Sparkle 8800 GT Passive: The Fastest Silent GPU in the World
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 29, 2007 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
We're impressed. Usually HTPCers have to make a tremendous tradeoff when picking a graphics card, more often than not they're stuck with a pretty fast, but still mid-range GPU. With the 8800 GT, we have a GPU that's basically as fast as an 8800 GTX and with Sparkle's card we have such a beast without a fan.
The card gets hot, but as we've seen, it can easily be used inside a case alongside a very warm CPU. A well ventilated chassis will obviously help and we're not sure what the high temperatures will do to the longevity of the GPU (overclocking the graphics card is obviously not recommended), but that's what warranties are for (it looks like Sparkle provides a one-year warranty on its cards, ouch).
The only thing Sparkle's 8800 GT is missing is HDMI output, but we figure most HTPC users are accustomed to dealing with using DVI only at this point. We do commend Sparkle for making sure that its first 8800 GT would be passively cooled, if more companies would take this approach we might actually see some better product differentiation in the market. Sparkle's website also indicates a 256MB version in the works.
Pricing isn't bad either, although we're skeptical until we actually see these things ship. Given how quickly the other 8800 GTs have sold out, if you see this thing at $319 and are interested, we suggest moving quickly.
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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.