When choosing a video card, a compromise between heat and noise is always a factor, especially when you require a more powerful GPU solution. Heat is obviously a hindrance to optimal performance and could shorten the lifespan of your GPU, requiring an active cooling system in order to keep temperatures in check while in operation. The higher the temperature, the faster and louder the fan has to spin in order to dissipate heat from the heatsink. A completely passive heatsink solution is possible but powerful GPUs run too hot to be manageable, limiting the passively cooled video card options to the low end segment, often unsuitable for gaming.
The move to a smaller 28nm manufacturing process with the new generation of AMD Radeon GPUs have opened up remarkable new possibilities when it comes to running more powerful GPUs at a lower temperature. The new Cape Verde line in particular, with its GCN architecture, crams in a lot more performance and requires less power, compared to previous generation budget video cards. Since it requires less power and is much more energy efficient, this also lowers the cooling requirements to levels that are easily manageable on a fanless design. Sapphire, the world's number one Radeon video card manufacturer, knows this well and is introducing their latest fanless design video card: the Sapphire HD 7750 Ultimate.
The Sapphire HD 7750 Ultimate uses a dual-slot passive cooling system with zero moving parts. This makes the Sapphire HD 7750 Ultimate completely silent and perfect for a gaming HTPC or in a library/office setting. Under the hood of the Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 Ultimate is AMD's 3rd generation DirectX11 28nm GPU based on the Graphics Core Next Architecture, sporting an 800MHz core clock with 1GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit memory bus. Like all AMD Radeon 7000 series cards, the Sapphire HD 7750 Ultimate comes with AMD HD3D support via HDMI 1.4a, as well as AMD Eyefinity and next-generation 4K display support for the ultimate in gaming immersion.
