PowerColor has the world’s only passive HD7850

If you were thinking about building a passive gaming rig, your choice of components almost definitely limits you to budget components that don’t put out a lot of heat. It is possible to build a totally silent rig, but to build a high-spec one is a little difficult because you have to get rid of all that heat. Luckily, PowerColor’s here to help with the SCS3 Radeon HD7850.

PowerColor SCS3 HD7850 Passive box art

PowerColor SCS3 HD7850 Passive

PowerColor SCS3 HD7850 Passive side shot

PowerColor SCS3 HD7850 Passive ports

Stock clocks are 860MHz for the core and 1,200MHz (4.8GHz effective) for the 1GB of GDDR5 RAM. It seems that PowerColor may have secured the very last batches of 1GB memory chips before they were gone completely. One of the reasons why AMD produced the AMD HD7790 was because the chips required for the 1GB versions of the HD7850 were in extremely short supply.

As far as gaming goes, this should be a big step up from the HD7770 but will be overtaken by the HD7790 because it’s an underclocked card. Overclocking the SCS3 HD7850, while possible, would be a bad idea unless you have a case with good airflow or you live near the Antarctic circle.

If you’re a keen gamer or a PC enthusiast looking for the ultimate in silent rigs, this will help you achieve that goal. The extended height of the heatsink may hinder your choice of chassis, but if you can already fit in a CPU cooler with a 120mm fan you should be in the clear.

PowerColor has made no mention of pricing or availability. The SCS HD7850 requires just one 6-pin PEG power connector and has HDMI, DVI-D and Displayport video outlets. Given that it’s under the PowerColor brand, it should also enjoy the Never Settle bundle goodies, which includes free copies of Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.