Quick Take: PowerColor's Passively-Cooled Radeon HD 7850 SCS3

[FormatC]

Tom's Hardware takes a quick look at PowerColor's passively-cooled Radeon HD 7850 SCS3. You're going to need notable airflow inside your case to keep this board stable, so don't expect to build a silent gaming PC with it.

Quick Take: PowerColor's Passively-Cooled Radeon HD 7850 SCS3 : Read more

 

[Guest]

It's still not a smart Idea to run a completely passive system though. If you don't exhaust heat the air in your case will heat up and it can damage/reduce the lifespan of your components. Besides, it's always nice to hear some sound to assure that your computer is ok (unless you're doing studio work, which still shouldn't pick up noise if you use quiet enough case fans).

 

[bombebomb]

So what you're saying is a passively cooled video card, requires active cooling? Fantastic

 

[nevilence]

I have never been bothered enough by fan noise (unless busted) to run the risks of passive cooling. In fact in my current system I have 4 fans I think, sometimes in look through the window in the case to check if they are actually running at all they are that quiet.

 

[masmotors]

i dont get the point of this seems like great for silent freaks but the fans dont bug me

 

[smeezekitty]

In my opinion, the 7850 generates too much heat to bother with passive cooling.

 

[RazberyBandit]

Passive card needs active airflow or it may overheat? Wow... That's just dumb.
Anyone who buys one of these would be wise to Zip-tie a fan or two to it.

 

[Cryio]

It's a "sneaky card"

 

[rmpumper]

The only good thing about "passive" GPUs is the nice big heatsink to which you can attach a 12-14cm silent fan.

 

[xpressoz]

At least on full load, the side and rear front coolers will still run at lowest speed and maybe will keep this card cool enough instead of his own cooler and "take off" when the fan is in full load.
PS: For the 6850 SCS3 with a 80mm fan, lowest RPM given by MB and open case, 30C ambient it hardly gets over 60C on full load. The fan is put with rubber pins at the bottom of the case and in a midiATX case (i think) the distance isn't very big between card and fan. This distance is better for low temps then the attached version of same cooler as i noticed. And with a 12mm fan on low RPM put in front and side its a bit cooler too.

 

[xpressoz]

At least on full load, the side and rear front coolers will still run at lowest speed and maybe will keep this card cool enough instead of his own cooler and "take off" when the fan is in full load.
PS: For the 6850 SCS3 with a 80mm fan, lowest RPM given by MB and open case, 30C ambient it hardly gets over 60C on full load. The fan is put with rubber pins at the bottom of the case and in a midiATX case (i think) the distance isn't very big between card and fan. This distance is better for low temps then the attached version of same cooler as i noticed. And with a 12mm fan on low RPM put in front and side its a bit cooler too.

 

[mynith]

Putting such an enormous badge on top of a passive heatsink is a stupid idea. Whoever came up with that should be fired.

 

[Keith Cronhardt]

that is the biggest video card I have ever seen!