My GTS250 is dying, too many hours at too high a temperature are finally taking their toll.
Despite trying different combinations of drivers, Lunatics' app, stock app, and regular attacking the dust bunnies, plus forcing the fan to run at 100% all the time it regularly stalls, leaving me with a very interesting mosaic pattern on the screen, but no life.
The question is, what to replace it wit?. While I might want to go for the latest 590, its just a little out of my reach for now.
So its down to a "low end" 4xx, with similar, or slightly better performance. What do you suggest? - for crunching and CAD work only, no games.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Bare in mind your PSU rating. Pencil in a 560Ti which people seem to like. Check power consumption at full load on nVidia's site.

Nice, but way over budget :-(

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Many people seem to love their GTS 460s and I see them on sale quite often.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

Does a '460 need both a 6 and 8 way power connector, or will it run happily on just the 6 way?
If it needs both, or only runs with a single 8-way, then I've got to factor in a new PSU and the budget is blown :-(

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Does a '460 need both a 6 and 8 way power connector, or will it run happily on just the 6 way?
If it needs both, or only runs with a single 8-way, then I've got to factor in a new PSU and the budget is blown :-(

Not sure about the 460, but the 465s take 2 6-conductor plugs.
But if the power draw is still within the capacity of your PSU, you can get adapters to run those connectors from the standard 4 pin molex CPU connectors...
In fact, if you are gonna get the card new, it may come with a couple. You might be able to check the accessories that come with it.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Here.....
GTX460 at Newegg...

$199.00 before rebate, free shipping.
Says it comes with 2 6-pin power adapters.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

My GTS250 is dying, too many hours at too high a temperature are finally taking their toll.
Despite trying different combinations of drivers, Lunatics' app, stock app, and regular attacking the dust bunnies, plus forcing the fan to run at 100% all the time it regularly stalls, leaving me with a very interesting mosaic pattern on the screen, but no life.
The question is, what to replace it wit?. While I might want to go for the latest 590, its just a little out of my reach for now.
So its down to a "low end" 4xx, with similar, or slightly better performance. What do you suggest? - for crunching and CAD work only, no games.

Have you looked into possibly getting a replacement heat sink or do you think the GPU is shot now?

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If nothing else will fit under the hood, the GTS450 should require slightly less power, and be a direct replacement(but add in directx 11 capability and fermi)

and a wee bit more power.

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Janice

Thanks Mark, looks interesting, right at the top of the budget, but Newegg don't ship to the UK, os let's have a look at the UK suppliers.


Hmmm Overclockers are quoting about 135 quid for the same card, worth looking at....

Further up the tree than I expected.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Well i got an replacement card for my old EVGA 9600 GT which is an GTS450 slightly factory overclocked with 192 cuda cores
And i must say the card runs well and is relative cheap, another nice thing is the card runs very mildly warm with normal boinc projects
I primarily use it now on einstein, seti and distrTRgen (no work)
On seti and einstein is happily eats 2 units every time and is hoovering at a 55 c max temp most of the time.
Running more units on this card seems to me not much more productive and for einstein simply impossible because of the 450 Mb vc ram (BRP4) usage per unit.

Ofcourse it is not the fastest but it does this jobs well and without errors
I recommend not to use newer drivers from version 270 and up because they give enough weird issues, you really do not want
On the other hand you got a nice dx11 fermi card which is good enough for most jobs on the normal front :D
And only one 6 pin vc plug needed ;)

Thanks Mark, looks interesting, right at the top of the budget, but Newegg don't ship to the UK, os let's have a look at the UK suppliers.


Hmmm Overclockers are quoting about 135 quid for the same card, worth looking at....

Further up the tree than I expected.

Ooops...
Forgot to check where you were hailing from...
I am so used to using Newegg for references.
If nothing else, for you it might be a good place for doing research.

Best of luck with the upgrade.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Thanks Mark, looks interesting, right at the top of the budget, but Newegg don't ship to the UK, os let's have a look at the UK suppliers.


Hmmm Overclockers are quoting about 135 quid for the same card, worth looking at....

Further up the tree than I expected.

You might want to try this GTX460 - it's (for now) $100 after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162058

I've used it in testing before at 2 WUs at a time, and works OK and stays cool.

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I have the GTS 450. Power consumption is actually pretty low for a card with this power/features. It's a big beastie though and the biggest problem I had was getting it to fit in the case even though I have a relatively new full size Dell Tower with I7-870 in it....

Games are awesome with this card too. I had the GTS250 equivalent (8800GT overclocked) and the GTS 450 is far better for gaming...and it crunches the Cuda_Fermi WU's in about 2:30 or so using Lunatics code.

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/graphics_cards_buy_now_uk.html

Click on the "show specs" below each name to check the power.

Many thanks guys.
It looks as if its going to be '450 - trip down the road to overclockers is called for.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Many thanks guys.
It looks as if its going to be '450 - trip down the road to overclockers is called for.

Make sure ya get them power adapters if you need them.....

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Thanks Mark,
I'm going to "bang on the door" rather than "rattle the keyboard" so I can see what's in the box, and if anything extra is needed.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

They've also got a few refurbished OEM 470's for £139.99 inc VAT! No cables though...


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2077

Many thanks guys.
It looks as if its going to be '450 - trip down the road to overclockers is called for.

Good choice Bob. I also have a GTS 450 and love it. I suggested the 460 because it out preforms my 450 by a long shot but I'm sure you will be happy with your choice.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC