Fan-less vs Fan Video Cards

[user1397]

So what is your opinion on fanless video cards? Is it really not worth it because of higher temps? Is it unthinkable to do any gaming with a fanless card?

[Paqman]

Is it unthinkable to do any gaming with a fanless card?

Not at all, I always buy fanless cards. They're perfectly good. You might need to think about case ventilation a little more than you would otherwise, but that's not a bad thing to do anyway.

[JT9161]

What's the price deference ?

[user1397]

Not at all, I always buy fanless cards. They're perfectly good. You might need to think about case ventilation a little more than you would otherwise, but that's not a bad thing to do anyway.

well I just have a gateway desktop with a standard case...what would you recommend for better ventilation?

[blur xc]

I recently converted mine to fanless and love it. #1 advantage -QUIET. I had a banshee of a vid card fan, and I'm glad to let it go. I did add another 120mm fan to the side of my case though, but it's a real quiet fan.

Overall, it never really runs any cooler than the oe fan/heatsink did, but when ventilation is compromised, the temps will rise faster than the old setup did. Either way, it's still way cooler than the temp threshold (if I'm reading it right) that's stated in the nvidia setting manager, 50c on the low end, 64c the highest I've seen it.

BM

[Paqman]

What's the price deference ?

Pretty minimal, although you'll struggle to find many of the latest cards available fanless. If you look at cards a model or two down you should get plenty of options.

[Paqman]

well I just have a gateway desktop with a standard case...what would you recommend for better ventilation?

If your case is adequately ventilated already then you should just be able to slap a fanless card in and not worry about it. It really depends on what card and what case though. In general, tidying up your cables and installing better case fans will help. The stock ones tend to be rubbish.

[user1397]

What's the price deference ?

there's not a difference in price usually from what ive seen

[juancarlospaco]

On Sovietic Russia VideoCard uses electric resistances to stay not frozen

[WalmartSniperLX]

Passive cooling is a miracle on video cards. Those smaller fans that come on the active coolers are so LOUD to my ears. They make a higher pitch whine that just kills me. Other people's ears vary.. and tolerances lol. I would get a fanless any day, or slap on an aftermarket passive heatsink. Just make sure your case has good air flow. A cheap fix for air flow is to leave the case open. That's what I'm doing. ;)

[juancarlospaco]

Replace the aluminum dissipator with the Pentium 3 aluminum dissipator and you are done.
Fan-to-FanLess
:D

[handy]

I installed an expensive Thermaltake copper heat pipe system on an nVidia 6800 graphics card.

It was quiet but it died 3 months later!?

After that expensive (at the time) loss, apart from water cooling I don't think I would easily trust any kind of fan-less GPU cooling system again.

[stmiller]

I've always only used passively cooled video cards. I can't stand the loud noise.

This company is known for making quiet computers. They generally have a good list of some higher-end passively cooled video cards:

http://www.pugetsystems.com/store/index.php?cat=Video+Card

[blueturtl]

I prefer systems with passive GPU and CPU cooling. One big fan+HDD spindle noise = practical silence. :)

edit:

To actually answer the OP, yes, you can do gaming on video cards that are passively cooled. They are usually never quite as powerful as the most powerful actively cooled cards, but are very much usable. The last time I bought a gaming card it was a GeForce 7600GT which came ready with a huge heatsink. Back then it was actually not a bad card at all, only 7800 or 7900 were faster I think.

[a2z]

well I just have a gateway desktop with a standard case...what would you recommend for better ventilation?

HAF (http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6606)

[Grenage]

I prefer passive, and it's all I'd use in my HTPC. My main PC has two 230mm fans, CPU fan, and GPU with fan. It's pretty quiet.

[Oxwivi]

Hey, anyone know how to get my P IV fanless? The fan controller's totally busted, and the noise's so loud, it can be heard outside the room.

[handy]

I always sold AMD in the days of P4. What I do know is that they use lots of electricity, so I expect that they need a lot of cooling.

If you want to get one of those things to be cooled quietly then the sure fire solution is to go for water cooling.

Water cooling isn't cheap, but if you buy a good system (a system that continues to provide support - the required components - for new hardware) you will just as likely be able to use it for well over a decade on whatever desktop system you own.

There are reliability & longevity benefits that come with keeping your hardware cool, though for those of us that just stick with the standard & sometimes noisy fan/'sink cooling systems, & who occasionally clean the dust out of our systems (air compressors are great for this) from time to time, we really have no problem with the longevity of the components that we are using.

So...


Ear plugs are cheap.

[Oxwivi]

Hahah, this desktop itself is more or less a decade old. No money for computer, forget water-cooling. And I can't get to run it unnoticed with me wearing earplugs... TT_TT

Donate some used crap to me!

[gemmakaru]

There is always watercooling.

I watercooled a pair of 7800GTs back in the day and overclocked them a little. The video memory did get hot and appreciate a breeze though.

Wait where is that geekiest thing thread again...

[handy]

Hahah, this desktop itself is more or less a decade old. No money for computer, forget water-cooling. And I can't get to run it unnoticed with me wearing earplugs... TT_TT

Donate some used crap to me!

Yeah right. Go be a bludger somewhere else.


There is always watercooling.

I watercooled a pair of 7800GTs back in the day and overclocked them a little. The video memory did get hot and appreciate a breeze though.

Wait where is that geekiest thing thread again...

Geekiest thread I've seen here is where the guys cooled the hardware in a fish tank full of vegetable oil.

The OP won't be interested in that because he has no money to spend. For anyone else you can search up a really good site with all of the info' available on the topic.

Here are a couple:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/strip-fans,1203.html

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/hardcorepc_reactor

[user1397]

The OP won't be interested in that because he has no money to spend.

and how do YOU know that?!?!?!?!



hahaha just messin with ya handy, but seriously, why'd u say that? :-k

[handy]

and how do YOU know that?!?!?!?!



hahaha just messin with ya handy, but seriously, why'd u say that? :-k

Sorry. I mixed this thread up in my mind with the one where the guys were using old bits & pieces to make machine for a guy that had no money to spend.

Sorry, my mistake. My old brain ain't what it used to be I'm sorry to say... ;)

Under these circumstances then, you might enjoy the adventure & interest of building an oil cooled machine. :)