Best Silent Graphics Cards – Why silent?
There are many reasons for wanting silent (or quiet) graphics cards. Some people may need this when building small home theatre PCs and some others will find noisy fans annoying. After all, the last thing you want when watching a movie or playing some demanding games is to have a loud whirling fan ruining your experience. Though there are other ways of cooling your computer with better temperatures, such as water cooling, these often are expensive and still have active fans. For this reason, in this list we will be listing the Best Silent Graphics Cards currently available in 2022.
Check out our Best Low Profile Graphics Cards article if you need a low profile slim graphics card.
Table of Contents
Benefits of silent passively cooled graphics cards
- No sound
- No moving parts
- Can be powerful
- Usually no external power required
- Improves Performance of your computer
- Great For HTPC Builds
Negatives of using Silent Passively cooled graphics cards
- Sometimes have large heatsinks
- Temperatures aren’t always as good
- Performance may be sacrificed (to keep gpu cool)
- Hard to find higher end cards which are passively cooled
- Usually more Expensive than the fan version of the card
- Usually less ports to connect to displays
Best Low End Silent Graphics Cards
Asus GeForce GT 710 1GB GDDR5
The Asus GeForce GT 710 1GB is a very cheap card costing only around £25 or $35. However the performance of this card is not very good. Older less demanding games will run just fine but anything newer will require low settings or may not even run (that well). Having said this it isn’t a bad graphics card when you consider the price. It has only 1GB Memory but a 2GB version is available for slightly more ($15 – $20).
Features of the Asus GeForce GT 710 1GB
Asus’s GPU Tweak II allows easy overclocking and monitoring
There are 3 ports including HDMI, DVI-D and VGA. This is a good feature as some newer graphics cards like the GT 1030 have only 2 ports. Considering this graphics card has an HDMI port it would be good for a HTPC for lighter tasks like watching movies. Especially if your motherboard does not have included HDMI.
View Full Specs Here.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Cheap | Performance isn't the best |
| No additional Power connectors (Low Power consumption) | No Low profile bracket included |
| Easy to Install | Only 1GB memory |
| Low profile | No Display Port |
| Silent Cooling | |
| GPU tweak II (overclocking) | |
| 3 Ports, VGA, DVI and HDMI | |
| Uses GDDR5 instead of DDR3 |
ASUS GeForce GT 730 2GB DDR3
Moving a step up from the GT 710 is the ASUS GeForce GT 730 2GB DDR3 or similar (there are a lot of GT 730s of similar price). Although this card is more expensive, it has some good performance increase. Having said this, the performance increase still isn’t really capable of high end gaming – you may get good performance at medium settings in only some newer games. Less demanding titles and older games, however, will be more than playable. This card can be a good recommendation for adding more ports to a PC but whilst also getting some decent performance increase. But if you’ve got a bit more money to spend we’d recommend getting the 1030 as it’s a lot newer, with newer technology support in addition to better performance.
Features of the ASUS GeForce GT 730 2GB DDR3
Asus’s GPU Tweak II for overclocking and monitoring of your graphics card.
3 Ports including VGA, HDMI 2.0, DVI-D
| Postive | Negative |
|---|---|
| No Additional Power Connectors | Not the Best Performance |
| 3 Ports including HDMI | Uses DDR3 instead of GDDR5 |
| Cheap | No display Port |
| Low Profile | |
| Silent Cooling |
ASUS AMD R5 230 2 GB DDR3
Taking a step away from Nvidia, we have the ASUS AMD R5 230 2 GB DDR3 Graphics Card. This card sits somewhere between the GT 730 and GT 710 when it comes to performance. Furthermore the price is also roughly between the two Nvidia Cards. Whilst this card won’t wont be able to play many games at high settings some newer games on medium or low as well as older games run just fine.
Turning the resolution down to 720p also gives major performance improvements like with the 710 and 730. The slower DDR3 memory is quite common on these cheaper cards, but it doesn’t affect performance majorly. Like both the GT 710 and 730 there is HDMI which is useful to connect to a TV in a HTPC. Unfortunately there is no Display Port which is also missing on the GT 1030, 710 and 730.
Features of the ASUS AMD R5 230 2 GB DDR3
Asus’s GPU Tweak – for monitoring and overclocking tools.
3 ports including HDMI, DVI-D, VGA for multiple display connections.
EMI Shield – 66% lower EMI for clearer display, stable operations and additionally safer computing.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Small heatsink | Temperatures aren't the best |
| Low Profile | Performance isn't the best |
| Cheap | No Display Port |
| Asus GPU Tweak | |
| 3 Ports including HDMI | |
| No additional Power Connectors |
Asus GeForce GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 Low Profile
The Asus GeForce GT 1030 is a good card when it comes to playing some demanding games at medium settings. Whilst it doesn’t have the best performance out there, it’s a fully silent cooled graphics card. Furthermore, this GT 1030 is low profile and usually includes a low profile bracket, so you shouldn’t have any problem with fitting it into smaller PC cases.
Features of Asus GeForce GT 1030
Asus’s GPU Tweak II can be used with this card allowing for a more customised experience. This allows for easier overclocking and even a game booster feature which closes redundant tasks. However it’s debatable whether this ‘game booster’ mode actually does give you that much more performance – if any. Another bonus is having full support for DirectX 12 meaning some games using DirectX 12 will run better. Some older cards wont have DirectX 12 which is definately a negative.
Since this card is low profile, most manufacturers on the GT 1030 have skimped out on the ports. With only a HDMI and a DVI-D any more than 2 displays could be a challenge.
| Postitive | Negative |
|---|---|
| 2GB GDDR5 Memory | Only Two Ports (HDMI, DVI-D) |
| Silent Passively Cooled | Doesn't have the Best Performance |
| DirectX 12 support | No Display Port |
| Asus GPU Tweak II | Heatsink is Fairly Large |
| No external Power Connectors Needed | |
| Nvidia Pascal | |
| Low Profile |
Gigabyte GT 1030 Silent Low Profile 2G
The Gigabyte GT 1030 Silent Low Profile 2G is a decent card considering its price. This variant is not only silent but also low profile meaning it will fit in virtually any case. The GT 1030 has decent performance since it is on Pascal architecture. Whilst it won’t get you 60fps high settings 1080p, it can handle games at low-med 1080p or med-high 720p. Older games run great on this card. There is only 2GB of memory on board but this is GDDR5 memory so it is faster and performs better in games than some of the DDR3 cards in this article.
Features of Gigabyte GT 1030 Silent Low Profile 2G
Gigabyte’s aorus engine utility allows for great customization of your graphics card.
There are only two ports – DVI-D and HDMI 2.0b. This isnt ideal if you want to connect multiple monitors or screens as there are only two ports and neither is a display port.
This graphics card being low profile should fit into basically every case. This is perfect for a HTPC or silent build.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Good Price to performance compared to gpus above | More expensive |
| No additional Power (relatively low power consumption) | Only 2 ports HDMI, DVI |
| Includes Low profile bracket | No display Port. |
| Newer (newest at time of post) GPU Architecture, Nvidia Pascal | |
| Includes HDMI. 4k TVs etc. | |
| Silent if you get the passively cooled version. | |
| Low Profile... |
Best High End Silent Graphics Cards
This section will go through some of the best high end silent graphics cards you can currently get.
Asus GeForce GTX 750 Silent 2GB – One of the Best Silent Graphics Cards
A slightly more interesting card in this list of the Best Silent Graphics Cards is the Asus GeForce GTX 750 Silent 2GB (GTX750-DCSL-2GD5). This card is fairly rare to find and in most cases is ‘out of stock’ or ‘end of life’ on most websites. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t get one.
There are many sites like ebay in which you can buy this card or similar second hand for very low prices. When you consider the performance of this card compared to other options like the GT 1030 it actually performs better in most cases as well as being cheaper. The problem is that these cards are not readily available so you’ll have to do a bit of searching!
Features of the Asus GeForce GTX 750 Silent 2GB
Asus’s GPU Tweak for overclocking and monitoring of this graphics card
3 Ports including HDMI, DVI-I and Display Port (regular)
On the graphics card is a large heatsink with direct contact pipes to allow for a cooler running temperature.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Cheap when bought second hand | Older card |
| 2GB Memory | Large Heatsink and heatpipes |
| Good performance | Temperatures aren't always the best |
| No external Power | Hard to find |
| Silent Passively Cooled |
Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti KalmX 4 GB GDDR5 – One of the Best Silent Graphics Cards
The Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti KalmX 4 GB GDDR5 is one of the best silent graphics cards you can get. It’s a GTX 1050 Ti which is silently passively cooled. There are not really any other GTX 1050 Tis or 1050s like it. This card can handle most of the latest games at high / ultra settings at 1080p.
The temperatures of this card are really good considering there’s no fan. Whilst it won’t run as cool as a GTX 1050 Ti with a fan it can still run at decent temperatures. Like with any graphics cards, the temperatures depend vastly on the outside temperature. However this card is more dependent on the room temperature than most other cards as there is no way to cool this card down any faster as there are no moving parts.
This graphics card’s performance makes it one of the Best Silent Graphics Cards currently out there.
Features of Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti KalmX 4 GB
Thundermaster by Palit allows you to monitor relevant information (such as temperature) in your graphics card as well as provide overclocking tools.
There are a good variety of ports, including Display Port, HDMI 2.0 and additionally DVI-D.
Note – This graphics card is slightly taller because of the heatsink.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| One of the Best Passively Cooled Graphics Cards | Heatsink is quite big |
| Great performance | More expensive than other options (but performance is a lot better!) |
| 3 Ports including Display Port | Temperatures aren't always great |
| Nvidia Pascal | |
| Palit Thundermaster | |
| No External Power Connectors Required |
Palit GeForce GTX 1650 KalmX 4 GB GDDR5 – One of the Best Silent Graphics Cards
The Palit GeForce GTX 1650 KalmX 4 GB GDDR5 is one of the best silent graphics cards currently out there. It features brand new Turing architecture with no active fans whatsoever. Furthermore, this card can give you full 1080p 60fps performance with no noise at all. This is a perfect graphics card for any HTPC or silent build you may be planning. The heatsink is quite large for optimal performance which can mean it won’t fit in all cases.
There are some limitations with this card however. The card runs at reference clock speeds of 1485 MHz (base) and 1655 MHz (boost). This is undoubtedly to keep everything running fairly cool in the graphics card.
Palits GTX 1650 is relatively low power with a TDP of just 75W. No external PCI-E power connector is required since this card has a low power consumption.
Features of Palit GeForce GTX 1650 KalmX 4 GB
Thundermaster by Palit allows you to monitor relevant information (such as temperature) in your graphics card as well as provide overclocking tools.
There are only three ports including, 2 x Display Port 1.4a and also HDMI 2.0b.
Note – This graphics card is slightly taller because of the heatsink.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Low power (TDP 75W) | Clock speeds are reference |
| Fully silent | Large Heatsink |
| Has Display Port & HDMI | Only 3 Ports |
| No PCI-E power connectors needed | |
| 4GB of 8Gbps memory |
Palit GeForce GTX 750Ti KalmX 2 GB GDDR5
The Palit GeForce GTX 750Ti KalmX 2 GB GDDR5 is a slightly older card but still works great and can be picked up for relatively cheap used. It only has 2gb of memory which can be seen as not enough for gaming in 2020 but it does have decent performance. Most newer games will still be able to be played at 1080p but not with high settings or 60fps. Older games will work great however.
Like all the other Palit silent cards this card runs at the refernece clock speeds to keep things cool and also doesn’t use much power. It has a TDP of just 60 W and a base clock of 1020 MHz and a Boost Clock 1085 MHz.
All of the Palit cards are great for silent of HTPC builds but you will have to make sure the graphics card fits with the extended heat sink.
Features of Palit GeForce GTX 750Ti KalmX 2 GB
Thundermaster by Palit allows you to monitor relevant information (such as temperature) in your graphics card as well as provide overclocking tools.
There are only three ports including,2x dual link DVI-I and mini hdmi 1.4a.
Note – This graphics card is slightly taller because of the heatsink.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Cheaper when used | Clock speeds are reference |
| Low power 60W TDP | Older Card |
| Silent | Only Three ports |
| Great for HTPC or silent build | Mini HDMi instead of HDMI |
| No PCI-E Connectors needed | No display port |
| Palit Thundermaster | Only 2GB memory |
Conclusion
Overall there are many different silent graphics cards of varying capability which can be bought on the market currently. The higher end cards like the GTX 1050 Ti have a lot of performance and usually are at a decent price. Whereas the lower end cards tend not to have great performance but are silent. To decide which graphics card to get the question is what your main use is. For gaming for example we would recommend the GTX 1050 Ti Silent card. Another question is if it has to be silent (e.g for a HTPC) since the silent version of the card can cost more.
Having said this, we would still recommend the GTX 1050 Ti Silent as the price to performance ratio is great.
