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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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.