25 replies to this topic

[Honey Badger]

Howdy folks...

So, I couldn't stand it anymore. Not being able to game at all because of the fact that I was running a GT 430 was driving me insane. I remembered that, in the 780i FTW system I gave to my dad, I had a GTX 260 leftover from the days of yore, so I decided to temporarily downgrade him back to the 9800GT that was in his system previous, yank the GTX 260 and put it in my system for some temporary gaming use until I'm able to get a better card in a few weeks.

Note: We are talking about an eVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition.

Here's the deal: I don't remember much about the 2xx-series, so I was hoping I could get some guestimants from you guys one what clocks I can push this thing to. I already did some minor tweaking and I was able to do the following:

Metro 2033: (Resolution: 1280 x 720; DirectX: DirectX 10; Quality: High; Antialiasing: AAA; Texture filtering: AF 16X; Advanced PhysX: Enabled; Tesselation: Not supported; DOF: Not supported)
Stock (626 MHz Core / 1350 MHz Shaders / 2106 MHz memory): 49FPS avg.
OCed (680 MHz Core / 1466 MHz Shaders / 2210MHz Memory): 53FPS avg.

Worthy of note is the fact that my max load temp during this testing was 52C, so I'm not overheating or anything.

Are the clocks I've already pushed about as high as I'm gonna get, or can someone recommend something I might not be thinking of in terms of performance boost? I find the game looks perdy good and runs smoothly for the most part at stock as well as the OCed settings... I can't run Very High because it goes slideshow on me (below 25FPS), even at 720p... also at 1080p, it doesn't run very well on anything over Medium, so I sacrificed resolution for quality.

I'll have this thing for at least another 13 days, if not longer, until I get a better card, so I'm looking forward to playing with it.

[mihapiha]

The GTX200 series doesn't have DX10. So don't try pushing tessellation or DX10/11 because the card won't do it anyways.
The overclock is pretty solid and I'd not even push the card unless necessary. Remember that the card ain't that young no more.

I'm still looking for some results so you can compare. But I'd let it be at that point.... I'll add some results when I find them


Edit:

I found some old results of mine. I couldn't push my card beyond 660 MHz.. So the 680 MHz are pretty damn impressive!

Edited by mihapiha, 06 October 2011 - 08:44 AM.

[Honey Badger]

perdy sure you meant they don't support DirectX 11. They do support 10, quite well. You were probably just tired though. thanks for the oc check though. Good to know. With how cool it runs at those clocks I may push further if it's stable at 680.

[mihapiha]

Oh yeah. You're right. I messed up. DX10 is supported DX11 not. Therefore no Tessellation...

[Honey Badger]

Also if anyone can suggest a good way to test that OC, other than Furmark cuz I don't wanna chance burning it out since it's the only good card I have left, let me know please and thank you!

Also if you wanna see a bench result lemme know, if I have the benchmark or game I'll run it for ya when I have time!

Edit:

Installed a GTX 580 High Flow bracket on to the GTX 260 (it fits, so useable lol) to help airflow cuz I noticed airflow out of the back of the card even at 100% fan was pisspoor. Lowered Idle & load temps a bit...

Pushed to 700MHz Core, 1150MHz vRAM, got a lil' more performance outta that, and it passed 10 runs of Metro2033 without any issues, 53-54C max load during the whole loop. I'm gonna let it run OCCT's GPU test while I shower, see if I come back to a BSOD, driver crash, or a pass.

Edited by Honey Badger, 06 October 2011 - 05:07 PM.

[Honey Badger]

Well it passed a 1hr OCCT GPU test while I was getting cleaned up and showering:



I need to do some fan-optimizing for better caseflow (currently my high powered fan is NOT blowing directly in to the GPU fan area, so I gotta fix that). But considering it's at 702MHz (according to the readout on MSI Afterburner) and it ran it with no issues even hitting 75C (and 76C at the very end from the room temp raising slightly) I would say that's pretty darn good for what amounts to a 126MHz Core OC.

Anywho so far it's:

Core: 702MHz (vs. 576MHz reference)
Shader: 1513MHz (vs. 1242MHz reference)
vRAM: 1154MHz (vs. 999MHz reference)

Apparently I could push the vRAM a lot higher, cuz most reviews I've found push the RAM well over the 1200MHz mark. Guru3d.com got this particular model up to 1303MHz vRAM, but I don't really wanna push it to the extreme like that... they also pushed 718MHz Core. lol

Ran Metro 2033 on the following settings:

Options: Resolution: 1280 x 720; DirectX: DirectX 10; Quality: High; Antialiasing: AAA; Texture filtering: AF 16X; Advanced PhysX: Enabled; Tesselation: Not supported; DOF: Not supported

and got 54.3FPS avg through 10 runs, never passed 54C.

EDIT:

Oh for those curious as to WHY I'm running PhsyX on Metro2033 ON, I am runnin' the GT 430 as dedicated PhysX to take the PhysX load off the CPU/GPU that's doing the rendering. I did a test with the PhysX load on the GTX 260, and it took a pretty noticable hit in performance, so apparently with the older gen hardware, even a crappy GT 430 can help >.> lol

Edited by Honey Badger, 06 October 2011 - 06:59 PM.

[Lordred289]

Ahem..
728 core, 2432 mem, 1541 shader @ Default voltage.

BTW: This GTX260 Was orginially owned by the man himself, EG. Which means this was folded on 24/7 356 for about a year, then I put it though more folding about 3 months, then I OCed the (bad word here) out of it. Then gave it to a friend.

(I no longer have the card to play with it, sorry)

Edited by Lordred289, 07 October 2011 - 03:56 AM.

[Honey Badger]

Oddity: I played Metro2033 for a while, and unlike in the benchmark, it seems the GPU usage can't go up to 99%? Which is odd cuz it did during the OCCT GPU test, constant 99% load.

Dred do you happen to remember the load temps on there? Just curious.

I'm probably not gonna push the core much further as I've already gotten a 5-7FPS increase in the games from goin' from 626MHz Core SC Stock to 702MHz.

But I am probably gonna fiddle with the vRAM again, see if I can get it optimized better. I'll probably push to around 1225ishMHz on that, and test for stability.

[Luke]

Honey Badger, on 07 October 2011 - 06:20 AM, said:

Oddity: I played Metro2033 for a while, and unlike in the benchmark, it seems the GPU usage can't go up to 99%? Which is odd cuz it did during the OCCT GPU test, constant 99% load.

Dred do you happen to remember the load temps on there? Just curious.

I'm probably not gonna push the core much further as I've already gotten a 5-7FPS increase in the games from goin' from 626MHz Core SC Stock to 702MHz.

But I am probably gonna fiddle with the vRAM again, see if I can get it optimized better. I'll probably push to around 1225ishMHz on that, and test for stability.

I used to use 260's for crunching... although they were never fully loaded they were one 24/7. They stay very cool! ~<62*C

[Honey Badger]

Yeah I noticed during regular gaming with the fan at 100% (which is surprisingly quiet, but also doesn't move a ton of air like I'm used to on the 580s) it doesn't pass 55C often if ever, but it sure did in OCCT. I assume that's from me needing correct my air profile in my case so that my high flow fan is blowing directly in to the area of the GPU from the side. At present, that's pointed at the FRONT of the card, not the fan portion. I'll fix that next time I shut down.

Anywho, I ran Vantage for funsies, got P14001 or somethin' like that. My CPU score was stellar as always (even at stock) around 53k, GPU was like 11k or some stuff. I'm gonna probably play some other games, I couldn't really tolerate Metro2033 on the lower settings much... but then again the beginning of the game isn't very fun until you get underway.

Any additional help will be appriciated. Thanks guys lol

[ExtremeGrandpa]

I will try and find time later today to post in this thread. I had around 9 or 10 of the GTX 260's, so I know a few things about those units. At this time Our host is having issues and I am having to try and keep things up and running.

[Honey Badger]

No rush EG, your advice is always appriciated

[Honey Badger]

I must say, after being so used to 2-to-3-Way SLi of 580s, running games with a card like this is sooooooooo sucky. lol Least it runs them decent though.

[Luke]

Honey Badger, on 08 October 2011 - 08:55 AM, said:

I must say, after being so used to 2-to-3-Way SLi of 580s, running games with a card like this is sooooooooo sucky. lol Least it runs them decent though.

For all practical purposes, I've found that one GTX260 is roughly 1/2 of one GTX580.

[Lordred289]

Dess, I forgot to get back to you, temps were 67c under load with the fan at 100%.

[Honey Badger]

Dred, that load temp was under folding yes? I only ask cuz the only time I've seen temps over 60C is during OCCT GPU test. I saw 75-76C there, but every other benchmark, I don't see anything over about 56-57C at most. The high flow bracket helped a bit... STILL need to redo the fan setup near the GPU so that it has better in-flow of cool air though.

[Lordred289]

Honey Badger, on 08 October 2011 - 04:31 PM, said:

Dred, that load temp was under folding yes? I only ask cuz the only time I've seen temps over 60C is during OCCT GPU test. I saw 75-76C there, but every other benchmark, I don't see anything over about 56-57C at most. The high flow bracket helped a bit... STILL need to redo the fan setup near the GPU so that it has better in-flow of cool air though.

67c was load temp after 4 hours of looping heaven @ 1080p 16xaf 8xaa. The case did not have prime air flow, but it did not had bad airflow. Room temp at the time was 80F

[Honey Badger]

So not constant 100% load then eh? lol I'll haveta retest this thing once I get my case-flow optimized now that it has the high flow bracket on it too, gotta retest stability with the new vRAM clock anyway, so best to do it after I fix the flow too. Not that 75C is bad for a max load temp for an hour-long OCCT GPU test... but I'd prefer it run cooler than that under high load situations, cuz I rarely pay attention to GPU temp while in a high/long gaming session.

[Luke]

What kinda VRAM usage do you guys see when folding.

[Lordred289]

Luke, on 09 October 2011 - 02:30 AM, said:

What kinda VRAM usage do you guys see when folding.

Almost none, infact you can drop the VRAM speed to the bottem of the slider with no impact on the folding rate, and have a dramatic drop in heat. Also on GT200 and back cards you can unlink the shader clock form the core, and drop the core clock. Folding uses the shader almost exclusivly.

Edited by Lordred289, 09 October 2011 - 02:41 AM.