HARDWARE

PC Hardware Buyer's Guide - Silent Graphics Card (Part 3) : Sapphire Radeon HP 7750 Ultimate, Zotac GeForce GT 640 Zone Edition, Club3D Radeon HD 7750 RoyalQueen

6/15/2013 8:58:50 AM

Sapphire Radeon HP 7750 Ultimate

Sapphire's Radeon HD 7750 Ultimate is the company's attempt to make a fanless graphics card using AMD's HD 7000 series design, and before we go any further, let's defuse the tension: it's really quite good indeed.

Sapphire's 'Ultimate' series has been around for a decade, so it's no surprise that the company's got its act sorted when it comes to making silent graphics cards. As if to prove that, Sapphire designs its own heatsinks, channeling years of expertise into producing a card that, in this case, is otherwise identical to the reference version.

Sapphire Radeon HP 7750 Ultimate

That means 1GB of GDDR5 and an 800MHz GPU which, when idle, draws a fairly conservative eight watts, that can rise up to 42 watts while fully loaded. Only the heatsink sets it apart, and while it's massive, it's justifiably so - if anything, there's more heatsink here than the card needs, which can only be a good thing in terms of keeping it cool. It's a dual-height card, but the heatsink overkill means it shouldn't require any extra airflow beyond the amount its size already gives it.

One crucial fact about the HD 7750 Ultimate is that it isn't substantially more expensive than any other HD 7750 design, despite being a 'specialist' product. You can expect to pay around $8- $16 more for this than the version with a fan, which is fair value. That said, the HD 7750 was overpriced to begin with, given that its performance isn't substantially better than its last-gen equivalent. The Radeon HD 6750 is available for around $124 and performs almost as well as the HD 7750 in the case of the latter, you're paying for a lower operating temperature and lower power consumption, rather than superior performance.

Of course, it's those qualities which make the HD 7750 Ultimate such a good silent card, so if that's your preference, this is definitely the card to buy.

DETAILS

·         Price: $150

·         Architecture: Cape Verde (28nm)

·         Memory: 1GB GDDR5

Zotac GeForce GT 640 Zone Edition

Zotac's version of the GeForce GT 640 comes in two versions - a regular, active-cooled version, and a silent 'Zone Edition'. The GK107 GPU uses a 28nm Kepler process, and clocks at 902MHz, which is a little slower than the reference design of 950MHz - presumably to keep the temperature down.

That said, this is one of the few cards with 2GB of RAM, even if it is slightly slower GDDR3, not GDDR5. In terms of I/O ports, you get two DVIs and a mini-HDMI, but no Display Port. It's a double-height design and doesn't require a separate power supply, but aside from the large heatsink it's fairly generic-looking.

Despite the extra RAM, the card's performance is unremarkable against its peers. You'll need to maintain a lot of airflow around the card in order to keep it happy temperature-wise, and the poor performance of GDDR3 memory means it's hard to run at higher resolutions without seeing a noticeable performance drop. Much of this would be forgivable, were it not for the high price: it's substantially worse than the Sapphire HD 7750, which costs only a fraction more.

Zotac GeForce GT 640 Zone Edition

Zotac GeForce GT 640 Zone Edition

One of the few stand-out areas could be found in the card's power consumption. While idling, it draws only 9 watts and barely cracks 15 watts when playing video. This, combined with the lack of fan noise might make it a good choice for HTPCs, but only if you're also planning to do some gaming on them - otherwise, it's simply far too powerful to make for an economic choice.

So while it's not completely incompetent as graphics cards go, it does suffer from that old problem: it's just not good enough in any area to make it worth recommending for any purpose. If you can find it at substantial discount (we're thinking 20% or more) then it arguably becomes competitive - but if you're after a silent graphics card that can play modern games, this isn't the best, or even second best.

DETAILS

·         Price: $128

·         Architecture: Kepler (28nm)

·         Memory: 2GB GDDR3

Club3D Radeon HD 7750 RoyalQueen

Following a similar pedigree to the Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 Ultimate, the Club3D Royal Queen is based on the same reference design (the Radeon HD 7750) and features a passive cooling heatsink rather than a fan. Again, aside from the cooling method it sticks rigidly to the reference design, so you get 1GB of GDDR5 and an 800MHz GPU. IO ports include one DVI, one HDMI and one Display Port, as on the Sapphire and reference boards.

The main (arguably, the only!) difference between this and Sapphire's version is the heatsink. Club3D's version is a lot more conservative in both design and size. Unlike Sapphire's design, which curves around the base, this one covers the top of the card only.

It doesn't noticeably impact on performance, but operating temperatures are slightly higher and therefore you'd expect the lifespan and failure rate to be slightly higher as well - although not so significantly that we'd call it a problem.

Club3D Radeon HD 7750 RoyalQueen

Club3D Radeon HD 7750 RoyalQueen

Again, it's a little more expensive than a reference HD 7750, but in this case only a shade less so. At this end of the market, $6.1 is unlikely to make a noticeable dent in a budget, so in that sense it's no better than the Sapphire version of the card. The same assessment applies: it's expensive compared to other cards, but about as good as silent graphics cards get, which makes paying for if silence is your preference. In-game performance allows high-quality at HD resolutions, but don't expect to go much beyond 1920x1080 in demanding titles. Power consumption is low. It's all a very familiar story, really.

Indeed, were it not for the existence of the Sapphire version, we'd probably be recommending this card. The problem is that the Sapphire, with its superior cooler (and, let's face it, more attractive design) does exist, and for a price difference that can all but disappear once you factor in postage differences between stores.

If the Sapphire is out of stock, this makes a brilliant replacement, but in sticking so close to the reference (and thus failing to provide any USP of its own) this card has ultimately been beaten into second place.

DETAILS

·         Price: $140

·         Architecture: Cape Verde (28nm)

·         Memory: 1GB GDDR5

 

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