*GTX 260/280 Unofficial TPU! Thread*

[Kursah]

Sure ofc, am not saying DON'T DO IT! am saying it's not needed totally different and to add, this is what I believe. Like you and Mr Cold Storm I have a right to my opinion.

Well as i said, it should be used if problem exist

Yep we all do things differently, as long as our methods work for us, and our games are playable and are PC's are stable it's all good!

Shawnizzle, Your issue with driver crashing unless you do a complete clean is odd tho...not one I've dealt with using NV or ATI drivers in the past couple of years, but at the same time I'm not fully suprised either, and I'm sure you're far from the only one that gets the pleasure of recieving that error. I still gotta load up the 180 betas and see if they're any good...I got into some World in Conflict again and just haven't had time to really want to install and restart lol.

I do gotta say it's nice that my newer GTX keeps cooler even at FTW clock speeds, granted it's much cooler outside now than it was a couple months ago...the room is still pretty warm (g/f likes to turn up the heat...grrr). My rig is running great, I have a bunch of great games I'm currently playing and a few I'm eager to purchase (Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, CoD:WaW, just to name some off)...my 260 is just breezing through games even with the GPU2 client turned on and churning away, yes my rated PPD drops a bit, down to about 6k iirc, and I get on average 10-20 less FPS in games, but in the end, it's still generally beyond the "playable" mark even with the less FPS so no issues there! I love this card, just a great performer.

 

[SplitBURST]

I do gotta say it's nice that my newer GTX keeps cooler even at FTW clock speeds, granted it's much cooler outside now than it was a couple months ago...the room is still pretty warm (g/f likes to turn up the heat...grrr). My rig is running great, I have a bunch of great games I'm currently playing and a few I'm eager to purchase (Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, CoD:WaW, just to name some off)...my 260 is just breezing through games even with the GPU2 client turned on and churning away, yes my rated PPD drops a bit, down to about 6k iirc, and I get on average 10-20 less FPS in games, but in the end, it's still generally beyond the "playable" mark even with the less FPS so no issues there! I love this card, just a great performer.

What is GPU2 client ? and what fps do u get in crysis? and on what clocks?

Me I get 25-55fps on 1680*1050 all high no AA or nothing...am not happy with this thue it gets under 30fps and i can feel it :\ clocks at CPU 3.3GHz RAM 918 4-4-4-12 GPU 730/1512/1100

 

[Kursah]

What is GPU2 client ? and what fps do u get in crysis? and on what clocks?

F@H GPU2 client for folding on my GPU's, there's a thread in the general software section if you're interested.

As-far-as Crysis, I can't really say what FPS I get in that game...I do know it's not sticky ever, always smooth, everything set as high as it will go except AA...I was watching it closer when I was playing with JRob's configs for the game...but that game lost my interest fast...too much benchmark, not enough game imo, that or I just got too bored with it lol. I've yet to try Warhead, I'll wait till it's in the bargain bin...should've done that with the first title unfortunately...

Games I do play, CoD4 MP, 95% it's pegged at the 100FPS limiter..even when folding, only rarely dropping to the upper 70's at the lowest, 1680x1050, all settings maxed on in-game settings.

Let's see what else worth stating, Far Cry, I get over 200FPS in that game iirc, haven't watched it's performance really...no point at that level. Supreme Commander, though once again haven't been watching performance of it while gaming, just enjoying the game. Same with WiC, I did run the benchmark...but forget where it was at...44fps rings a bell for that game...not sure if that was the average FPS or not...I'll have ot run it again.

Sorry I'm not more useful but my games are playing so well, I just don't care to see how good my performance is! But if enough people bug me, I'll get the EVGA FPS monitor up or FRAPS and take some notes for ya!

 

[SplitBURST]

F@H GPU2 client for folding on my GPU's, there's a thread in the general software section if you're interested.

Sorry I'm not more useful but my games are playing so well, I just don't care to see how good my performance is! But if enough people bug me, I'll get the EVGA FPS monitor up or FRAPS and take some notes for ya!

That's ok am just curious woot other ppl get thue i think there's something wrong here somewhere :\ Am gonna check that thread but before I do can u explain what folding is?

 

[shawnizzzle]

Kurash i am very aware that the driver error is very common though when you talk to customer support on it they all act like they've never heard of it before. And you say that you think it is odd well i agree only because my fiance's computer is a 680i and 9800gtx with vista 32bit also the only difference is i got the 780i instead and i used to get this error all the time but i overclock everything and she dont overclock anything. Vista is alot more picky to be stable than XP and i think that was my problem. The president of evga said it was one of 3 things Heat,ram timings,voltages. Once i got my computer to be prime 95 stable the error stopped also. Now i do the install the long way just to save me a headache that im affraid of. yes its a pain in the ass but so is playing a multiplayer game just to have it shut off. The error stopped right after i got my computer stable but im still afraid of the error coming back so my way might sound long a poinless to you guys and takes to much time but im just nervous thats all.
btw my 2 gtx260's will be here this week. ill post when they come

 

[shawnizzzle]

I do have a question about installing the new graphics cards. I rin the 9800gtx right now which uses the same driver as the gtx 260 and 280 so do i have to reinstall the driver or can i just put them in. Any input will be appreciated. When i get my other 9800gtx back from my fiance and use sli i just pop it in and boot up and enable sli i dont have to reinstall the driver or anything but the this time it will be with 2 different cards not just adding one so what should i do?

 

[SplitBURST]

Kurash i am very aware that the driver error is very common though when you talk to customer support on it they all act like they've never heard of it before. And you say that you think it is odd well i agree only because my fiance's computer is a 680i and 9800gtx with vista 32bit also the only difference is i got the 780i instead and i used to get this error all the time but i overclock everything and she dont overclock anything. Vista is alot more picky to be stable than XP and i think that was my problem. The president of evga said it was one of 3 things Heat,ram timings,voltages. Once i got my computer to be prime 95 stable the error stopped also. Now i do the install the long way just to save me a headache that im affraid of. yes its a pain in the ass but so is playing a multiplayer game just to have it shut off. The error stopped right after i got my computer stable but im still afraid of the error coming back so my way might sound long a poinless to you guys and takes to much time but im just nervous thats all.
btw my 2 gtx260's will be here this week. ill post when they come

Sounds much like you overclocked your gfx and it wasn't stable. Either that or your other OC's was failing. I got that problem when my gfx clocks was unstable. So with what/that? you describe is not at all strange you had that problem

 

[johnspack]

You'll have to reinstall the driver, I had to when I went from my 9800gtx to my 280gtx, and then again when I added back in my 9800gtx.

 

[shawnizzzle]

Ok thanks johnspack

 

[shawnizzzle]

So im running 2 9800gtx in sli right now and im upgrading to 2 gtx260's in sli. What kind of performance differance am i going to see. is it worth the money or not. I will not get the 280's simply because of how much they cost. The 260gtx is $239.99 which is funny because i got my 9800gtx for $300 when they come out. I can get better performance for less money. How much of a difference is there?

 

[johnspack]

I'd wager at 1920x1200 res you'll see at least 50% higher fps. My vantage score more than doubled, and vantage is a pure gpu benchmark. I couldn't even run crysis at 1920x1200 on my 9800gtx, but runs smooth as butter now! But I'm not a good comparison, you've got that nice fast intel quad, so you won't be cpu bottlenecked like I am!

 

[shawnizzzle]

Thanks johnspack i do all of my gaming at 1920x1200 and if they give me at lease 20% ill be more than happy with that. 3.33ghz with a amd isnt that bad thats actually pretty good for amd. Im not a amd fan so i know pretty close to nothing about them i just know they dont overclock well although I could be wrong about that. It took a hell of a radiator to run my cpu at that speed and 1.78volts(its a hot chip that takes alot of voltage.) 3.6ghz @ 1.4v and 3.83@1.67v and only alot higher the more i go.

I havent ran vantage yet just 3dmark 06, 03

I finally got my GTX 260. OMG this card is amazing im deffinatly getting 2 more for tri sli.

 

[erocker]

Instead of double or triple posting, please use the edit button.

 

[RandomSunchips]

Popped in my new gtx 260. Gonna hit it with Riva Tuner and ATiTool.

 

[Kursah]

Popped in my new gtx 260. Gonna hit it with Riva Tuner and ATiTool.

Furmark and Precision work great too btw! I do prefer Precision anymore, has what you need, simple to use, 10 profiles, low mem usage, can't ask for more! Plus Furmark in Stability mode with a 1024x768 window seems to do a pretty good job of loading the GPU.

I also recommend fan speed around 75%, not very loud, yet much more effective on temps. Is your now GTX a 192 or 216 core variant? I love my card, btw..I had issues with the 180 drivers and FarCry 2...but the latest 178.24 WHQL's seem to work amazing!

 

[RandomSunchips]

Ah, I should probably update my specs. I'm running the 192 shader one. Lol I tried googling Precision but then I realized I had an EVGA card. I've changed it to 700 core, 1150 mem, and 75% speed. (You're right, it's not that much louder) I'm using the 178 driver set with CUDA support. I'll test it for stability tomorrow. Gotta do bio hw

BTW: What's the max safe temp, and what's the ideal temps (at load)?

 

[Kursah]

EVGA Precision is good for NV cards, if you read the OP and earlier posts, the creator of Precision is the creator of Rivatuner...precision just has a different GUI, and the settings you need for overclocking, they kept it simple and it works very well. I've OC'd many NV cards with it, 7900GS's, 8600GT's, 8800GT's, GTS's, 9600GT's, my GTX 260 (the 192 and the stepped-up 216), etc.

Max safe temp? I would assume 90C would be ok, but I have yet to hit over 70C w/o bios voltage mod...atm, I can't break 60C at 666/1436 1200 @ 40% fan speed, and barely hit 55C at 75% fan speed...tho my fan speeds seemed bugged atm..even at 100% I can't hear my fan...this all happened after installing the 180 drivers...I've uninstalled, ran driver cleaner, etc...seems I may have to do it the old way!

Your OC is pretty damn good, but do include what you have for shader clocks too. Many of the GTX260's seem to peak around the 1540 area iirc...very few attaining higher. I've yet to try to find max OC's on my current GTX just due to the fact I've been too busy gaming, and now with FC2 as my new addiction and Fallout 3 just around the corner...I'm gonna be a very busy gamer!

 

[shawnizzzle]

Well, my new gtx 260 really does blow my overclocked 9800gtx's away in games. But most of all i have never been able to use antianializing before. The 9800gtx's would just bog right down to mostly unplayable fps. In UT3 i would play at 70fps at 1920x1200 and with 2xaa it would drop to about 20-25fps, but with the gtx 260 w/o aa i play at 131 fps average and 194 max and with 8xaa it doesnt make to big of a difference. I got the 260 with 192 shaders not 216 because i plan on doing the step up prgram soon. It is overclocked and 100% stable at 741/1512/1245 memory i just cant get the shaders over the 1566 mark stable. But all in all this is a huge step up from dual 9800gtx's when considering using aa settings. I do plan on buying 1 more soon for sli and the third for Xmas from fiance but for now my 1 260 is just playing all my games fine. Very happy purchase

btw my voltages are as follows. ( i know kurash was intersted in them quite a few pages ago but its not the 216 version) http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19611&stc=1&d=1224956143

 

[Tatty_Two]

Well, my new gtx 260 really does blow my overclocked 9800gtx's away in games. But most of all i have never been able to use antianializing before. The 9800gtx's would just bog right down to mostly unplayable fps. In UT3 i would play at 70fps at 1920x1200 and with 2xaa it would drop to about 20-25fps, but with the gtx 260 w/o aa i play at 131 fps average and 194 max and with 8xaa it doesnt make to big of a difference. I got the 260 with 192 shaders not 216 because i plan on doing the step up prgram soon. It is overclocked and 100% stable at 741/1512/1245 memory i just cant get the shaders over the 1566 mark stable. But all in all this is a huge step up from dual 9800gtx's when considering using aa settings. I do plan on buying 1 more soon for sli and the third for Xmas from fiance but for now my 1 260 is just playing all my games fine. Very happy purchase

btw my voltages are as follows. ( i know kurash was intersted in them quite a few pages ago but its not the 216 version) http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19611&stc=1&d=1224956143

I assume you are unlinking when trying to get the shaders beyond 1566, have you tried the reverse method, unlink, leave your shaders at say 1500 and push the core to see how high that will go, once you have reached it's max, then so a 2006 run for stbility, then slowly raise the shaders leaving the core at it's max to see what you can get, that method got me to 800/1600

 

[shawnizzzle]

when i unlink it will only let the core get so high until it clocks way down due to the 1:2 ratio I can only get the core to 741 if I go any higher it downclocks to 388. I have the memory at 1242 and it might be able to go higher i just havent tried to yet. You just dont seem to get as much of a performance increase with memory than with the core/shader.

I will say though, this card runs very cool. Overclocked when I game it might hit 60C to mable 65C. My 9800gtx at 803/1998/11?? got into the high 70's to low 80's.

 

[Tatty_Two]

when i unlink it will only let the core get so high until it clocks way down due to the 1:2 ratio I can only get the core to 741 if I go any higher it downclocks to 388. I have the memory at 1242 and it might be able to go higher i just havent tried to yet. You just dont seem to get as much of a performance increase with memory than with the core/shader.

I will say though, this card runs very cool. Overclocked when I game it might hit 60C to mable 65C. My 9800gtx at 803/1998/11?? got into the high 70's to low 80's.

No memory adds very little performance increase, the overclocked core brings a greater increase than shaders in most things, can you do 760/1520?

 

[shawnizzzle]

right now its stable at 755/1529/1240. I dont think the extra 15-20mhz on the core is going to make to big of a difference except for bragging rights but im fairly happy with my overclock. It will get me by until my second one is ordered but then im going to take this one out to see how far my new one can overclock. I want to know how far it will overclock so when i go sli cause your only as fast as your slowest card. If the second one overclocks just as good than ill be surprized and glad. this sucker really is a performer compared to my old 9800gtx's i just cant imagine sli'ing them that should be fine for me for at least a year, but i do tend to want the newest stuff on the market i know when nehelam comes out ill be one of the first to buy it if there is a board out there i like and supports sli i might buy the evga x58. It supports tri sli and crossfire x like they all should now but dont.

 

[nosboost300]

question... does voltmodding do anything for these gtx260's... i've been doing some reading and hearing voldmodding (through bios) is pointless!

i jsut watercooled my card and i'm now idling at 32 peaking at 40 and i wanna try to get this thing above 800core but don't see that possible without voltmod

and reguardless of that

what is a good achievable everyday clock for a gtx 260...

mine is set to 730 (autolinked to shaders) and 1000

 

[Tatty_Two]

question... does voltmodding do anything for these gtx260's... i've been doing some reading and hearing voldmodding (through bios) is pointless!

i jsut watercooled my card and i'm now idling at 32 peaking at 40 and i wanna try to get this thing above 800core but don't see that possible without voltmod

and reguardless of that

what is a good achievable everyday clock for a gtx 260...

mine is set to 730 (autolinked to shaders) and 1000

You can softmod through the BIOS to 1.18v but many dont see any return for that agreed, personally I got a return of about 25mhz on the core (I think I was just perhaps very lucky) but it's very unlikely that even if it works for you you will be able to exceed 800mhz, it's always worth a try though if you are confident at modding your bios and flashing, it can easily be reversed, but remember, if it goes bad and you cannot manage to reverse it then your warranty is void.

 

[Kursah]

I really found no improvements on my old 192sp going from 1.12 to 1.18, some have claimed to hit the 800/1600 mark doing such tho. All I found was increased temps.

My GTX260 core216 runs great and uses less voltage than my 192sp did...I'd say try 1.06v and find a decent OC (maybe what you already have) and use lower voltage. Though under water, temps aren't really an issue! Hell at 1.12v temps weren't an issue for me, at 1.06v on the new card, atm I can't go over 57c..idle at 38c on stock air, so I can't complain!

Also, got the 180.43 drivers up and running, got a +10FPS increase in overall average FPS in FC2's benchmark for those that care, the game runs amazing still, no issues. Yes I did lose fan speed, but I don't care, I just modified my fan profile to start at 75% (see OP for instructions) and I'm good to go!