if you want something to game, can it really deliver, and if you just need something to play blu-rays, won't something cheaper do the job just as good?
If you thinking of a HTPC anything from the 5550 and up will do all the AVIO stuff.
If you wane play games I would prefer card whit a silent cooler like some of the HIS models, as how nice a passive card is it also heats up the rest of your case, and whats the point of a passive card if it makes your other fans go faster and make more noise
I have a distinct feeling they'll change it to 'fastest silent single slot' in the not too distant future. The Go Green and Silent Cell 5750s are both dual slot, meaning Sapphire can find it's marketing niche. Chances are that they know about those cards, but maybe (a long shot) marketing have decided that 775Mhz on the 5670 is faster than 700Mhz on the 5750, despite the SPs being 400 and 720 respectively.
Chances are that they know about those cards, but maybe (a long shot) marketing have decided that 775Mhz on the 5670 is faster than 700Mhz on the 5750, despite the SPs being 400 and 720 respectively.
I guess they'd technically be right if they want to claim it has the highest clock speed of any silent vid card... F***ing marketing!
I have an eVGA GTS 250 with an Arctic Cooling Accelero passive cooler on it running Folding@Home 24/7/365. Cools about 20°C better than the stock cooler with very little air flow in the case.
This is a nice single slot solution, but if you have two slots to spare, there are much better alternatives for completely silent cooling.
I also have an Accelero on my HD4890, and it works great. I do keep a slow, silent fan strip-tied over the heatsink to keep it a little cooler, but it would do OK without that. For all intentns and purposes, it is completely silent. The only issue I had was that the Accelero didn't cool the VRMs, so I had to buy a separate heatsink for that.
Over 75W TDP just means that the card needs a a direct connection to the power supply to run; i.e., it won't run fully on just the power supplied by the PCIe slot.
It can still be cooled passively, providing the heat sink is capable enough.
I'm referring to this sentence from the article: "With a TDP of around 61W, Sapphire is reaching an upper limit on what passive cooling can do in a still-air environment"
You have to look at the whole sentence. "... in a still-air environment", that's the key word here. Those faster GPU's, using more 'fuel', they need better cooling and without airflow, that is not possible. Higher-end products can be cooled passively, but you will need airflow in your case, to cool the cooling. ;)
That is seriously sweet for those of us who love our desktops.
The question would be, what is the maximum real estate it can manage with these 3 How would a game be played?
Right now with 2x20" (1600x1200) my setup works really nicely for surfing, working and other things, but gaming goes 1 screen (I have tried dual on some, but they seem to put the action right at the split rather than having a graphics screen and a HUD on the other).
3 screens reminds me of some of the "OMG" setups about 5 years ago or so. Having peripheral views for a FPS, Driving or Flight sim would be great! Problem being, 3 of what. 3 x 1600x1200 will kill just about any detail you could hope for.....
Thing is, this could help for a 1 room office/entertainment situation, having vids on a wall screen while working on the other two........
the HD5670 is marketed as the fastest silently cooled graphics card ‘available today’ (even if we can’t find it on sale yet, nor can we find the Gigabyte 5750 Silent Cell on sale either).
Powercolor has really come up with an awesome product for passive video card nuts like me: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... A 5750 that is both passive and DOES NOT require a PCI-E power connector! They somehow shrunk the power envelope of ATI's chip. You pay extra for these features but I am happy to do so. One of the more innovative video cards I can ever remember seeing. This product is much more worthy of AT coverage IMHO.
Many thanks for that link; searching earlier in the day didn't find it. It looks like also they're not directly selling it under the Silent Cell moniker (or newegg aren't), but under its code, GV-R575SL-1GI. I've updated the news post accordingly.
Regarding the Go! Green, I'm wondering if they're stretching the power of the PCIe bus maybe a little too far; it may not overclock too well. They've used components usually seen on the high end cards, which may be more power efficient overall. That's also part of the premium you will pay. Ryan may have some thoughts...
The 5750 is only an 86W TDP card in the first place, so it was an obvious candidate for a silent card that only relies on PCIe-slot power. I don't know what exactly PowerColor did for it, but it's probably a combination of removing the fan and binning their chips. Even if you're still a bit over, it's unlikely anyone would notice.
TechPowerUp did some testing on the Powercolor Go! Green 5750, and, while not a great overclocker, it's better than you'd expect, according to them anyway:
I second Taft12's recommendation for AT to give it a review. It looks pretty interesting, and it would be worthwhile to see how it holds up under an AT review and benchmarking.
AVIVO and PureVideo are nice solutions but I've seen reviews where deinterlacing quality suffered on low end cards despite full hardware acelleration certification . Also cutting edge resizing (MadVR)requires a lot of GPU shader power. I wish Anand could help us find the best card for video that's passive and has low power requirements.
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Seeing how I have a HD5670 in my brother's rig, it's quite capable for gaming. It may not be middle-of-the-road like the HD5770 but compared to yesterday's hardware, it's equivalent to my old 8800GT. Keeping that in mind, the fact that this Sapphire is totally silent would make it a great addition to a silent SFF budget gaming rig.
It's nice to see some more cards in this category. I am not a maniac but I don't like noisy rig. I am currently sporting a crossfire setup with 2 x 4850 passively cooled from MSI. I am happy and it a decent setup. True, you got to have a well ventilated case but with what's available today this shouldn't be a problem. In my case, I am using a HAF932 and doesn't have any heat issue.
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softdrinkviking - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
is this worth it?if you want something to game, can it really deliver,
and if you just need something to play blu-rays, won't something cheaper do the job just as good?
ps1st
Jay2 - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
Covered in detail here:http://www.anandtech.com/show/2931
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3601/the-final-word-...
Havor - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
If you thinking of a HTPC anything from the 5550 and up will do all the AVIO stuff.If you wane play games I would prefer card whit a silent cooler like some of the HIS models, as how nice a passive card is it also heats up the rest of your case, and whats the point of a passive card if it makes your other fans go faster and make more noise
JGabriel - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
"the HD5670 is marketed as the fastest silently cooled graphics card ‘available today’"I think Powercolor might have something to say about that, with its passively cooled 5750 Go! Green: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
I don't doubt that Sapphire's passively cooled 5670 is a decent card, but they're stretching a bit on the marketing here.
.
IanCutress - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
I have a distinct feeling they'll change it to 'fastest silent single slot' in the not too distant future. The Go Green and Silent Cell 5750s are both dual slot, meaning Sapphire can find it's marketing niche. Chances are that they know about those cards, but maybe (a long shot) marketing have decided that 775Mhz on the 5670 is faster than 700Mhz on the 5750, despite the SPs being 400 and 720 respectively.Ian
Taft12 - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
Chances are that they know about those cards, but maybe (a long shot) marketing have decided that 775Mhz on the 5670 is faster than 700Mhz on the 5750, despite the SPs being 400 and 720 respectively.I guess they'd technically be right if they want to claim it has the highest clock speed of any silent vid card... F***ing marketing!
Jay2 - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
No mention of the powercolor equivalent? How will this differenciate...Also, ripping Napster Logo is a bit lame...
Golgatha - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
I have an eVGA GTS 250 with an Arctic Cooling Accelero passive cooler on it running Folding@Home 24/7/365. Cools about 20°C better than the stock cooler with very little air flow in the case.This is a nice single slot solution, but if you have two slots to spare, there are much better alternatives for completely silent cooling.
kmmatney - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
I also have an Accelero on my HD4890, and it works great. I do keep a slow, silent fan strip-tied over the heatsink to keep it a little cooler, but it would do OK without that. For all intentns and purposes, it is completely silent. The only issue I had was that the Accelero didn't cool the VRMs, so I had to buy a separate heatsink for that.Aezay - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
I'm a little confused here.The ATI 3870 chip from a few years back, apparently had a TDP of 105 Watts, but Sapphire also made that card with a passive cooler.
JGabriel - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
Over 75W TDP just means that the card needs a a direct connection to the power supply to run; i.e., it won't run fully on just the power supplied by the PCIe slot.It can still be cooled passively, providing the heat sink is capable enough.
.
Aezay - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
I'm referring to this sentence from the article:"With a TDP of around 61W, Sapphire is reaching an upper limit on what passive cooling can do in a still-air environment"
Phate-13 - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
You have to look at the whole sentence. "... in a still-air environment", that's the key word here. Those faster GPU's, using more 'fuel', they need better cooling and without airflow, that is not possible. Higher-end products can be cooled passively, but you will need airflow in your case, to cool the cooling. ;)Ninjahedge - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
That is seriously sweet for those of us who love our desktops.The question would be, what is the maximum real estate it can manage with these 3 How would a game be played?
Right now with 2x20" (1600x1200) my setup works really nicely for surfing, working and other things, but gaming goes 1 screen (I have tried dual on some, but they seem to put the action right at the split rather than having a graphics screen and a HUD on the other).
3 screens reminds me of some of the "OMG" setups about 5 years ago or so. Having peripheral views for a FPS, Driving or Flight sim would be great! Problem being, 3 of what. 3 x 1600x1200 will kill just about any detail you could hope for.....
Thing is, this could help for a 1 room office/entertainment situation, having vids on a wall screen while working on the other two........
Ahh, the dream....... ;)
Taft12 - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
the HD5670 is marketed as the fastest silently cooled graphics card ‘available today’ (even if we can’t find it on sale yet, nor can we find the Gigabyte 5750 Silent Cell on sale either).Well their marketing is false, and so is your assertion the Gigabyte 5750 Silent Cell is not on sale anywhere
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
(in stock at $149.99 at 1:30EST June 24)
Powercolor has really come up with an awesome product for passive video card nuts like me:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
A 5750 that is both passive and DOES NOT require a PCI-E power connector! They somehow shrunk the power envelope of ATI's chip. You pay extra for these features but I am happy to do so. One of the more innovative video cards I can ever remember seeing. This product is much more worthy of AT coverage IMHO.
IanCutress - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
Hi Taft12,Many thanks for that link; searching earlier in the day didn't find it. It looks like also they're not directly selling it under the Silent Cell moniker (or newegg aren't), but under its code, GV-R575SL-1GI. I've updated the news post accordingly.
Regarding the Go! Green, I'm wondering if they're stretching the power of the PCIe bus maybe a little too far; it may not overclock too well. They've used components usually seen on the high end cards, which may be more power efficient overall. That's also part of the premium you will pay. Ryan may have some thoughts...
All the best,
Ian
Ryan Smith - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
The 5750 is only an 86W TDP card in the first place, so it was an obvious candidate for a silent card that only relies on PCIe-slot power. I don't know what exactly PowerColor did for it, but it's probably a combination of removing the fan and binning their chips. Even if you're still a bit over, it's unlikely anyone would notice.JGabriel - Saturday, June 26, 2010 - link
Hi Ian,TechPowerUp did some testing on the Powercolor Go! Green 5750, and, while not a great overclocker, it's better than you'd expect, according to them anyway:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5...
I second Taft12's recommendation for AT to give it a review. It looks pretty interesting, and it would be worthwhile to see how it holds up under an AT review and benchmarking.
.
RoadToNever - Friday, June 25, 2010 - link
AVIVO and PureVideo are nice solutions but I've seen reviews where deinterlacing quality suffered on low end cards despite full hardware acelleration certification . Also cutting edge resizing (MadVR)requires a lot of GPU shader power.I wish Anand could help us find the best card for video that's passive and has low power requirements.
buyaofeichu - Friday, June 25, 2010 - link
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Acreo Aeneas - Friday, June 25, 2010 - link
Seeing how I have a HD5670 in my brother's rig, it's quite capable for gaming. It may not be middle-of-the-road like the HD5770 but compared to yesterday's hardware, it's equivalent to my old 8800GT. Keeping that in mind, the fact that this Sapphire is totally silent would make it a great addition to a silent SFF budget gaming rig.Wurmer - Saturday, June 26, 2010 - link
It's nice to see some more cards in this category. I am not a maniac but I don't like noisy rig. I am currently sporting a crossfire setup with 2 x 4850 passively cooled from MSI. I am happy and it a decent setup. True, you got to have a well ventilated case but with what's available today this shouldn't be a problem. In my case, I am using a HAF932 and doesn't have any heat issue.