Platform - TechMessenger.com
depending on what the priceing is like that may be a good card to go for.