Passively cooled 750 Ti

O

octoberasian

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
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That's really sweet. More and more I think I'm gonna ditch my ACX card. Just way too loud.

I'm at work and can't load the full link. Can anyone tell me what kind of temps they saw with the passive cooler? at what clocks?
 
I'd be willing to bet the ACX cooler has as much radiating area as the cooler pictured above, and the fins are vertically oriented. I'd give it a shot in passive mode with a little case airflow before I bought a cooler. I'm going to try it if I ever get time.
 
melk said:
That's really sweet. More and more I think I'm gonna ditch my ACX card. Just way too loud.

I'm at work and can't load the full link. Can anyone tell me what kind of temps they saw with the passive cooler? at what clocks?
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According to the article...

With the passive Sapphire cooler in-place the GTX 750 Ti was running considerably hotter than with the more-traditional active air-cooler atop it. But still, it was just bouncing around the 80ºC point and didn’t even threaten to throttle back the GPU in-game.
Click to expand...

But, it does make me wonder what kind of case he has and how good the airflow is inside it.
 
80C seems maybe a bit high? Other than being able to say "yeah you can technically do this." Does it report what clockspeeds it was running at?
 
melk said:
80C seems maybe a bit high? Other than being able to say "yeah you can technically do this." Does it report what clockspeeds it was running at?
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He doesn't mention in the article, so I'm going to assume it's stock clocks.
 
melk said:
80C seems maybe a bit high? Other than being able to say "yeah you can technically do this." Does it report what clockspeeds it was running at?
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Considering that's full load using a heatsink not only not designed for the 750 Ti, but also from an AMD card it's actually pretty incredible. The Kepler GPU's are meant to function at a near 80C operation out of the box unless you do some tweaking to lower that. So it basically falls right in line. Only concern would be the width. It would be nice to get back down to single slot cards at the low-end.
 
melk said:
That's really sweet. More and more I think I'm gonna ditch my ACX card. Just way too loud.

I'm at work and can't load the full link. Can anyone tell me what kind of temps they saw with the passive cooler? at what clocks?
Click to expand...

which ACX card do you own? From the reviews I read online for various GPU's (770, 780 / ti), the ACX cooler seems very competitive from a noise / temp perspective.
 
EVGA 750 Ti FTW with ACX cooler.

It runs at 1405 core, 3300/6600 memory. Which is great. But it is loud, even at idle/desktop browsing which I find annoying.

Under full load the highest I have seen is 51c
 
I keep reading people saying the ACX is loud and I just don't get it. I have 7 running in an open air mining rack. I don't feel like they are any louder than any other gaming graphics card I have owned in the last 5 years. Maybe compared to other low powered cards they are loud?

I really don't think I could hear 1 in a gaming build tucked away under my desk.

Maybe because they are targeted at a lower price point not many owners have dealt with the noise of flagship gpus?
 
Is the GTX 750 really that loud?

Passive 780:
8MK2UGd.jpg
 
octoberasian said:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/04/17/h...y-with-an-old-cooler-and-some-simple-surgery/




Too bad there isn't anyone making aftermarket passively cooled heatsinks for low end video cards nowadays.
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True - and it's not as if there isn't a market for such. (Remember, Visiontek, to name just ONE AIB, has been selling HD54xx/55xx/65xx passively-cooled GPUs retail since the GPU's launch - Sapphire has a passively-cooled R7 on its roster today.)

Here's the shocker - GTX750 has a lower TDP than HD5450. (Remember, I used to own one - Mom has that same GPU today.) Why the lack of passively-cooled versions?
 
PGHammer said:
Here's the shocker - GTX750 has a lower TDP than HD5450. (Remember, I used to own one - Mom has that same GPU today.) Why the lack of passively-cooled versions?
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I have no idea why. I don't think it'll cost more to manufacture than a traditionally cooled video card.

A silent video card in a mini-ITX or small micro ATX case could make a good and quiet HTPC or moderate gaming PC, especially if SteamOS is on it.
 
With the honking big heat sink under the ACX fans on mine I am seriously tempted to just disconnect the fans.... :cool:
 
I miss having passively cooled cards. My old Gigabyte 7600gt was passively cooled and it was awesome. When I stuck a 4850 in there the noise just drove me crazy.
 




So I got around to unhooking my ACX fan. The heat sink is pretty massive. It quickly ramped up to 80c under load. If I raised the temp target using Precision it got up to about 85c before crashing and resetting to stock clocks. What I found most interesting was how quickly the temp dropped when not under load. During loading screens it would drop to about 60c after just a second or two.

I have minimal case cooling, stock Intel HSF on a i3-3440 and a single case exhaust.
 
I bet if you had a large intake fan at the front of that case and removed the shroud from that cooler you'd get slightly better temps, but 80C is not terrible for a load temp on a passive card.

Has anyone removed the fan shroud from an ACX cooler 750 Ti and placed the card in the path of air flow between an intake and exhaust fan in their case?
 
Yeah I'm going to add a front intake but I need a fan controller first, I am out of headers on the board. I have a Hyper 212 Evo in the mail.

I may remove the shroud and add a single quiet fan. Thing is, the card (fan side) is right up against the interior wall, so there is really no cross flow inside the case to speak of.
 
I had a XFX Geforce 7950GT several years ago... never again will I have a "performance" or serious gaming level graphics card with no fan. That card just ran too hot under load. I would be willing to try the new 750 Ti with one but thats my limit and the case would need good airflow.

It is tempting to test that old card in a newer case with 120mm+ case fans though. Maybe if I'm bored one day.
 
That's a serious heatsink. Is the noise from modern cards really that annoying though?
 
Well the thing with the ACX fan is, it's ALWAYS running at 42% minimum. Even at idle / desktop browsing. That's what is most annoying. You could likely turn the fan off and run passive for desktop usage and not even approach 80c.

I think a blower style fan would make a huge difference too. Having it right up against my case wall doesn't help. It actually sounded quieter with the side panel off.
 
So I've decided I want to replace the ACX fans with something different. The shroud appears to come off easily enough, so the only trouble I see is that it uses a 2pin connector. I'm looking around for fans now but it seems there aren't many with 2pin connectors? Any suggestions?
 
Hmm yeah I thought maybe I needed to use the connector on the card for some reason. Will it still register/display the real temp of the card? It would suck if the card throttles itself because it doesn't detect a fan plugged in. I guess I'll find out!
 
melk said:
Hmm yeah I thought maybe I needed to use the connector on the card for some reason. Will it still register/display the real temp of the card? It would suck if the card throttles itself because it doesn't detect a fan plugged in. I guess I'll find out!
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The 750 Ti uses a "dumb" fan header. Just 2 pins with variable voltage.

It has no way of telling if a fan is plugged in, or even what RPM it's running at. It just throws some level of voltage at the pins and hopes for the best.

It wont throttle because a fan isn't plugged in. It would have to start overheating to throttle.
 
Great info! Thanks Unknown One. I wonder if I could hack in some sort of voltage step down to simply reduce the power being supplied? Less than ideal I suppose since you would still want them to ramp up under load.

More likely however I am going to use a 92x14mm slim Noctua fan. I'll start with one and see where temps sit.
 
melk said:
Great info! Thanks Unknown One. I wonder if I could hack in some sort of voltage step down to simply reduce the power being supplied?
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Already been done, and it works a treat. You just need something like this between the fan and the header on the graphics card, and it will shift the fan's RPM range down a notch or two: http://www.amazon.com/Speed-Reduce-...=1399994204&sr=8-1&keywords=fan+speed+reducer

You might already have one of these adapters on-hand if you've ever purchased a Noctua fan. They generally include two of them with every fan with various resistor values.

melk said:
Less than ideal I suppose since you would still want them to ramp up under load.
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True enough, this hack reduces minimum AND maximum RPM. That said, the GTX 750 Ti runs so cool that not being able to run the fan(s) at 100% generally isn't a problem. Totally worth-it to make the card idle quietly.
 
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Interested...assuming it's actually a 0 dB part. I'm all too familiar with passively-cooled components that should be inaudible from a meter or so but aren't due to noisy power components.

Also:
...pursue the silnent 0dB gaming environiment.
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Heh.
 
What would have better thermals, a passively cooled 750Ti or one with the stock fan but with the fan speed permanently set to an "inaudible" level, say 30%?
 
dragonageinquisition said:
What would have better thermals, a passively cooled 750Ti or one with the stock fan but with the fan speed permanently set to an "inaudible" level, say 30%?
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Would you like to compare apples to oranges?

The effectiveness of a passively cooled card comes down to the overall air flow of your case. If you have a sealed up case, or one with poor air flow, the cooler won't be very effective. If you have a huge side panel fan blowing on the card, and equal exhaust, it should work as well, or better than an actively cooled card. These coolers should be designed with these ideas in mind.

An actively cooled card is designed to have the fan spin up as it gets warmer. If you leave it at 30%, you can bet the card will start to throttle itself in order to preserve itself.

You're better off getting the passively cooled card if you have good air flow in your case if noise is an issue for you.
 
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