[OTHER] Low profile passive cooled video card for HD 3D? (1 Viewer)

[rsbrux]

My HD3450 doesn't seem quite able to keep up with HD. I get occasional brief hangs in the picture, as well as the problems reported here. After reading various comments and reviews on this site and elsewhere (e.g. this one), the ASUS ENGT430 DC SILENT/DI/1GD3 seemed like the best choice. Unfortunately, although the card itself is low profile, the heat sink makes it impossible to build in to my Scaleo E (Elonex Artisan) case. There seem to be GT520 cards (e.g. ASUS ENGT520 SILENT/DI/1GD3(LP)), which are truly low profile and passively cooled available, but the benchmarks I have read seem to indicate that the GT520 isn't much better than my HD 3450. There seems to be a much wider assortment of low-profile, passively cooled graphics cards based on ATI than on nVidia, but I am focussing on nVidia instead of ATI because of the LAV support for CUDA. If I can't find a suitable graphic card, I would consider changing out he motherboard in my Scaleo E, but that would be a big PITA, and one geek at a local PC shop opined that none of the on-board graphics systems currently available on motherboards will deliver the performance I'm looking for. He suggested that I look at the nVidia Quadro 600 series, but they seem to be in another price class, and not so readily available. What would any of you recommend?

 

[willbill642]

GT520, trust me, it will keep up with 3D. I have a similar, air-cooled, ZOTAC 520 in my desktop, and it is actually a very powerful card, not as strong as higher-end 500 series geforce cards, but still capable of 3D

 

[rsbrux]

Thanks for the encouraging feedback! I still plan to start looking for a new motherboard, as my current one prevents me from upgrading my tuner card. I would like to switch to Digital Devices Cine CT, but have no PCI Express slots (other than the x16 slot for the video card). Of course, if the comment about underpowered graphics on motherboards is true, then I will still be in the market for a low-profile, passively cooled video card.