A diode-pumped passively Q-switched Nd:YVO 4 laser operating at 914 nm is demonstrated. The solid-state laser is quasi-continuously pumped at 808 nm using a 35 W fiber-coupled diode laser. Several Cr 4+ :YAG saturable absorbers with different outcoupling coefficients are utilized to optimize the overall system performance. The simple two component cavity design reduces the system complexity and enables efficient pump power conversion along with long-term stability concerning power and wavelength. Furthermore, temperature dependent stimulated-emission cross-section in the Q-switched regime is investigated by observing the evolution of the single pulse energy over a temperature range of 70 K.