*GTX 260/280 Unofficial TPU! Thread*

[chris189]

those software calculators are utter BS. go run my PC through that same software, and tell me the result. i'll show you the results from my wall meter showing how inaccurate it is.


you have to remember that the sensor reading your 12V rail isnt direcnt connected to the PSU like a multimeter would be - its part of the motherboard, and a few steps in. so while it may record drops, we dont know how precise it is (can it read changes from 12.70 to 12.71, or is it moving in steps of 0.03 or the like) - and because of its placement, its reading only one part of the motherboard. hell we dont even know if the software needs to be calibrated to be accurate on the motherboard, so you may get accurate movement but the readings are off by a few percent.

i'm not saying your voltage drops are irrelevant - it is a sign of the PSU reaching its load... but thats likely just due to it being a crap PSU, and not the wattage. a quality PSU matters more than the (often exaggerated) wattage output.

Your right. I did my research. This kingwin MKX-850 is the best bang for your buck 850 available. It supplies equal amperage on the 12v rail than other brands like corsair. It's rated on the 12V rail @ 840W which calculates to 70 amps. Compared to say CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX which is also rated at 70A on 12V rail. It costs 129.99. The kingwin was 99.99. it's a Modular power supply. the non modular version supplies 68A i believe but is only 79.00 i think. Kingwin is a great value/ performance brand.

I want to agree with you about AIDA64's power current readings for the cpu and gpu. I've seen them both hit 60A a piece under 100% peak load. That's 120A! That's not possible, right? It's rated at 70A, but could be pushed to say 80-90 max. What do you think?

 

[chris189]

Okay, not as happy now. Seems mostly, under 260 drivers, my cards drop to 3d low. Got frustrated and tried to flash bios to fix that, now it doesn't work. What's the command in nvflash to flash a 2nd card? Man, my 3 drive raid array is failing, unplugged right now, still don't know how I'm going to get a quad, xmas time is great!

You can still reflash stock bios to that gtx 260. Pop it in the pcie slot. Then pop in a PCI Video card. launch flash utility. Load stock bios. Done. Let me know! If you don't wanna mess with it. Sell me your GTX260 for $40 and i'll do it!

 

[johnspack]

No, I did something really weird to the bios. If I put it in either by itself, or with another card, my computer won't post. One time I actually had to pull the battery and clear cmos to get it to post again!

 

[chris189]

No, I did something really weird to the bios. If I put it in either by itself, or with another card, my computer won't post. One time I actually had to pull the battery and clear cmos to get it to post again!

Put the dead card in primary pcie slot with no card in any other pcie slot. Then place your crappy pci video card in and Plug ur monitor into the pci card. usually your computer should be smart enough to boot primary the pci card. if not. place only the pci video card in the system only. Go the bios and set your vga priority to pci and not pcie. Then place the 260 in pcie slot 1 and make sure no cables are plugged into the 260, except the 2 6-pin plugs. Boot from the pci card, boot to windows 98 boot disk, then flash the card. That's it. Then you'll have a working card again...

 

[johnspack]

Hmm, okay, didn't really think of the pci video card option. Hope I have one around! I probably do, just have to dig through some boxes.... I've love to bring it back so I can fold it.
Also, pretty sure I'll break 24k on 2 gtx285s, here's my first test run on one:

Will be doing another run, just found after much testing, gaming and furmark stable clocks of 725/1656/1300! This thing just won't stop!

 

[chris189]

what's the factory clock on the card? I've read a review from guru3d stating furmark isn't realistic for real gaming. They say find your most intense graphic game and and run it through gaming and find your best clocks since a game can handle a lot more than furmark will. Those are some good scores. I can't wait until i get the GTX 470! I'm going to order one today!!!!! I may need a new computer case to improve vga cooling though. Since i want the card to breathe as best as possible. There's this lian li pc-v354 which is a tiny micro lan box that supports 7 Hard drives and will fit the 470 i believe. It should provide better cooling that my current machine. I'm not sure if it will cool the cpu better though. Here's some pics of my case and configuration.

 

[kiss4luna]

my cooling can't supress the heat even over 630, i think i may change the original one

 

[Bo$$]

Your right. I did my research. This kingwin MKX-850 is the best bang for your buck 850 available. It supplies equal amperage on the 12v rail than other brands like corsair. It's rated on the 12V rail @ 840W which calculates to 70 amps. Compared to say CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX which is also rated at 70A on 12V rail. It costs 129.99. The kingwin was 99.99. it's a Modular power supply. the non modular version supplies 68A i believe but is only 79.00 i think. Kingwin is a great value/ performance brand.

I want to agree with you about AIDA64's power current readings for the cpu and gpu. I've seen them both hit 60A a piece under 100% peak load. That's 120A! That's not possible, right? It's rated at 70A, but could be pushed to say 80-90 max. What do you think?

your insane, they cant posibly hit 120A if they are rated for 60A. also kingwin may be rated the same as the corsair but it wont be nearly as good quality. Although it is a good deal, i did a similar thing, i bought this cheiftec 850 instead of a lesser 600w PSU

 

[Mussels]

the amperage ratings AIDA64 is giving for his GPU's is on the core - say, 60A at whatever the core voltage is (60A x 1.10v = 66W, etc etc) - NOT 60A on any of the PSU rails.

 

[chris189]

your insane, they cant posibly hit 120A if they are rated for 60A. also kingwin may be rated the same as the corsair but it wont be nearly as good quality. Although it is a good deal, i did a similar thing, i bought this cheiftec 850 instead of a lesser 600w PSU

Your insane for thinking that I thought those power current ratings were correct. Chieftec isn't going to come close to a "low quality power supply in your opinon" kingwin in terms of specification and quality. The Chiefttec 850W power supply is rated on the 12v rail at only 744W which equals 62A. That 850W power supply is about equal to a high quality 750W rather. The kingwin is rated at 840W on the 12V rail which is equal to the Corsair @ 70A. The difference between the two manufacturers will be obvious higher quality components in the corsair power supply. There aren't any real life scenarios which would show that the corsair will last 6 years rather than the 5 1/2 years the Kingwin will last. It's all about component longevity when you have 2 powers supplies equal in specification, with one being more expensive than the other using higher quality components. In my opinion the Kingwin is a very high quality power supply that can take equally as much of a beating as the Corsair power supply. Who knows if the components are actually of higher quality in the Corsair? Corsair has been around longer therefore they can charge more (not that i have done any research). In my opinion it's obvious marketing. Kingwin is newer in the power supply industry and to compete, the prices need to be competitive. Agreed?

 

[chris189]

the amperage ratings AIDA64 is giving for his GPU's is on the core - say, 60A at whatever the core voltage is (60A x 1.10v = 66W, etc etc) - NOT 60A on any of the PSU rails.

So do you think that's where AIDA64 or Everest are getting their readings from? The GPU voltage multiplied by the Amperage load equals watts of load? That would mean when using Furmark I will see it hit 82A on the gpu. 82x1.180V=96.76W on a extremely overclocked GTX260. That doesn't seem entirely correct either. TDP on these are much higher than that. What it comes down to is, AIDA64 should be ignored since the power current is incorrect. It's nice to know when it's loaded though, so it's useful.

 

[Mussels]

So do you think that's where AIDA64 or Everest are getting their readings from? The GPU voltage multiplied by the Amperage load equals watts of load? That would mean when using Furmark I will see it hit 82A on the gpu. 82x1.180V=96.76W on a extremely overclocked GTX260. That doesn't seem entirely correct either. TDP on these are much higher than that. What it comes down to is, AIDA64 should be ignored since the power current is incorrect. It's nice to know when it's loaded though, so it's useful.

well i dont know where its measured on the cards - it could be GPU, ram, VRM's... or a combination of the above


dont forget that the TDP covers the whole card and these sensors may only cover one component.

 

[chris189]

well i dont know where its measured on the cards - it could be GPU, ram, VRM's... or a combination of the above


dont forget that the TDP covers the whole card and these sensors may only cover one component.

I'm beginning to think I might be the vrm. Increasing the Voltage regulator voltage, increases the value. Increasing core voltage has no effect however.

 

[johnspack]

This card is a beast, still getting more out of it. I'll break 16k soon! And my 2nd exact same card is coming. I may be looking at 30k Vantage....

Well, maybe not that much, but still not darn bad for an old card!

 

[chris189]

This card is a beast, still getting more out of it. I'll break 16k soon! And my 2nd exact same card is coming. I may be looking at 30k Vantage....
http://img.techpowerup.org/101229/Thirdrun285.png
Well, maybe not that much, but still not darn bad for an old card!

That's awesome. What preset are you using? Also take some pics of your cpuz/ gpuz in the full print screen for specs/ details on your setup. Also throw some pics up of your rig with the 285 installed! I'm getting the GTX470 tomorrow!!!!!!! I'm so excited. We're gonna duel GTX285 (Which is unusually fast) Vs. GTX470 (supposed to a great card). I'll probably order a 2nd one next week if one is incredible! SLI GTX470 is going to just Kill every game. It's way overkill. 92fps Metro2033 1920x1080 Very High DX11 Tessellation... incredible!

CYA DUDE!

 

[johnspack]

Trying to remember if I went over my stable on that shot. I do 720/1656/1324 gaming stable, I may have gone over for that one.... but it's just a benchmark. I'll redo a few and check.... if I went suicide, it's 1696, but not sure.

 

[chris189]

That's awesome. I bet your like so freaking happy! I love video card upgrades, they give most amount of enjoyment on an upgrade. I haven't upgraded since the GTX260 192 core came out! I'm dying for an upgrade!!! GTX470 should suffice. I'll most likely order another card next week. I might need to get a new power supply though. My 850W has 70A on 12V rail, and the 1000W power supply I want has i believe 82A. Only 12A extra... I bet my 850 is really pushing it though.

 

[chris189]

Johnspack, post pics of your rig and what power supply you have!!!

 

[johnspack]

I'm trying, but the batteries for my old 2mp camera just died before I could xfer pics. Don't know if I can find the cable for the battery charger. Almost lost this old camera, but found it.... my kingdom for a 5mp with 3x optical zoom...

 

[athenaesword]

amazing this thread's still alive lol

 

[chris189]

I'm trying, but the batteries for my old 2mp camera just died before I could xfer pics. Don't know if I can find the cable for the battery charger. Almost lost this old camera, but found it.... my kingdom for a 5mp with 3x optical zoom...

LOL

 

[johnspack]

Found charger junk, need to charge over night, I'll have something tomorrow.....
Edit: I have to post some pics Chris, we're both old school with cases ect, mine's a bit busy,
but I've learned a little bit about cable management from tpu'ers over the years. It helps!
I'm still fighting with what to do with 6 sata cables....

 

[johnspack]

Okay, you wanted ugly, here it is!:

 

[chris189]

Okay, you wanted ugly, here it is!:
http://img.techpowerup.org/101230/PA160288.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/101230/PA160289.jpg

We're both old school, like we're not for all those led's and crap? Yeah, that's true. I can't sleep with that shit lighting my room up. I want to Modify my side panel with a window and cut 2 120mm holes for 2 fans. 1 intake fan for the CPU as u can see from my pics. I also need to make a hole that will allow direct airflow for the intake fans on the video cards. My board is microatx so i'm gonna need a lot of cooling to keep 2 470s at reasonable temps. Nice rig dude! I was like, thats my machine at first!! lol. Do you smoke? I can tell from the case fans... LOL Good stuff.

later dude

 

[chris189]

Here's the GTX 470 Stock speeds