*GTX 260/280 Unofficial TPU! Thread*

[dadi_oh]

Does anyone here know if it's actually not that hard to dismantle a gtx280, I'd like to regrease it, but nervous about the clips ect, and will it damage thermal pads ect.. Also a practice run in case I ever decide to go wc.

I did it to install my waterblock. There are some pics and comments in my thread below. Don't know if your particular card has the 10 rear screws covered by a label. If not you are good to go. Otherwise you need to cut the label to expose the screws.


http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=73494

 

[johnspack]

I'll look it all over, hopefully Binge can give me some tips too...

 

[Binge]

Your card should come apart into 3 pieces. To be simple it's the Top, PCB, and backplate. There are the screws Dadi-oh mentioned as well as plastic hooks that start on the backplate and attatch to the Top. These are not hard to find. You simply take a flat head screw driver and pry the Top and backplate apart a little bit and if I remember correctly there are 4 of these hooks. With applied pressure to the hook the Top will release from the backplate. If you do this to all the hooks then your card will be completely undone. If you don't want to deal with the hooks you can simply pry it apart and the clasps for the hook are very flimsy. I broke two trying to do it carefully, but don't be afraid it doesn't harm anything. They'll snap WAY before anything important is harmed.

 

[MilkyWay]

look at that well for me im happy

i now have a 100% stable system, crappy oc of 3150mhz on my cpu but its stable so im not touching that baby, that GPUZ i posted is mass effect and fur mark stable i think its got more in it but i dont want to try just now

anyway i was about to say that for some reason or other i wasnt happy with the card i was getting the same IQ and not as big a jump in FPS now all i can say is wow im glad it took me time to get it right

i now have mass effect running excellent without any crashes, better IQ i mean the game now looks better than my 8800gt with 2x AA on mass effect and thats with no AA or AF forced

i can play Civilization 4 with no crashes!

dunno i never changed drivers i just installed physx and did a settings check in control panel fixed my CPU and Ram to stable settings, bumped up the GPU oc

still to try the card in a open space well apart from oblivon but for some reason that caps at 60fps and as youd expect runs fine

EDIT: this is the 192 version as you can see from the GPUZ shot

 

[dadi_oh]

look at that well for me im happy

Well you may be even happier to learn that your core is actually running at 756 and your shaders are at 1512. These cards OC in specific increments and nothing in between. In order to see what you are actually running you need to use Rivatuner or evga precision and observe the graphs.

The steps are:

Core 756 -> 783 -> 810
Shaders 1512 -> 1566 -> 1620

So your challenge is the next step of 783/1566

 

[MilkyWay]

okay as a christmas present to you i will try those speeds next week sometime
i never realised they went in increments

its a fine card the gtx 260 but im finding a lot of games are framerate locked at 60fps
oh ad project 64 locks at 25 fps which is strange

 

[Fitseries3]

dont hate me guys but looky here......

check this! almost dead even!!!

get on up, get on up.....

 

[Kursah]

Those are some very impressive results...especially if you consider GPU count...5 vs 3. Shows the GTX's have some serious gusto, I'm sure using the older 178 drivers for the GTX 260 Tri SLI would bring those cards down a bit...but nothing but the sweetest of results from ya fits!

Thanks for sharing! Please continue to!

 

[Fitseries3]

for some reason nvidia control panel and physx control panel crash with the 180 drivers. 178's run flawlessly though.

 

[nosboost300]

you got alot more clocking room for those 260's than that! lets see a 750mhz 1500 shader run!

 

[Fitseries3]

for some reason my 216's are crap for OCing. my 192 however.... i cant talk about that card yet.

 

[nosboost300]

why is there a 192 thrown in there

my 192 overclocks like a champ... i've yet to try to take the core to 800 mhz because i've been too lazy to place it as my primary card (mainly because just that 1 is watercooled)

i'm finally getting my gtz for my i7.. so i'll be shooting for some 26+k 3dmark06


i think my 920 sucks at overclocking though.. it needed insane voltage for 3.82ghz.. but i think that may be because it just needs to be cold.. but who knows, crappy stock intel heatsink sucks

 

[Fitseries3]

i got each card for $175 each. you cant argue at that price. they have been running perfect for a week now.



A NOTE FOR YOU GUYS THINKING OF GOING WATER ON I7....

2 pa120.3's, 6 scythe ultra kaze 133cfm fans, 1 iwaki rd30, gtz and nb-max can keep my i7 running at 4.2ghz all day BUT the water is 90f + and the rads are blowing HOT HOT HOT air.

the i7 does put of alot of heat.

 

[Kursah]

$175/ea? I thought they were $185/ea?

That's a lotta heat and a lotta cooling to keep an i7 at 4.2ghz...wow.

 

[nosboost300]

ya i'm just thinking my cpu wants to be cold... or at least i'm praying.... if i can't get this thing 4.2ghz for a pi run along with a 3dmark06/vantage run... imma crap myself in anger and sell the damn thing until i get a better one...

 

[Fitseries3]

the damn tri sli bridge keep them too close and they cant really breath.

 

[nosboost300]

ya... cooling tri -sli'd gtx's seems like a pain.. i was gonna do tri sli watercooled setup.. but i can't find xspc blocks anymore.. so i might just wanna go with an air setup and steup up to 280's... or even wait for the gtx295

 

[Fitseries3]

they are out there. i guess i'll look for you.

 

[Fitseries3]

that was quick...

http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Razor-GTX280-Full-Cover-VGA-Water-Block-pr-4320.html

 

[nosboost300]

those are the 280 blocks

the 260 blocks were only 40 dollars

i know they're basically the same.. but i wanted to save some money.. haha

 

[Fitseries3]

SOMEONE please HELP ...

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=79066

 

[Fitseries3]

advice for gtx owners...

use a fan on the back of your cards...

RESULTS

 

[Kursah]

Just noticed that this thread got stickied! Very good stuff! Pretty cool to see this thread and this line of cards still pretty lively if not more lively in comparison to when I acquired my GTX back in July. Thanks to all of you supporters out there, all of the donations! I gotta say I love my GTX, and I'm excited to see what the 55nm's and the possibility of a monster called the GTX295 (actual results pending), things are shaping up quite well for these cards imo.

 

[Cold Storm]

Fit's you hit over 30k! Sweetness!

Kursah, it's been a great road that we've went down since the start of the GTX. I'm still happy with my 280. I'm hoping to grab the Thermalright HR-03 GTX Cooler for the card. It should be in the coming weeks that I'll be grabbing it.
I will post pics once I get it in!

 

[Kursah]

Definately do! I'm curious to see how well it performs...I'm still impressed with the stock cooling on my 260, keeps it very cool for a stock cooler. But I wouldn't mind slapping an aftermarket on someday!