With a decent case (&) layout, you could easy make some ducting (if you're like me) and direct airflow over the card and out of the case. That's what I would do with this card. I've been looking at the 1GB 4870 and the price is huge compared to the 512MB version. If the price for this is on par with the 512MB 4870 then this wouldn't be a bad proposition, however if it's as much as the 1GB 4870 then no, I wouldn't go for even if I wanted passive cooling.

I'm definitely feeling this.

your PC will go on fire! the normal card goes up to 90C° with the fan on stock. Most users wont create an airduct anyway so... i only hope that GB really know what its doing...
holy crap, one of the hottest gpus on the market passive cooled? that sound fool, but the most foolish plans sometimes work :D

For the record, after the fan mod the card does ok, 40c at 80f room temp. That is pretty good! The only problem is this card has no fan... so what does it do? It must be a giant HS. But it really is not. If Gigabyte can pull this off, I will be surprised.

PVTCaboose1337For the record, after the fan mod the card does ok, 40c at 80f room temp. That is pretty good! The only problem is this card has no fan... so what does it do? It must be a giant HS. But it really is not. If Gigabyte can pull this off, I will be surprised.

My thoughts exactly, I'd like to see what temps are on this thing. But im sure good airflow is a must have for this.

i still remember my 8600GTS Gigabyte, by far the best building quality. I still own it, it was a shame sell it for nothing. The passive disipation it was excelent.

Go gigabyte and Silent pipe 3. :respect:

on full load, never pass over º 55, and doesnt had any fan attached. :D

Read here about Multi Core Cooling: www.gigabyte.eu/FileList/WebPage/vga_080805_multicore/tech_080805_multi.htm

One thing that a buyer must remember is to keep the case closed in order to maintain the airflow... But a lot of users forget this...

My take on this is "wait and see".

I had a Gigabyte 7600GT passively cooled (Silent Pipe I) and used to love the silence, but my gpu temp reading was showing 70C idle if I remember correctly and my mobo was getting above 45C. Felt very uncomfortable with this solution, and I'm only a casual pc gamer, so I don't even want to think about the potential damage it can do to a hard core gamer's rig.

As said above, unless you have some outstanding ventilation in your case, there's no point in getting this card. And still, better case ventilation generally goes with higher noise (unless going for quite expensive solutions), so it defeats the whole purpose of the card, IMO.

I love the idea though, and really hope they'll pull it off this time.

Thats true. If you let yout case open, the temps will rise up really fast. Remember a time when a let my case open and i was gaming about an hour and a half. Then i start to here a noise, i went and touch the card, the heatsinks, and it was burning, i checked the temps, and it was in 89 degrees (celsius). As soon as i close the case, the temps drop to 55 degrees celsius

nicolais86Thats true. If you let yout case open, the temps will rise up really fast. Remember a time when a let my case open and i was gaming about an hour and a half. Then i start to here a noise, i went and touch the card, the heatsinks, and it was burning, i checked the temps, and it was in 89 degrees (celsius). As soon as i close the case, the temps drop to 55 degrees celsius

89 degrees?? You call that much?

I tried to use my 8800GTX passively with the HR03+ heatsink. It worked about 2 minutes. Windows started to get unresponsive, GPU temperature @ 115 C :D (at this point it was clear that the GPU was throttling to keep down the temperature). I could feel the heat emitted from the heatsink at 10 cm.

After that "incident" I no longer worry about GPU temperatures. And yes, my 8800GTX still works flawlessly.

Something I would drop an 80/92mm fan on....

And then a pci slot exhaust cooler under that.

it should work ust fine they wouldn't release it if it was going to overheat...

It will definitely be something to see. Cannot wait to see what temps W gets if he reviews it.

Cool cooler, it'll be nice to finally hear silence again in my digital lifestyle cause when I get out of my room for work I can't get the humming noises out of my head.

cdawallit should work ust fine they wouldn't release it if it was going to overheat...

You're right it will work, but my god.... Put that in a clear case and you might have a night light, nice glowing red one. :laugh:

I dunno, video cards running over 70c irritates me even if they are built for it... Really I would like to see everything in my machine stay under 50c.

Zehnsucht89 degrees?? You call that much?

I tried to use my 8800GTX passively with the HR03+ heatsink. It worked about 2 minutes. Windows started to get unresponsive, GPU temperature @ 115 C :D (at this point it was clear that the GPU was throttling to keep down the temperature). I could feel the heat emitted from the heatsink at 10 cm.

After that "incident" I no longer worry about GPU temperatures. And yes, my 8800GTX still works flawlessly.

The fact that the 8800GTX puts out much more heat than for example a 7600GT?:slap:

Gigabyte must have some sort of special metals on this cooler, I attempted the same thing with my zerotherm hurricane cooler without the fan, it's a good amount of copper on it, but it would not stay cool enough without the fan. I didn't try it with the case closed though, I should try and see what I get. Without the side panel it would lock up when gaming, but for regular use it didn't seem too hot, then again the bios has the settings at 160mhz idle 2d while 720mhz load 3d. Visiontek 4850.

niko084You're right it will work, but my god.... Put that in a clear case and you might have a night light, nice glowing red one. :laugh:

I dunno, video cards running over 70c irritates me even if they are built for it... Really I would like to see everything in my machine stay under 50c.

thing about that is video cards are designed to run hotter most can handle 115C load temps no issues at all

but i agree lower is better :D hence why i'm all on water

nice cooling , but i think it is not good enough for card like 4850

niko084You're right it will work, but my god.... Put that in a clear case and you might have a night light, nice glowing red one. :laugh:

I dunno, video cards running over 70c irritates me even if they are built for it... Really I would like to see everything in my machine stay under 50c.

never ran a 6800 did ya?

candle_86never ran a 6800 did ya?

God no... Almost bought one, but ended up with a x1950xt a few months later.