Half height & passive with some grunt?

[cokecan]

Hey Guys

I'm potentially looking and downsizing slightly whilst having a bit of an upgrade from my old Q6600 to a newer i3/i5 CPU but am wondering what GPU options there are for a half height card that is passive?

I currently have an old HD4850 which has really done well over the years. I don't do too much PC gaming now days (spend more time on consoles) but do like to go back to some of my older games. Ideally I'd like to find a card that would be close to the power of my HD4850 while supporting HDMI audio. Currently my max res is 1280x1024 though will be upgrading to 1920x1080 eventually

any contenders?

 

[Marine-RX179]

If passive cooling (fanless heatsink only) is not a MUST then:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18432661

 

[almoststew1990]

I seem to remember 6670s being the most powerful silent card, but they take up two slots. this 6570 might be your best bet but it wont be anywhere near as powerful as a 4850.

 

[cokecan]

That Sapphire 6670 looks interesting! Any idea how quiet the fan will be?

From a few forums/articles I've read it seems the 6670 is about 5-7% slower than my 4850 but consumes way less power. Does anyone have any experience of this card?

 

[TALON1973]

im sure therss a rare as horse**** 6850

 

[cokecan]

I've been reading about them.....seems you'd be lucky to find out outside of Japan lol

 

[Marine-RX179]

That Sapphire 6670 looks interesting! Any idea how quiet the fan will be?

From a few forums/articles I've read it seems the 6670 is about 5-7% slower than my 4850 but consumes way less power. Does anyone have any experience of this card?

Not sure about the noise level if the fan...but I think you can use MSI Afterburner for setting a custom speed anyway...and also Sapphire's design of that single slot low profile 6670 must be targeted at HTPC users, so I can't imagine it would be too noise.

But how soon do you need the card? Back then the low profile Sapphire HD6670 was in the exact same position as the Sapphire low profile 7750 right now- available in US etc, but not yet available in the UK...it was a bit later that the low profile Sapphire HD6670 became readily available in the UK.

The benefit of the 7750 is that it is around same speed as 4870/5770, and has even lower power consumption than the 6670 (6670 consume around 60W at max, whereas the 7750 consume like only 44W at max according to techpowerup). The benefit of lower power consumption is that it would generate even less heat, meaning the fan would need not to spin as fast. But the chance are both cards are unaudiable even under load.

 

[cokecan]

I would be looking at buying one within the next month or so with some luch. The 7750 is VERY tempting with the lower power consumption, plus it would actually be a slight upgrade from my 4850!

Any idea when the 7750 will be available to buy in the UK?