Passively Cooled Radeon 6000-Series Graphics Cards Roundup
Every so often I survey the media streamer landscape and try to decide if there is a right combination of devices that will replace my HTPC. Invariably I find myself returning to the HTPC fold because of the PC’s flexibility. One device can play movies, music, TV, and even games. Of course, some games might require a bit more oomph, but finding a graphics card that can play games on a big screen without a howling fan can be tricky. None of the passively cooled cards in this small roundup are going to help an HTPC replace a PS3, but might be sufficient for some basic general gaming in addition to the usual media playback goodness.
So, AMD/ATI supporters have no choice in the mainstream category other than buying the old ATI Radeon HD 5770/5750s which are still selling or the “new” AMD Radeon HD 6770/6750s. The latter pair is likely to be preferred, so we are going to test a few such cards today. For this review to offer new information compared to our earlier articles about such products, we will take cards from ASUS, Gigabyte and PowerColor which all have one common trait. They have passive cooling.