Greetings,
 
I've got a machine that I've using with Sonar for a few years but I need to upgrade it in order to render video (will be using Premiere Pro CC, but I'll still do DAW work with it). It's got an i7 870 with 8 gigs RAM, currently with a GeForce GTS 250. 
 
I'd like to get a passive GPU - any recommendations, or other thoughts? I might add 8 gigs more RAM. 
 
Thanks,
 
Ben

More ram always seems good if you have a 64 bit system. I used to use nvidia video cards but switched over to AMD a few years back because they seemed much quieter and cooler. My Radeon 7950 makes almost no noise so I've not thought about a passive card. The video work you want to do will be much more demanding than running a DAW and passive may not be the way to go for that purpose. Hopefully somebody with experience in that field will shoe up with a better answer.

Oh, passive means fanless. Normally i do not even think about graphics cards with a fan, but it may be that for video editing, you might need that extra cooling? The graphics demands for a DAW are quite different than for a video workstation.

Also, since you're using Premier Pro CC, the Nvidia GPU's might be a very good solution (Quadro series). Those GPU's are accelerated with the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine for real time editing.

FWIW, You're going to have a hard time finding a passive-cooled video card that will provide substantial hardware acceleration for Premier Pro, Vegas Pro, etc.
 
The new GTX-900 series is nice... in that the fans often aren't running (unless under heavy loads).
The only downside... If you're using Ray-Traced 3D in After-Effects, that doesn't work with the 900 series GPUs.
 
If you get the right model, active-cooled video cards aren't terribly noisy.
You can find quieter models both AMD and Nvidia.

ampfixer
More ram always seems good if you have a 64 bit system. I used to use nvidia video cards but switched over to AMD a few years back because they seemed much quieter and cooler. My Radeon 7950 makes almost no noise so I've not thought about a passive card. The video work you want to do will be much more demanding than running a DAW and passive may not be the way to go for that purpose. Hopefully somebody with experience in that field will shoe up with a better answer.

Thanks, John. Yes, 64 bit. Should have mentioned that. I've got a Radeon in another machine - works very well. 

slartabartfast
Oh, passive means fanless. Normally i do not even think about graphics cards with a fan, but it may be that for video editing, you might need that extra cooling? The graphics demands for a DAW are quite different than for a video workstation.

Thanks for responding.

Mesh
Also, since you're using Premier Pro CC, the Nvidia GPU's might be a very good solution (Quadro series). Those GPU's are accelerated with the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine for real time editing.

OK, thanks Mesh.

Jim Roseberry
FWIW, You're going to have a hard time finding a passive-cooled video card that will provide substantial hardware acceleration for Premier Pro, Vegas Pro, etc.
 
The new GTX-900 series is nice... in that the fans often aren't running (unless under heavy loads).
The only downside... If you're using Ray-Traced 3D in After-Effects, that doesn't work with the 900 series GPUs.
 
If you get the right model, active-cooled video cards aren't terribly noisy.
You can find quieter models both AMD and Nvidia.

Thanks, Jim, for this advice. Every time I see the FWIW preface in your posts, I always assume it is worth a lot. Good to learn about After-Effects. 

Jim's advice is very sound. Another thing to bear in mind is the "air pocket" that exists around the card itself, so that components are not trapping heat against each other. In a proper environment, less air flow (fan speed) is required to maintain cooling, and the noise from a fan ramps upwards with speed. Enclosed environments (like laptops) tend to have fans that need to run like crazy to keep up. 
 
Also bear in mind that NVIDIA is not a manufacturer, they only control the spec. A lot of the "quality" of the card comes from who is actually making it, so be sure to research this. As an aside, the first ASUS GTX 580 card I received had a solder joint hitting a fan blade. I returned it without issues, and the replacement has been in this machine for over 4 years. A well-designed fan, properly (rigidly) mounted, should not generate as much noise as many seem to allude to.
 
Heat degrades electronics, so if you are seeking potential heavy video usage, a fan-cooled GPU is most likely the best choice (if simply to keep the CPU heat off it, since video rendering is one task that tends to top put a CPU, but Premiere Pro is pretty good about throttling render if necessary).