Gigabyte HD6770 Silent Cell 1GB Review (passively cooled)

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.

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