Well, it occurs to me that the authors of this article have no intention on getting the coolest, but in somewhat beating the record of highest temperature out of this configuration....
And if your PC case is so small and in such a mess and so crowded, I don't see why would anyone buy a passive cooled performance graphics card like this one... In fact I don't see why would anyone build any performance configuration in a case like this one??
Another test I read has successfully overclocked this card to 695/2000 without reaching 85C.
All you need is a tidy case and a well thought trough airflow in it.
So keep your pants on all you people scared of getting burned...
"NVIDIA’s original target for the 8800 GT was $199 for the 256MB version and $249 - $259 for the 512MB version,"
WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH. In your original review article, about the 512MB model, you said you expected prices would be $200-250 for the card. And in reality the 512MB WERE available for as low as $219 on launch day. So bullcrap to this revisionist "$249-259 for the 512MB version".
Nice attempt at trying to re-write history though. I'm sure NVidia appreciates it.
The reality is the reference design 512MB models were to be available as low as $200 (and we saw deals as low as $209 crop up within the first two weeks after launch). It was the over-clocked models that would approach $250-260 on the high end.
google 111 c in f and you'll see that the card is running at 231.8 F. water boils at 212 F/100 C. that means you should never handle that card immediately after playing a game (i.e., u play a game, shut down pc, then switch out components, cards, etc.), or else you'll be holding a blistering hand, literally. so be careful out there if you buy this card.
Sparkle is so bs to me..that cooler looks exactly like a thermalright hr-01 seriously... at least its not lke the hr-03/r600 lol...what losers gotta copy thermalright with their ideas.
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.
If you want to add a fan, just get another card. The idea of a passive card is that your case can sufficiently move air to cool it, without adding another noise-maker.
They put this GPU in a scenario that would be insane for anyone to actually try, and it DID NOT FAIL. In a decent case, with decent air flow and cable management, it should work excellently, without any modding.
Sure, you can get an aftermarket cooler and cool it better. In fact, you can probably do better passive, with something like the S1. But, that means more work, and more cost. Adding a fan, however good it cools it, basically defeats the purpose, though.
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.
A lack of HDMI for this type of card is simply unacceptable.
I wish the heat pipes wrapped further down, and in general, fan-less cards such as these (the ones that perform) should come with the option of adding standard two 80mm or one 120mm fans. The heat sink needs to be more impressive.
I have (though I don't use it anymore) a fan-less X800, and while it was marginally fine for a while to use it fan-less, I used to lay a quiet 80mm on top of it... I wish I could have easily secured the fan.
You see, fan less cards are meant for the few, the people that want more options. The price could easily be $350.00 if the card was right, and it be THE card to own for the enthusiast. You could down clock the card and slap it into a poorly ventilated case, or you could slap two 80mm fans on it and overclock it more than any other.
That's my two cents. To me, this is no good... if you care about quietness, it would be better to buy a regular card that self-cools... b/c leaving it up to the case means multiplying the noise.
You still could even amend this article with same, or even do a new one in cases cooling. Then you would have both ends of the spectrum.
And, supposedly, according to one report on the web, the 8800GT was not a paper launch, but some components needed for the board were in short supply. "Nvidia declined to say which ones".
My point being, after looking at this review and testing of the Sparkle version of the 8800GT, it seems to me to be an added cost for less than adequate benefit. Perhaps you won't be using the card to play games like Crysis at full break to see how hot it can get and for those people this will probably be just fine. However for those that want silence and power wouldn't it be better to get a stock 8800GT, the cheapest you can find and then put on a Thermalright HR-03 Passive VGA cooler that is made for Nvidia 8800 cards. It achieves the same thing as Sparkle's design except it's made to better dissipate the heat. Granted it costs around $50 but it's also larger and more efficient. I think personally it's a safer and better alternative than the Sparkle design. Though kudos to Sparkle for at least attempting.
What kind of computer case (if any) was used for this test? Because my EVGA 8800GT SC at stock (SC) clocks and stock fan speeds runs about 57C idle and 78C at load. If you are getting 72C idle and 94C at load on a stock 8800GT something is wrong.
Agreed, mine runs 52/72C on Crysis, fan at 35%. 56/78 stock.
The story in Anand's blog about failing 8800GT's and 3870's would make sense if they had cooling problem. Pics of the test rig and ambient temperatures in the office at time of test are called for.
BTW, if you're in a hurry, you deserve a high price for shipping. Lose the rant about it. EVGA is a standup company.
Agreed, mine runs 52/72C on Crysis, fan at 35%. 56/78 stock.
The story in Anand's blog about failing 8800GT's and 3870's would make sense if they had cooling problem. Pics of the test rig and ambient temperatures in the office at time of test are called for.
BTW, if you're in a hurry, you deserve a high price for shipping. Lose the rant about it. EVGA is a standup company.
The testers should be imprisoned for hardware cruelty; and the poor, deeply hurt card should be taken to a loving family where it will be taken better care of - *hint* I have waterblocks! And cookies! :D
i'm sure all someone has to do now is make a much better passive heatsink and that'll blow this POS sparkle card out of the water. it doesn't look like much time was spent in designing the cooling solution that will effectively cool off the card.
[quote]The only thing Sparkle's 8800 GT is missing is HDMI output, ...[/quote]
The SLI connector photo on page 3 shows what is supposedly a SPDIF header next to the SLI connector. A couple of the pre-release leak sites mentioned that the 8800GTs were designed to do HDMI-over-DVI, but post-launch I haven't seen any reviews look into this. I don't know if it is due to many shipping cards not having the SPDIF header, a driver issue, or ... ???
The comparisons between stock GT and the Sparkle should have been made with the stock GT's fan (which runs by default at 29%) run up to a level where it is not, or barely, audible.
While this will differ from case-to-case (I can start to hear mine around 45%), a little extra fan speed afforded to the stock GT would go a LONG way towards lowering temps and therefore showing a much bigger difference between the stock GT and the Sparkle.
Also the design of the sparkle doesn't look all that genius anyways.
eg. what about if you mount a zalman VF1000 or thermalright HR03 and simply pull out/not mount a fan??
how does it compare?
the sparkle model here could have easily made mounts for a fan which would entice many more buyers like me. (fan attached to fan controller, run fan only when necessary)
With zip ties and a bit of imagination fans can be attacted onto almost anything.
As for the card, I suppose a non-passive plus Thermalright HR03GT and a low RPM fan would be the best solution for quiet but not entirely silent cooling.
111 degrees is not ok IMO, heck not even 94 degrees.
I'm sure you would have seen much lower temps with a different case. A perfect solution would be a box with positive pressure and vent(s) on the back, along the PCI slots. Some Antec and Silverstone towers, or most boxes with big fans on the front, would fit the bill nicely. Not many HTPC boxes are capable of positive pressure, but the way-too-pricey Silverstone CW02 has 2 90mm intakes and the PS draws from out side the box, allowing for positive pressure.
The Velocity Micro case used in the review is actually the OriginAE X11. I don't think this box has the airflow desirable for a powerful passive vid card. I've had excellent results with using a Silverstone LC-20M and an XFX 7950GT HE9 (570 MHz). While positive pressure isn't possible with this box, I still get quite satifactory temps with a factory OC card. The PCI vent becomes an intake due to the draw of the 2 80mm rear fans and lousy intake from the front of the box. This results in a 10C drop, as compared to open case/no case running.
One similarity between the OriginAE and Silverstone cases is the PS mounted on it's side, with the lid mounting directly on top of it. Was there much (any) clearance between the card and the lid? In my box, there isn't even 1 CH of space left.
If possible, I ask you to put the card in a more suitable box and post the results. A P180 variant should be able to bring out the best in this card. With some tweaking, a very quiet SLI system should be possible.
No its not incorrect, the 199 pricetag was for the 256meg gt, 249 was for the 512. If you believe the 512meg gt was supposed to sell at $199 then why did ati price the slower 3870 at $230?
Yeah. Comparing an XFX card at TigerDirect vs. a BFG card sold at it's MSRP on the manufacturer's webstore is very subjective journalism there Anandy. ;)
I just gutted my tower and stuck my computer into a Q-Pack case and my x1900xt is running over degrees cooler. The power supply in the small case blows a ton of air straight down on the video card and when I run the ATI overdrive my card never gets over 80 degrees when testing for a stable overclock where it would push 100 degrees in my full tower case.
Ah, yes. After at least 2 years, Anandtech and Dailytech still have not been able to attain the edit-sophistication of the article-comment section of "The Tech Report" . Maybe Scott and his crew could give the Anandtech/Dailytech web-designers a hint or two ?
Perhaps I misunderstand your post, but... putting this card in my X-Qpack case would require removing a large portion of the power-supply (over the video card slot) where the heat pipes need to pass over the card. Same problem with several other cases I've used.
Which is the @#$%^ problem with most passively cooled powerful GPU's: their pipes increase the vertical requirements too much. I wish they'd either notch the top of the cards for the pipes, or pass the pipes through notches on either end of the card. The current "over the top" approach minimizes their effort in re-utilizing non-passive card layouts, but the reverse could be done -- just build all cards on the notched-board design even if they use fans and no pipes.
111C seems a bit hot doesn't it? I don't think I would feel comfortable running any component in my computer at that temperature. Not only is it a fire and burn hazard as joked by the author, the temperature will negatively effect the life and stability of all other components. While I definitely agree that noise elimination is very important in computer design, if you are really concerned with noise you will likely go for a much cooler card, which won't increase overall ambient temperature of your case. I would be more impressed with a slower card that ran extremely cool.
I have an AMD Opteron w/ a huge Zalman heatsink. No case fans and all inlets covered up w/ acoustic damping material. PSU has an adjustable fan, which I always run on its lowest setting. Three hard drives: 1 10k Raptor for OS, two 1 terabyte WD green power drives running RAID mirror for redundant storage. The entire inside of my steel full tower case is lined with acoustic damping materials. The hottest component in my computer is my motherboard chipset, which runs at 130 F. (This is after I replaced the chipset fan/HS and applied arctic silver.) My CPU runs at 90 F, only 20 degrees hotter than ambient room temperature, and likely only a few degrees hotter than the inside of the case (I have cool and quiet enabled to throttle the CPU by 50% when idle). GPU is a 6600 or something, passively cooled. Never gets too hot to touch.
If I were to add an 111C component to my computer, every thing else would increase in temperature, and likely, I would have to add case fans/noise to keep things in control.
Well, it occurs to me that the authors of this article have no intention on getting the coolest, but in somewhat beating the record of highest temperature out of this configuration....
And if your PC case is so small and in such a mess and so crowded, I don't see why would anyone buy a passive cooled performance graphics card like this one... In fact I don't see why would anyone build any performance configuration in a case like this one??
Another test I read has successfully overclocked this card to 695/2000 without reaching 85C.
All you need is a tidy case and a well thought trough airflow in it.
So keep your pants on all you people scared of getting burned...
Again, you can't touch the GPU itself, only the heatsink. The heatsink is relatively cool compared to the GPU itself.
The GPU is the source of the heat, and is naturally the hottest point. That heat is transferred to the heatsink (it sink the heat, see?), which cools down much faster than the GPU alone, due to large amounts of surface area. If there's enough airflow, the GPU could be 120C, and the heatsink (the area you can reach to touch) would be the same as room temperature.
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55 Comments
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qamca - Sunday, January 20, 2008 - link
Well, it occurs to me that the authors of this article have no intention on getting the coolest, but in somewhat beating the record of highest temperature out of this configuration....And if your PC case is so small and in such a mess and so crowded, I don't see why would anyone buy a passive cooled performance graphics card like this one... In fact I don't see why would anyone build any performance configuration in a case like this one??
Another test I read has successfully overclocked this card to 695/2000 without reaching 85C.
All you need is a tidy case and a well thought trough airflow in it.
So keep your pants on all you people scared of getting burned...
jay401 - Saturday, December 8, 2007 - link
"NVIDIA’s original target for the 8800 GT was $199 for the 256MB version and $249 - $259 for the 512MB version,"WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH. In your original review article, about the 512MB model, you said you expected prices would be $200-250 for the card. And in reality the 512MB WERE available for as low as $219 on launch day. So bullcrap to this revisionist "$249-259 for the 512MB version".
Nice attempt at trying to re-write history though. I'm sure NVidia appreciates it.
The reality is the reference design 512MB models were to be available as low as $200 (and we saw deals as low as $209 crop up within the first two weeks after launch). It was the over-clocked models that would approach $250-260 on the high end.
zshift - Monday, December 3, 2007 - link
google 111 c in f and you'll see that the card is running at 231.8 F. water boils at 212 F/100 C. that means you should never handle that card immediately after playing a game (i.e., u play a game, shut down pc, then switch out components, cards, etc.), or else you'll be holding a blistering hand, literally. so be careful out there if you buy this card.natrap - Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - link
111C is the temperature at the GPU where the sensor is located. The temperature on the surface of the card and the heatsink will be somewhat lower.BucDan - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
Sparkle is so bs to me..that cooler looks exactly like a thermalright hr-01 seriously... at least its not lke the hr-03/r600 lol...what losers gotta copy thermalright with their ideas.natrap - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
sorry for the multiple posts. silly thing kept spitting out error so it didn't look like it posted.natrap - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.Cerb - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
If you want to add a fan, just get another card. The idea of a passive card is that your case can sufficiently move air to cool it, without adding another noise-maker.They put this GPU in a scenario that would be insane for anyone to actually try, and it DID NOT FAIL. In a decent case, with decent air flow and cable management, it should work excellently, without any modding.
Sure, you can get an aftermarket cooler and cool it better. In fact, you can probably do better passive, with something like the S1. But, that means more work, and more cost. Adding a fan, however good it cools it, basically defeats the purpose, though.
natrap - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.natrap - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.natrap - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.natrap - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
I agree with Cerb. The fact that it reached 111C and did not fail is a good sign. And that was recorded with the case fans off in a poorly ventilated case. I'm gonna get this for an Antec Solo which has a single 120mm case fan at the rear over the CPU. I'd expect a temp a little lower. As for such high temps affecting the life of the card, well it does come with a 12 month warranty. If it hasn't failed in that time running close to 24/7 then the chance of it failing soon after isn't going to be a great deal higher.Allen Iverson - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
Great article anand, LOVE the Sparkle thumbnail :Dgochichi - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
A lack of HDMI for this type of card is simply unacceptable.I wish the heat pipes wrapped further down, and in general, fan-less cards such as these (the ones that perform) should come with the option of adding standard two 80mm or one 120mm fans. The heat sink needs to be more impressive.
I have (though I don't use it anymore) a fan-less X800, and while it was marginally fine for a while to use it fan-less, I used to lay a quiet 80mm on top of it... I wish I could have easily secured the fan.
You see, fan less cards are meant for the few, the people that want more options. The price could easily be $350.00 if the card was right, and it be THE card to own for the enthusiast. You could down clock the card and slap it into a poorly ventilated case, or you could slap two 80mm fans on it and overclock it more than any other.
That's my two cents. To me, this is no good... if you care about quietness, it would be better to buy a regular card that self-cools... b/c leaving it up to the case means multiplying the noise.
harpoza - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Next day shipping almost always costs $30-$50. I'm not sure why this is so notable?Bozo Galora - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Or, you could have run the card at 54 degrees under load by using the new Thermalright HR-03GT GPU HS with 92mm Fan.http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=208305">http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=208305
You still could even amend this article with same, or even do a new one in cases cooling. Then you would have both ends of the spectrum.
And, supposedly, according to one report on the web, the 8800GT was not a paper launch, but some components needed for the board were in short supply. "Nvidia declined to say which ones".
kilroy0097 - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
My point being, after looking at this review and testing of the Sparkle version of the 8800GT, it seems to me to be an added cost for less than adequate benefit. Perhaps you won't be using the card to play games like Crysis at full break to see how hot it can get and for those people this will probably be just fine. However for those that want silence and power wouldn't it be better to get a stock 8800GT, the cheapest you can find and then put on a Thermalright HR-03 Passive VGA cooler that is made for Nvidia 8800 cards. It achieves the same thing as Sparkle's design except it's made to better dissipate the heat. Granted it costs around $50 but it's also larger and more efficient. I think personally it's a safer and better alternative than the Sparkle design. Though kudos to Sparkle for at least attempting.scottb75 - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
What kind of computer case (if any) was used for this test? Because my EVGA 8800GT SC at stock (SC) clocks and stock fan speeds runs about 57C idle and 78C at load. If you are getting 72C idle and 94C at load on a stock 8800GT something is wrong.stapuft - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Agreed, mine runs 52/72C on Crysis, fan at 35%. 56/78 stock.The story in Anand's blog about failing 8800GT's and 3870's would make sense if they had cooling problem. Pics of the test rig and ambient temperatures in the office at time of test are called for.
BTW, if you're in a hurry, you deserve a high price for shipping. Lose the rant about it. EVGA is a standup company.
stapuft - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Agreed, mine runs 52/72C on Crysis, fan at 35%. 56/78 stock.The story in Anand's blog about failing 8800GT's and 3870's would make sense if they had cooling problem. Pics of the test rig and ambient temperatures in the office at time of test are called for.
BTW, if you're in a hurry, you deserve a high price for shipping. Lose the rant about it. EVGA is a standup company.
FrankM - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
The testers should be imprisoned for hardware cruelty; and the poor, deeply hurt card should be taken to a loving family where it will be taken better care of - *hint* I have waterblocks! And cookies! :DFlame on :D
Ender17 - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
What's the big deal? This is just a cheap rip off of the Thermalright HR-03 heatsink. I've been running my 8800GTS passive for the past 6 months.j00k - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
i'm sure all someone has to do now is make a much better passive heatsink and that'll blow this POS sparkle card out of the water. it doesn't look like much time was spent in designing the cooling solution that will effectively cool off the card.Ajax9000 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
[quote]The only thing Sparkle's 8800 GT is missing is HDMI output, ...[/quote]The SLI connector photo on page 3 shows what is supposedly a SPDIF header next to the SLI connector. A couple of the pre-release leak sites mentioned that the 8800GTs were designed to do HDMI-over-DVI, but post-launch I haven't seen any reviews look into this. I don't know if it is due to many shipping cards not having the SPDIF header, a driver issue, or ... ???
bob4432 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
hdmi over dvi? both are digital but hdmi has the audio in the same cable. dvi=hdmi in video qualityAjax9000 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Yep, absolutely. Rather than having dedicated wires for the audio, HDMI encodes the audio into the video signal. More detail here:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=10316508...">http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=10316508...
Ajax9000 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Oops! Sorry about the multiple posts.Ajax9000 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Yep, absolutely. Rather than having dedicated wires for the audio, HDMI encodes the audio into the video signal. More detail here:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=10316508...">http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=10316508...
Ajax9000 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Yep, absolutely. Rather than having dedicated wires for the audio, HDMI encodes the audio into the video signal. More detail here:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=10316508...">http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=10316508...
misleading99 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
I'm not impressed with this article.The comparisons between stock GT and the Sparkle should have been made with the stock GT's fan (which runs by default at 29%) run up to a level where it is not, or barely, audible.
While this will differ from case-to-case (I can start to hear mine around 45%), a little extra fan speed afforded to the stock GT would go a LONG way towards lowering temps and therefore showing a much bigger difference between the stock GT and the Sparkle.
xsilver - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
totally agree.Also the design of the sparkle doesn't look all that genius anyways.
eg. what about if you mount a zalman VF1000 or thermalright HR03 and simply pull out/not mount a fan??
how does it compare?
the sparkle model here could have easily made mounts for a fan which would entice many more buyers like me. (fan attached to fan controller, run fan only when necessary)
Kaleid - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
With zip ties and a bit of imagination fans can be attacted onto almost anything.As for the card, I suppose a non-passive plus Thermalright HR03GT and a low RPM fan would be the best solution for quiet but not entirely silent cooling.
111 degrees is not ok IMO, heck not even 94 degrees.
cw42 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
I don't post here often, but that Mr Sparkle pic gets my two thumbs up for this review!The Boston Dangler - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
I'm sure you would have seen much lower temps with a different case. A perfect solution would be a box with positive pressure and vent(s) on the back, along the PCI slots. Some Antec and Silverstone towers, or most boxes with big fans on the front, would fit the bill nicely. Not many HTPC boxes are capable of positive pressure, but the way-too-pricey Silverstone CW02 has 2 90mm intakes and the PS draws from out side the box, allowing for positive pressure.The Velocity Micro case used in the review is actually the OriginAE X11. I don't think this box has the airflow desirable for a powerful passive vid card. I've had excellent results with using a Silverstone LC-20M and an XFX 7950GT HE9 (570 MHz). While positive pressure isn't possible with this box, I still get quite satifactory temps with a factory OC card. The PCI vent becomes an intake due to the draw of the 2 80mm rear fans and lousy intake from the front of the box. This results in a 10C drop, as compared to open case/no case running.
One similarity between the OriginAE and Silverstone cases is the PS mounted on it's side, with the lid mounting directly on top of it. Was there much (any) clearance between the card and the lid? In my box, there isn't even 1 CH of space left.
If possible, I ask you to put the card in a more suitable box and post the results. A P180 variant should be able to bring out the best in this card. With some tweaking, a very quiet SLI system should be possible.
Thanks,
Bill
The Boston Dangler - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
btw, i love the mr. sparkle picture. he is disrespectful to dirt!KeithTalent - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Totally agree; so awesome. I would not even have bothered to read the article, but that picture drew me in.KT
SonicIce - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
=DAbRASiON - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Believe it or not, the 512mb 8800GT was meant to be 199->249$This is why Dell can do them for 208$.
This is why Fry's / Outpost did them initially for 229$
It's certainly not meant to have started at 249$.
You'll find early Jan when the sales taper out, it'll be as low as 199$ US (best case, perhaps with rebates) and 229$ average.
Damn good, especially considering the poor prices of the new GTS and how it performs :(
shabby - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
No its not incorrect, the 199 pricetag was for the 256meg gt, 249 was for the 512. If you believe the 512meg gt was supposed to sell at $199 then why did ati price the slower 3870 at $230?AbRASiON - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
I believe that, because that's what every damned review said 6 weeks ago.The 256 pricing was unknown at the time.
toyota - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
We don't know how the 256MB variants will perform, but NVIDIA claims that they will arrive at $179 - $199.http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151...">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151...
jonnyGURU - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Yeah. Comparing an XFX card at TigerDirect vs. a BFG card sold at it's MSRP on the manufacturer's webstore is very subjective journalism there Anandy. ;)Tegeril - Monday, December 10, 2007 - link
It would seem that you missed the part where those prices were shown to highlight shipping costs.toyota - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
no edit?also the same article says this about 8800gt 512mb: Prices went from the expected $199 - $249 to a completely unexpected $250 - $300 range.
Crusader - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Looks just like my 8600GTS from MSI with passive cooling.Gonna have to upgrade to this card though!
docmilo - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
I just gutted my tower and stuck my computer into a Q-Pack case and my x1900xt is running over degrees cooler. The power supply in the small case blows a ton of air straight down on the video card and when I run the ATI overdrive my card never gets over 80 degrees when testing for a stable overclock where it would push 100 degrees in my full tower case.This thing would be perfect for a case like mine.
docmilo - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Over 10 degrees cooler that is. Where's the edit button when you need one?kilkennycat - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Ah, yes. After at least 2 years, Anandtech and Dailytech still have not been able to attain the edit-sophistication of the article-comment section of "The Tech Report" . Maybe Scott and his crew could give the Anandtech/Dailytech web-designers a hint or two ?gerf - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
Editing is lame. Post it for better or for worse. I even frequent forums with no editing, much like this, and prefer it over the crappy phpBB forums.Basilisk - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Perhaps I misunderstand your post, but... putting this card in my X-Qpack case would require removing a large portion of the power-supply (over the video card slot) where the heat pipes need to pass over the card. Same problem with several other cases I've used.Which is the @#$%^ problem with most passively cooled powerful GPU's: their pipes increase the vertical requirements too much. I wish they'd either notch the top of the cards for the pipes, or pass the pipes through notches on either end of the card. The current "over the top" approach minimizes their effort in re-utilizing non-passive card layouts, but the reverse could be done -- just build all cards on the notched-board design even if they use fans and no pipes.
darshahlu - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link
Interesting article.111C seems a bit hot doesn't it? I don't think I would feel comfortable running any component in my computer at that temperature. Not only is it a fire and burn hazard as joked by the author, the temperature will negatively effect the life and stability of all other components. While I definitely agree that noise elimination is very important in computer design, if you are really concerned with noise you will likely go for a much cooler card, which won't increase overall ambient temperature of your case. I would be more impressed with a slower card that ran extremely cool.
I have an AMD Opteron w/ a huge Zalman heatsink. No case fans and all inlets covered up w/ acoustic damping material. PSU has an adjustable fan, which I always run on its lowest setting. Three hard drives: 1 10k Raptor for OS, two 1 terabyte WD green power drives running RAID mirror for redundant storage. The entire inside of my steel full tower case is lined with acoustic damping materials. The hottest component in my computer is my motherboard chipset, which runs at 130 F. (This is after I replaced the chipset fan/HS and applied arctic silver.) My CPU runs at 90 F, only 20 degrees hotter than ambient room temperature, and likely only a few degrees hotter than the inside of the case (I have cool and quiet enabled to throttle the CPU by 50% when idle). GPU is a 6600 or something, passively cooled. Never gets too hot to touch.
If I were to add an 111C component to my computer, every thing else would increase in temperature, and likely, I would have to add case fans/noise to keep things in control.
Darshan
qamca - Sunday, January 20, 2008 - link
Well, it occurs to me that the authors of this article have no intention on getting the coolest, but in somewhat beating the record of highest temperature out of this configuration....And if your PC case is so small and in such a mess and so crowded, I don't see why would anyone buy a passive cooled performance graphics card like this one... In fact I don't see why would anyone build any performance configuration in a case like this one??
Another test I read has successfully overclocked this card to 695/2000 without reaching 85C.
All you need is a tidy case and a well thought trough airflow in it.
So keep your pants on all you people scared of getting burned...
Griswold - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
Its 111C inside the GPU core and not at the heatsink. Thats not really a fire or burn hazard.crazytyler34 - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link
100C boils water! when was the last time you touched boiling water without being burned?gerf - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link
Again, you can't touch the GPU itself, only the heatsink. The heatsink is relatively cool compared to the GPU itself.The GPU is the source of the heat, and is naturally the hottest point. That heat is transferred to the heatsink (it sink the heat, see?), which cools down much faster than the GPU alone, due to large amounts of surface area. If there's enough airflow, the GPU could be 120C, and the heatsink (the area you can reach to touch) would be the same as room temperature.