Nvidia's GeForce GTX 650, Cooled Passively
The GeForce GTX 650 offers similar performance and power consumption as AMD's Radeon HD 7750. In theory, that'd make it a candidate for passive cooling. We weren't able to find a GTX 650 without a fan, though. So, we used Arctic's Accelero Xtreme III in place of the stock cooler. Nobody’s going to buy an expensive part like this to cool a mainstream graphics card, but it serves as a placeholder for similar coolers.

Installation is straightforward enough. The cooler's weight isn’t a problem because the graphics card is plugged in horizontally, with the cooler on top. So, the I/O bracket and PCB support its heft.
The same things we said about AMD's Radeon HD 7750 apply here as well. A system with a discrete graphics card benefits from an Intel CPU, which is going to run cooler and tolerate higher maximum core temperatures. So long as you use mainstream GPUs, though, neither a Pentium nor an A10 should limit your graphics performance.
Graphics Benchmarks

Bottom Line So Far
A passively-cooled GeForce GTX 650 comes close to the performance of a Radeon HD 7750, also with no active cooling. Again, this is to say that gaming performance is acceptable so long as you dial down your settings. It's too bad that there don't seem to be any add-in board partners selling GTX 650s with passive cooling.
- Case: SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E
- Case: Technical Specifications And Features
- Case: Picture Gallery
- PSU: SilverStone Nightjar 400W Zero dBA
- Drives: Blu-ray Drive Installation
- Drives: Corsair Neutron GTX 480 GB
- Hard Choices: Motherboard And CPU
- CPU Cooler: SilverStone Heligon HE02
- CPU Cooler: Assembly And Installation
- Motherboard: A Challenging Installation
- Operation, Benchmark, And Bottom Line
- Adding Some Graphics Power
- Building A Passive Nvidia GeForce GTX 650
- CrossFire: A10-5700 And Radeon HD 6670
- Temperatures Under Full Load
- Installing An Ultra-Quiet Fan
- Automatically Switching On The Fan
- Small, Inexpensive, Silent Gaming Is Here



Much appreciated.
1. undervolting the CPU and GPU
2. underclocking and farther undervolting the GPU for 2D mode
3. hybrid cooling setup for GPUs where the fan only turns on at a high temperature (may require GPU BIOS editing depending on GPU model)
OPTIONAL (due to risk): removal of CPU IHS
But otherwise it's a neat article, personally I would sacrifice dead silence to use a cheaper HDD and perhaps more of those silent fans if I were to build one myself.
Much appreciated.
1. undervolting the CPU and GPU
2. underclocking and farther undervolting the GPU for 2D mode
3. hybrid cooling setup for GPUs where the fan only turns on at a high temperature (may require GPU BIOS editing depending on GPU model)
OPTIONAL (due to risk): removal of CPU IHS
The main issue is the GPU, and that would require a hybrid passive-active cooling solution much like was done for the CPU, but for some reason they didn't even try such a thing...
By the way, I own two of those Samsung Blu-Ray drives and the blue LED in the button is overly bright. I would NOT want to set that case on my desk.
great article toms