Palit Builds First Passively Cooled GTX 750 (Ti)

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Palit has built the world's first passively cooled GTX 750 (Ti). Why has this taken so long?

We've been wondering for a while when we would be seeing passively cooled GTX 750 (Ti) cards, and it seems our innermost desires are being fulfilled. Palit released its GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti KalmX series graphics cards.

The GTX 750 and 750 Ti are both very efficient, low-power cards, and it would just make sense for someone to make a passively cooled version. We know that it is possible because we've done it ourselves. Palit accomplishes the task with its KalmX cards, which are built with a large fanless heat sink.

Both of the cards are clocked at 1020 MHz, with GPU Boost clocks able to go up to 1185 MHz. Memory for the 750 KalmX is clocked at 5010 MHz, while the 750 Ti KalmX memory is clocked at 5500 MHz. Both cards carry 2 GB of memory running over a 128-bit memory interface. The performance difference between the two is largely derived from the difference in the core count. The GTX 750 Ti carries 640 cores while the GTX 750 has only 512.

No exact word on pricing yet, but the GTX 750 cards are not all that expensive, and we don't expect anything out of the ordinary for these.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Sam Lewis
    Might get one as a dedicated PhysX card. Would go well with my two Palit 770 JetStream 4GB cards.

    Palit makes really good quality and reliable cards from my experience.
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    waste of money for dedicated physix. you might get 1-2 fps difference than a regular card running the whole show
    Reply
  • rush21hit
    This would be perfect for some people that has underpowered GPU and constrained on a 250watt PSU. It might even eliminate their will to update their whole PC altogether under the same cost, since this thing would boost their CPU's gaming performance like never before under such low wattage.

    I know I will, I would insist on using my old LGA775 E5400 with measly 1x2GB DDR2 and HD3650, to pop this under the hood rather than updates my entire PC under the same cost as this GPU that would perform worse.

    And with passive cooling? It would even eliminate my needs for a new PSU should I take the same GPU cost from AMD.

    I'd take one, despite knowing that it would still run quite hot with such cooling measure. I'd just open my case and put a fan on the side of it :v
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    That heatsink is so large, it seems to be designed under the assumption that the card will be placed next to a fan anyway. So... "fanless," I guess. Whatever.
    Reply
  • knowom
    The fan looks a bit on the smallish side, but it's a lower wattage card to begin with so probably deceiving on it's requirements compared to comparable 100-150 watt cards in the same performance level.

    The card could probably be undervolted and underclocked a bit too further with bios modding for it's different P-States. I'm not sure how much effort Palit put into working on it's voltages and efficiencies which helps with heat and power consumption, but I bet it's got some pretty good headroom for improvement.
    Reply
  • FirionRAzar
    Now this would be interesting for my passive build, but I don't get the cooler. I got a Zotac 640 Zone which has, let's say, the same power requirement but has a more compact cooler and runs perfectly without a fan and a pretty bad airflow of the case.
    Reply
  • Haravikk
    The size of that cooler is going to really limit who can make use of the card IMO; the big draw of a passively cooled card is to do more with less space; such as relying on case fans alone in a Mini-ITX build. If you have the space for a triple height card then it just doesn't seem like you're going to be bothered about whether it is passively or actively cooled as you're going to have other things generating noise. I suppose it's one less thing to fail or degrade over time, but I just don't see why they couldn't do the same with a double height only cooler.
    Reply
  • HomeSkillenSlice
    0db gaming PC update?
    Reply
  • deathcall666
    Looks like a fridge radiator. Those palit fgts couldnt make a radiator that isnt 2x bigger than the card itself.
    The gtx 680 pasive cooled however looks epic.
    Reply
  • Matthew Busse
    After listening to my gtx560s whine for over a year, this sounds appealing.
    Reply