Zenos 8800 GTX bites the dust

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Whilst trying left for dead I started to get artifacts and the card gasped its last breath. I will get an ATI 5870 tomorrow. On the laptop now, which has an old 7900GTX good for many things but not arma.

[custard~SPARTA~]

No warranty on the 8800? unlucky mate.

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

Back in late 2009

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5970,2474.html

 

Cobol & I bought these 'Black edition' no regrets.

 

around £400-470 GBP today

 

We run MSI afterbuner to control the Fan via a temp gradient

http://downloads.guru3d.com/MSI-AfterBurner-download-2392.html

 

 

std 5970 v 480

 

extreeme 5870 v 480

 

CF = Cross fire.

2010 Charts for GPUBattlefield Bad Company 2

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/Battlefield-Bad-Company-2,2464.html

 

A year on and in general the single SLOT solution I like the 5970.

Running temps for 5970 around 60-75 centigrade (fan@60%).

 

 

Overall the 5870 you mentioned is a very good card.

average UK price £250

[Halli~SPARTA~]

Zeno get the best there is because if you keep it as long as you did the 8800GTX you will still up there at the end of next year.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

The 8800 GTX is 266.6 mm long

The 5870 is 279.4 mm long

 

I have a zalman fatality case made of 5mm aluminium plate, and the cage for the HDDs (probably 2mm aluminium) is at the bottom front of the case in line with the card. The 8800GTX fits with about a sata cable width to spare. The 5870 wont fit and the 5970 is longer still.

 

Not every graphics card is available in stock.

 

The 5870 and the 480 GTX are available for about the same price

 

The 480 gtx is266.7 mm long so should fit

 

This machine doesnt warrant the 5970

 

My choices are limite

 

I wish I had thought about how big cards could get before I bought this case, although its smart looking it was not a great buy.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Actually having visually verified the length of the 5870 and the 480 gtx they are both the same length as the 8800 GTX, crucially however, the 5870 has its power socket on the end (opposite end to the DVI sockets), this negated its purchase. So I am now running the 480 GTX, lets hope it provides as good a service as my 8800 GTX.

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

It should, just remember to get one made buy a good mfger that has good warranty,and don't forget to give it good cooling. At least a 120mm fan blowing right on it from the side of the case.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Another downside of this case is that it has no side vent (mind you neither does the mozart but with so many fans it doesnt matter)

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

You can get a 120mm fan and hold it on the side of the case cover after removeing it off of the machine, and trace it out on the side of the case, where you want to mount the fan, Then after buying a copeing saw doen at your local hard whare store, Drill a hole on the side plate, then gently cut out the hole for it useing the copeing saw, drill the mounting screw holes and get a fan grill, and mount it up. plug it and presto,A fan on the side.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

haha or just use an old can opener....................

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

I have modded old lame cases that diden't have enough cooling on the sides before. Its not that hard to do and it will save that vid card from frying. At the mfger they use metel stamp dies to do it. If your carefull it can be done well, just remove it off of the machine first and use a padded area to rest the side cover on so it won't get scrached up, trace it out and drill a hole in the center, use a jigg saw or copeing saw to cutt around inside the circle the fan will set behind and then mark and drill the 4 mounting holes and get a fan grill to cover it on the outside. Put tape on the shoe of the jigg saw so it won't mar the side cover. Just a suggestion to keep the vid card happy.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[GySgt~SPARTA~]

lol my brothers ATI card in his Dell I7 caught fire OMG glad someone was home when it happened

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

My wifes machine diden't have cooling in the front, so I bought 2 small 20mm fans and took a hole saw and in a entpy drive bay cover, drilled and glued in 2 small fans, works real well, blows in stright across the cpu cooler.

Then added one of these slot cooler in the back to help speed air along

The next time I do one ile post up pics of it , its real easy to do, if one can use hand tools.

 

Zeno, I looked at the Mosart case, and it looks like you can seperate the case into 4 seperate chambers. For the main system you can have 2 fans in the front and 2 in the back. If you don't have 4 fans in there, I would add more. Try that before cutting a hole in the side.

Edited November 3, 2010 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

LOL, my mozart must have at least 8 90mm fans

[Krambo]

Dang, sorry 2 hear it Zeno, everybody's 8800 is on its way out

 

fingers crossed, touch wood, all that lot, mine still seems to be working.

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Mine still working fine, Must be the big fan on the side blowing on it keeping it cool. Instead of relying on allready heated case air cooling it.

Edited November 4, 2010 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[EMT~SPARTA~]

U would think they would have a sufficient fan already on the card...but I guess that would make too much sense.

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Well when stressed buy big games they get hot, and the newer the game the hoter they get untill pow, they go out.

[custard~SPARTA~]

My 8800 died over a year ago and it had 2 x 120mm fans blowing onto it and in my case it never got hot and it still died guess I was just unlucky lol

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Well I know some of the hopped up drivers had the automatic temp and fan speed control throttle up with heat dissabled. need to monitor the cards temp wile in use. Or just could be crappy cards.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

Remember if it is out of warranty you can remove the cover and all plastic then put it in the oven at about 450 degs for 10 mins and hope the soldier melts.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

with the mozart 4 90mm fans pull air from outside the case onto the graphics card, there are no components between them and the card to warm the air up. There are 4 fans pulling air out of the case, 1 is directly in line with the CPU fan and cooler and 3 are at the top of the case. The PSU is in a seperate compartment and draws air from outside the case and directly pushes it back out so it does not use case air.

 

Despite that my Asus 8800 GTX in that case burnt out first after about 2 years.

 

The zalman case only has 2 90mm fans on the front bottom and one or 2 high rear, the 2 intake fans cool the hard drives before (so the air flow is warmed up) moving air though the rest of the case. Despite these case flaws my Asus 8800 gtx ultra lasted more than 3 years.

 

I do agree however that later nvidia drivers allow higher temps on auto than old drivers and often idle at around 40 %

 

I tried a dreamweaver test on the 480 gtx I had to stop the test when the temp went through 80°C using the nvidia automatic fan speed, I used MSI Afterburner recomended by Carter to push the fan speed to 100% and kept the temp to around a max of 73°C (with 100% GPU usage). I now run MSI afterburner on my 2 gaming rigs with the Fan speed on manual at 70%, there is no noise intrusion and the temps max out in the 60s in game. I now do keep an eye on the temps while in game and can quickly increase the fan speed manually.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

Yeah Zeno I use Ntune and evga precision (sp) and when I game I set it to 70% when away and folding I set it to 50% but not sure folding uses much of my card....it should though.