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As we said earlier in the review, we feel that a growing enthusiast user base are becoming more aware of noise emissions. For this audience the Gigabyte HD6770 Silent Cell graphics card makes an enticing proposition. It looks great, has a low power demand and maintains core temperatures well under 60c when gaming. This really is fantastic for a passively cooled discrete solution.
On a performance level, the HD6770 isn't really much of an improvement when compared directly against the last generation HD5770. That said, I built a mid range media system last year with a passively cooled HD5770 and I still use it daily as a low noise media center and light gaming rig. If your requirements are more modest then this hardware won't disappoint.
It is also worth pointing out that a few years ago lower level hardware wouldn't be able to power gaming engines at 1080p but as our testing has shown titles such as Dirt 3, Far Cry 2 and Resident Evil 5 run smoothly at high resolution. Certainly, the more demanding Direct X 11 games such as Alien V Predator will require a resolution drop to 720p, but it is still impressive considering the target audience.
The pricing of the Gigabyte HD6770 card is competitive, with UK e-tailers stocking it for around the £103 inc vat mark. We really can recommend this card if you are going to be using a system with a new high definition television set. The image quality is top drawer for media playback, and it will power games at 720p or 1080p without generating any noise at all.
Pros:
- Silent.
- pricing is fairly competitive.
- good design.
- has some headroom for overclocking.
- efficient power demands.
Cons:
- Dual slot design might alienate a portion of the HTPC audience.
- higher demand Direct X 11 engines may need a resolution or image quality reduction.
Kitguru says: Well worth an investment if you want a silent ‘all round card' with low power consumption.
The design is great, I love passive cards and am willing to forgo a little performance. I must be really sensitive against fan noise as even my system with bequiet fans annoys me. im going to check this out. thanks.
I really do like this, if they could get the price down by £15 it would be a must have IMO
Its a bit weak for my needs, but I can see why people would like the whole ‘no noise’ deal. there aren’t enough silent cards made. Wonder if they could ever get a 6870 silent. I might opt for that one.
I own a HD5770 and I saw this today, im impressed with the cooler. have my own card on ebay now, hopefully can fund for half of this one for my media/main pc.
Interesting to see how such a low end card by todays standards can still power many engines at 1080p. As the reviewer said this was never possible in the past. 720p was a stretch.
Good read. cooler is very strong by the results also.
Not really my thing, but my friend would be into this as he is always bitchin about noise from his computer. he spent £30 on high quality case fans recently. I can’t tell the difference but he is happy.
Well… this is embarrassing. The Gigabyte branding would be upside down if this card were mounted in a conventional tower chassis, I was really interested in the card until I noticed this. I’m mildly OCD so that would be unbearable to live with (I have a windowed Chassis).
Hopefully they sort that out.
@Trevor, wouldn’t you be better off just getting a custom cooler for your 5770? Seeing as 5770s and 6770s are virtually identical it would save you some money.