GTX-260: Should I upgrade my video card?

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Punkrulz

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 11, 2001
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Hey guys,

I'm presently running an EVGA GeForce GTX-260. I've recently gotten into the game "Rift", and besides that really only played some TeamFortress 2, Starcraft 2, and COD: Black Ops. I play with a res of 1680x1050. When getting Rift, I decided to max out my settings and set it to Ultra. The game runs very smooth with little issues, but my VC is taking a beating.

Initially I only ran the fan on manual because I wasn't hitting high temps... but then in Rift, the card would get warm enough that it would rev the fan to 100% then immediately drop to where I had it constantly, making it sound like the CDRom was running. Now that I've set it to auto, as soon as I get into the game it constantly runs at 100% fan speed. I was just playing, and here's what Afterburner told me:

While playing, the temp would send the fan to 100% speed and the temp was sticking around 86C. The GPU usage was about 87% or so throughout game play on average. As you can see, my specs are in my signature. My airflow isn't bad and everything seems to be in order, but it's just when playing Rift.

So: Would this warrant the upgrade to a GTX-560 or something else? Or am I dealing with a more serious problem?
 
Sounds like your issue is cooling, not horsepower.

When is the last time you pulled your GPU heatsink off, cleaned out all the dust and put some fresh paste on it. At minimum check the dust.

If you are looking for an excuse to get a 560 then go ahead but getting your cooling in order is basically free and likely would do the trick.
 
So I've taken your advice (except for removing the whole cooler, I'm not familiar with the layout or what needs to be undone and I don't have any spare paste lying around). I did as extensive of a cleaning as I know how to on the card. Unfortunately when popping it back in and going back to the game, it's following the same problems as before. Temp is between 84-85C on average and GPU % Usage is about 87.

Thoughts?
 
Your video card is operating as intended. Either get an after market heatsink to make it cooler and/or quieter or sit farther away.
 
my 9800gtx+ runs that hot and i've been running it for years now, you have nothing to worry about.
 
OP, how high does the fan speed go to while playing RIFT? How high does it go in other games that you play? What concerns me is the 100% fan speed, none of the reference designed cards in general spin up to 100% for general gaming, or even Furmark, until heavily overclocked, and they don't hit 100% even then. 100% is a hair dryer, it wasn't meant to spin up that much. I'd like to know what your temperatures and fan speed are in other games to compare. If Rift is significantly more demanding thermally, that could mean something, though IDK what just yet.

EDIT: Or you could use a static fan speed like 60% so that it's easier to see how the thermal load changes. Having temperature and fan speed vary at the same time is harder to understand (sorry if I'm treating you like a dunce, you get what I mean)
 
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Those temps are normal. My GTX 260 (overclocked) got up to 86 degrees F running Furmark (fan was at 76%) And the fan was noticable, but with game sounds I don't think I would have cared.

You could reseat the cooler with arctic silver and maybe reduce temps a few degrees.

Above poster is right though, it should never hit 100% fan in gaming.
 
my backup rig has a pair of 260s in SLI and those temps are fairly normal. Both video cards also make a fair bit of noise if playing anything serious like crysis or even TF2 at 1920x1200
 
I'm going to have to test other games, however when I recalled when I did set the fan static to about 60% I never noticed any problems. I noticed these problems in Rift because I believe temps got so hot that the fan forced it to rev to 100%, then drop back down to 60. Looking at Afterburner, you could see the fan speed spike every time it forced it. It literally sounded like a CDRom trying to seek on a disk.

My last go-around at the game after cleaning out the cooler sent the fan to about 86% utilization. I will double check again just to make sure.
 
kuyaglen said:
Your video card is operating as intended. Either get an after market heatsink to make it cooler and/or quieter or sit farther away.
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no its not. even during Furmark I don't go over 82-83 C in the summer and thats with the fan left at auto where its only hitting about 55%. during gaming my gpu has never gone over 80 C and the fan usually never ramps up over 45-50%. heck in most games I stay in the mid to lower 70s and the fan stays at 40%.
 
cannondale06 said:
no its not. even during Furmark I don't go over 82-83 C in the summer and thats with the fan left at auto where its only hitting about 55%. during gaming my gpu has never gone over 80 C and the fan usually never ramps up over 45-50%. heck in most games I stay in the mid to lower 70s and the fan stays at 40%.
Click to expand...

cannondale's first-hand testimonial is very important. Usually, going from around 40-50% fan speed on a squirrel cage fan to 100% will drop your GPU's temperature by something like 20 C. If OP's GPU is pegged at ~80% to get the same temp. as cannondale is getting, something smells like fish.

OP, you'd do good to tell us what your temperatures are in some other games. I can't think of any specific reasons why this should be happening, but it's not normal.
 
Rauelius said:
My GTX275 runs about the same and no problems
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a gtx275 runs a bit hotter than a gtx260 according to reviews but did you even read what he said? if you are hitting 86C with 100% fan speed then you have a screwed up card for sure.
 
when folding my evga 260 is normally around 65C-70C @ 80% fan speed,these cards run hot,but well under the 105C max temp.

It has on occasion gotten up into the 90C range,but only when it is really really dirty,spraying it out with canned air just does not cut it.

Atleast once a month I pull the card out and clean right in front of the fan,where the fins of the heat sink start,dirt and dust build up on them pretty quickly and block most of the airflow from ever making it through the fins of the heat sink and out of the back of the card.I use a toothpick and a flash light,its hard to see in there,but I would guess that there is some build up there that is causing the airflow to be blocked.

just my 2 cents,but may be worth a try.

I also had a XFX 260 that would get really hot really fast,turned out to be a bad voltage regulator on the card,but if you are only getting to the mid 80's I doubt that is the case,mine was hitting 105C and then throttling itself.
 
So I played Call of Duty Black Ops. My fan speed stayed at 40%, and my temperature went as high as I saw as 64C.
 
Yeah it seemed normal besides some glitching going on which I couldn't explain. Could be a patch for the game. But Rift seems to kick the card into over drive and I don't know why.
 
So after doing some thinking I decided that I am probably going to upgrade anyways, especially for when Battlefield 3 comes out. Any recommendations on what I should get? I'm looking for something that is going to perform better than my 260, perform on the existing system specs I have in my signature, and hopefully something that isn't going to break the bank... Perhaps under $350 if I can help it.

Any thoughts?
 
Punkrulz said:
So after doing some thinking I decided that I am probably going to upgrade anyways, especially for when Battlefield 3 comes out. Any recommendations on what I should get? I'm looking for something that is going to perform better than my 260, perform on the existing system specs I have in my signature, and hopefully something that isn't going to break the bank... Perhaps under $350 if I can help it.

Any thoughts?
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you are basically wasting your money upgrading your gtx260 at just 1680x1050 for BF3 with an E8400. your dual core cpu is already the limitation with your current card in BC 2 and BC 3 is certainly not going to be any easier on the cpu either. spending 350 bucks for a gpu at 1680x1050 when you have a dual core cpu is not wise. your are going to need a modern quad if you want to justify a high end gpu especially at just 1680x1050.
 
cannondale06 said:
you are basically wasting your money upgrading your gtx260 at just 1680x1050 for BF3 with an E8400. your dual core cpu is already the limitation with your current card in BC 2 and BC 3 is certainly not going to be any easier on the cpu either. spending 350 bucks for a gpu at 1680x1050 when you have a dual core cpu is not wise. your are going to need a modern quad if you want to justify a high end gpu especially at just 1680x1050.
Click to expand...

Second this. Also, because you guys were talking about next gen AMD graphics; for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4455/amds-graphics-core-next-preview-amd-architects-for-compute/1
 
OP, your rig is already operating at maximum capacity, any more of a graphical boost and you'll hardly notice the difference. This is because of...

cannondale06 said:
you are basically wasting your money upgrading your gtx260 at just 1680x1050 for BF3 with an E8400. your dual core cpu is already the limitation with your current card in BC 2 and BC 3 is certainly not going to be any easier on the cpu either. spending 350 bucks for a gpu at 1680x1050 when you have a dual core cpu is not wise. your are going to need a modern quad if you want to justify a high end gpu especially at just 1680x1050.
Click to expand...

This.

BigBallinGPR said:
Second this. Also, because you guys were talking about next gen AMD graphics; for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4455/amds-graphics-core-next-preview-amd-architects-for-compute/1
Click to expand...

Thank you for the link, much appreciated.
 
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I have GTX 260 216 Superclocked. I get the following temps in winter:

67 degrees C or so at 65% fan speed. Really demanding games push it up to 73 C.

Summer:

73 C or so at 80% fan speed. When it gets really hot and a really demanding game it can get into the 80s. I stop playing such games when it gets that hot.

My case has poor airflow. If you want to bring the temps down max out 120mm fans and whatnot in your case.

Also clean out your video card heat sink with canned air. It really helps bring the temps down.
 
Ok, so since I'm at the max with my existing system, that poses the following questions:

1) Can my mother board handle a substantially better processor, or should I just upgrade the motherboard / processor together?

2) What about the power supply?

3) Once upgraded, what VC should I go for?

I guess if I have to upgrade both the motherboard & the processor, then I'm basically building a brand new computer due to memory as well. Now I just need to think of how I can justify that when I don't do much PC gaming as it is atm! :)
 
Punkrulz said:
1) Can my mother board handle a substantially better processor, or should I just upgrade the motherboard / processor together?
Click to expand...

You could get a C2Q with it, probably find a Q6600 or possibly a Q9xxx for around $100 here, used... I don't think I'd spend much more than that, I'd put it towards a new system that uses DDR3. NewEgg has lots of combos, Microcenter and Frys do also.

Punkrulz said:
2) What about the power supply?
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Should still be ok, should have enough power on the 12v rail(s) still for most cards.

Punkrulz said:
3) Once upgraded, what VC should I go for?
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THG has their "best video cards for the money" article, check those when you decide to do whatever and basically spend as much as you can and get as much gpu power as you can (within reason). Don't go out and buy a 6990 for a 1680x1050, but try to give yourself some room (as much as possible).
 
Are there any recommendations for the motherboard / memory combo deal? I was checking out Newegg but I don't know what the best one on the list is. Or should I make a general post in the hardware forum looking for recommendations? Definitely wouldn't mind saving on cost, but I'm still trying to figure out if I should just build a whole new PC (obviously going to cost a lot of money, and have to find a use for the older one) or part out the existing one and make the replacements.... Bah. :) But before hand thanks for the help guys. :)
 
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