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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)
Greetings all.
*** Warning, this post is a bit long (but not too long). I'd like to
see what people think of the issue, so please post your point of view
on the matter.
PREFACE
I am ashamed to admit, but I have never used an actively cooled
graphics card on a computer of mine. Ideally I'd like to keep it this
way, but not because I stick with low-end cards, but because I'm
hoping companies would start taking notice.
PASSIVE COOLING
A good conduct, as far as I'm concerned, is Sapphire's Radeon 9x00
Ultimate series -- medium and high end cards with passive cooling.
Unfortunately there is no latest-gen (X800) equivalent. (Yes, this is
an nVIDIA newsgroup, but I am not aware of any passively cooled
nVIDIAs that are not very-low-end).
I'm not sure I get the big idea. Instead of using better heatsinks
and keeping it passive, companies just stick a fan, even on low-end
models where a slightly better heatsink would easily solve the
problem.
Perhaps some ppl buy their cards based on how "beefed up" it looks,
but I'm sure there are plenty of others who don't -- why not cater for
them too? Perhaps fans are cheaper than heatsinks, and saving 5 cents
is more important than making sure card function in the longer run.
Providing sufficient passive cooling for higher end models -- through
more exotic and bulky heatsinks and heatpipes -- would cost more, but
there are people who will pay more (me included).
For the very highest end (say 6800 Ultra Extreme [silly name]) passive
cooling may not be enough, that I can accept.
ACTIVE COOLING DONE RIGHT
If a fan is thrown in after all, why not do it right? Every
manufacturer uses a proprietary exotic design, and so, unlike the
situation with CPUs, it's difficult or impossible to find a
replacement in case of a failure. If fans are an integral part of
graphics cards, having mounting standards would only do good.
And there's the issue of thermal protection. I haven't been able to
find much info on that, but what I have read suggests most graphics
chips would fry in the case of a complete fan failure. Is that true,
or perhaps some gfx chips are able to handle it gracefully (a la
Pentium 4)?
Cheers!
Ehud Shapira
Greetings all.
*** Warning, this post is a bit long (but not too long). I'd like to
see what people think of the issue, so please post your point of view
on the matter.
PREFACE
I am ashamed to admit, but I have never used an actively cooled
graphics card on a computer of mine. Ideally I'd like to keep it this
way, but not because I stick with low-end cards, but because I'm
hoping companies would start taking notice.
PASSIVE COOLING
A good conduct, as far as I'm concerned, is Sapphire's Radeon 9x00
Ultimate series -- medium and high end cards with passive cooling.
Unfortunately there is no latest-gen (X800) equivalent. (Yes, this is
an nVIDIA newsgroup, but I am not aware of any passively cooled
nVIDIAs that are not very-low-end).
I'm not sure I get the big idea. Instead of using better heatsinks
and keeping it passive, companies just stick a fan, even on low-end
models where a slightly better heatsink would easily solve the
problem.
Perhaps some ppl buy their cards based on how "beefed up" it looks,
but I'm sure there are plenty of others who don't -- why not cater for
them too? Perhaps fans are cheaper than heatsinks, and saving 5 cents
is more important than making sure card function in the longer run.
Providing sufficient passive cooling for higher end models -- through
more exotic and bulky heatsinks and heatpipes -- would cost more, but
there are people who will pay more (me included).
For the very highest end (say 6800 Ultra Extreme [silly name]) passive
cooling may not be enough, that I can accept.
ACTIVE COOLING DONE RIGHT
If a fan is thrown in after all, why not do it right? Every
manufacturer uses a proprietary exotic design, and so, unlike the
situation with CPUs, it's difficult or impossible to find a
replacement in case of a failure. If fans are an integral part of
graphics cards, having mounting standards would only do good.
And there's the issue of thermal protection. I haven't been able to
find much info on that, but what I have read suggests most graphics
chips would fry in the case of a complete fan failure. Is that true,
or perhaps some gfx chips are able to handle it gracefully (a la
Pentium 4)?
Cheers!
Ehud Shapira