View Poll Results: Can a Passive Card Play GAMES? Would you buy one?

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  • Yes, I think a modern GPU probably can manage games at sensible resolutions

    6 42.86%
  • Undecided... really don't know

    1 7.14%
  • Nope... don't be silly. It needs a fan, period.

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Thread: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Hi guys

    If you were about to embark on making a PC without busting the wallet too wide open, and fancied a totally silent graphics option..... would you consider Passive?

    Lets say you were gaming, but not on uber-monitors... what would you buy? If it needed to be really quiet?

    HAVE you ever tried a passive card? Do you think they COULD do the job? Could you game at your resolution on a totally Fan Free card?

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Passive cards still require airflow, so you've potentially got just as much noise as an active card - more if it means you now have to run a fan at the front of a case that you didn't have to before.

    But they are another option that lets you decide where you want fans and which fans to have - a well designed case could have a sound proofed front for example, while drawing air in from somewhere else and using an exhausting slow fan to ensure good airflow over the passive fins.

    As a gamer, if silence was important I would spend the outlay on getting the best active cooler I could, as I reckon they can be made quiet and they're simply more efficient in terms of noise than having to cool a gaming card with case fans instead. Or go watercooling, which is kind of saying the same thing - heat is transferred to a large, rear HSF.

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    Passive cards still require airflow, so you've potentially got just as much noise as an active card - more if it means you now have to run a fan at the front of a case that you didn't have to before.
    true to an extent.. but one large slow turning fan at the front and one large slow one on the top vent is totally silent on my case.. but my graphics card still spools up mid game and I can hear it.

    A passive one wouldn't... and I know I have enough air flow for a passive card.. some of the latest cards are so very powerful, that passive must be totally effective on the lower/midrangers.

    Loads of people are still on 22 and 24" monitors at between 168x1050 and 1920x1080.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    mutantbass head Lee H's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    I tend to always go for active cards with a really good cooling solution so I can push the hardware faster than the default speeds and squeeze out those extra FPS.

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    but HAS anyone tried a Passive card for gaming?

    more over... WOULD they risk it?

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Yes you can use one, but I would just get an active card then run the fan low, means you have the ability to up the cooling if need be, while also maintaining near silence if your case's cooling is up to it by running incredibly slowly.

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    50 / 50 split on the votes at the moment

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    I've played some Medieval 2 Total War @1366x768 on Low using a passive Gainward NVIDIA G210 in the past. That was my old kitchen HTPC system and it only had 1 120mm fan. Used to play while cooking. The graphics card healthsink used to get very hot. GPU-Z used to report a temp of high 80's C. But the only thing that ever got burned was dinner!

    That G210 is still going strong so the heat didn't cause any problems. For a low end or mid range card I'd have no worries about going passive for gaming.

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Ir depends on what you count as acceptable image quality and framerates, I'm afraid. I'll happily turn down all the bling to get a playable game, but YMMV.

    For instance, I'm currently reviewing my lovely APU bundle I won through the Hexus forum competition, and I reckon the on-die graphics is fine for gaming on my lovely 1080p screen - the numbers will be up later today or tomorrow so you can find out what I consider acceptable. That means a discrete card like a 6670 would give me an acceptable framerate, and a 6670 should be no problem to cool adequately without a big ol' fan. But many people would mock me for claiming you can game at 1080p with a 6670.

    I'm pretty much of the opinion that any graphics card that doesn't need an extra power connector can be cooled passively. That put the 7750 squarely in the frame, and I think it's a lot less controversial to claim that the 7750 is a gaming card. So that would be my choice (although airflow still needs to be taken into consideration, of course )

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    I've done it before, in the oldern days - I slapped a Zalman cooler on a Geforce Ti4200 back when I were a lad. Except the 92mm fan which Zalman provided to increase airflow was actually a noisy bugger.

    On a modern system, noise should not be an issue - in 2D mode, a big card like a 6970 should be mostly silent, especially in an acoustically optimized case. And in 3D mode, why can you hear your PC over the sounds of gunfire?

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Quote Originally Posted by directhex View Post
    IAnd in 3D mode, why can you hear your PC over the sounds of gunfire?
    cos the sound was muted... I was playing with no speakers...

    but the point is made well by scaryjim....

    a 7750 is viable.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  12. #12
    Larkspeed
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    I would not use passive for gaming and I have no need to.

    My machine is basically silent. so quiet you have to try and hear it.

    It does not get any louder during gaming no matter how hard I push it.

    Keep the case temp down with multiple large size slow turning fans and your GPU should stay nice and cool and quiet

    ---edit---
    a bit more info

    My PSU is at the bottom of my case and designed so that it pulls air in from under the case and ejects it straight out of the back so that hot air never gets inside the case.

    My CPU cooler is an arctic freezer 13 pro and I have slow turning 120mm case fans in the side and top so air gets drawn in the side goes straight into the CPU cooler and then is pulled straight out of the top of the case so this also has very little effect on case temps

    there is also a front 120mm intake running at low speed to add extra cool air to the case.

    all fans are filtered to prevent dust in the case

    GPU is shrouded so it draws cold air from in the case and ejects it out the rear seriously reducing it's effect on case temp

    All this combined means that my case temp stays very low so my GPU cooling is more efficient. Its fan always runs at it's minimum speed even when on 100% GPU load and the card stays nice and cool.

    All this makes for a near silent system which is good as it's in the front room.
    Last edited by Larkspeed; 07-08-2012 at 04:38 PM.

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    lets not forget that some cases have NO FANS.... it is viable to have no fans at all.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  14. #14
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    Passive cards still require airflow, so you've potentially got just as much noise as an active card - more if it means you now have to run a fan at the front of a case that you didn't have to before.

    But they are another option that lets you decide where you want fans and which fans to have - a well designed case could have a sound proofed front for example, while drawing air in from somewhere else and using an exhausting slow fan to ensure good airflow over the passive fins.

    As a gamer, if silence was important I would spend the outlay on getting the best active cooler I could, as I reckon they can be made quiet and they're simply more efficient in terms of noise than having to cool a gaming card with case fans instead. Or go watercooling, which is kind of saying the same thing - heat is transferred to a large, rear HSF.
    Kal.. have you ever had a Passive card?

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  15. #15
    Larkspeed
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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    Quote Originally Posted by Zak33 View Post
    lets not forget that some cases have NO FANS.... it is viable to have no fans at all.
    I would have to say no.

    if you are not moving the air then it will simply sit still and get steadily hotter to a point where the convection going out the top of the case will cause negative pressure and pull new air in.

    That point is probably considerably warmer than most people would want their case or components to get to.

    At minimum you would realistically need at least one fan on exhaust to create that negative pressure at lower temps.

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    Re: Passive Graphics Cards: Would you buy one for gaming?

    I myself would not want to use one for gaming!

    Ever seen an advert saying wow, my passive card gets 60fps at only 36C ?

    No! you wont either ha!

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