Advice on Graphics Cards

[Zumi]

I wouldn't bother getting a new video card with that system its a waste of money that CPU will just bottle neck anything that is good. Unless you want to buy a new motherboard and cpu probably not worth upgrading.

[Zenaku]

That's my problem with EVGA's cards. Their cooling solutions are always pretty meh, which in turn doesn't leave much allowance for further clocking.

I'm currently running my Gigabyte at 1083/1148 6308 (which is quite a bit more than the EVGA) and the fans don't even need to go over 70% to keep it nice and cool.

So i never understood what the different from getting a normal 660 and a OC version? Beside the fact that the company itself OC it? I mean can't you get a normal version and OC it yourself or is there something special about the company OC version?

[Guyjin37]

So i never understood what the different from getting a normal 660 and a OC version? Beside the fact that the company itself OC it? I mean can't you get a normal version and OC it yourself or is there something special about the company OC version?

Yep, all you're getting (in the vast majority of cases) is a regular card, factory OCed. Generally they're better for people who are uncomfortable overclocking. If you're brave enough to overclock yourself then getting a normal version and overclocking that is a fine strategy and should give you similar results.

Another thing to look at is the cooling solution on a particular card. Reference coolers (the ones that are based on the original design spec of the card from either NVidia or ATI) are nowadays pretty good but still not as good as a custom fan like you'd find on an MSI Lightning or ASUS DC2 or something. You could conceivably get better overclocking results on one of those simply because the temps will be a little lower.

[Abriael]

I wouldn't bother getting a new video card with that system its a waste of money that CPU will just bottle neck anything that is good. Unless you want to buy a new motherboard and cpu probably not worth upgrading.

It's definitely worth upgrading, and if she wants to fully upgrade she doesn't even need a new motherboard, as her socket AM3 can host some definitely good processors and RAM.

So i never understood what the different from getting a normal 660 and a OC version? Beside the fact that the company itself OC it? I mean can't you get a normal version and OC it yourself or is there something special about the company OC version?

Biggest difference is that if you overclock a card yourself you void the warranty. A card that has been factory overclocked is covered by warranty for the overclock it comes with.

The second difference is that often factory overclocked cards have a much better cooling solution than the stock one, as they are actually designed to withstand higher voltage and heat.

[Soukyuu]

<snip>
Coincidentally, I have a scythe mugen 2 too. Faulty processors don't necessarily crash, some just heat up way too much. It may also be a case of badly applied thermal paste (or a very bad thermal paste I guess).

Oh you actually bothered
Well, now I'm kinda bummed out
Should try to get rid of it since I now have an AM3+ board... so could go for an upgrade I guess.

edit: thermal paste is the one that was shipped with the cooler, applied thinly so that it covers the heatspreader but it's still "visible" under it... at least that's how I thought it's done.

Since this thread has become pretty general, how about an AM3+ CPU recommendation?

[Dissolution]

Not to be rude but you really need to upgrade everything... Your CPU and your gpu are very dated. I would suggest saving up and just buying a new computer... You should go i7 and Nvidia in terms of cpu and gpu.... Currently I have an i7 3770k and a Asus Nvidia GTX 570 and I got 9k on my benchmark with everything maxed. The 570 is fairly cheap now... I believe around 150....

[Shura]

Oh you actually bothered
Well, now I'm kinda bummed out
Should try to get rid of it since I now have an AM3+ board... so could go for an upgrade I guess.

edit: thermal paste is the one that was shipped with the cooler, applied thinly so that it covers the heatspreader but it's still "visible" under it... at least that's how I thought it's done.

Since this thread has become pretty general, how about an AM3+ CPU recommendation?

Considering your on the 965 BC, should go with either the FX-8150 or FX-8350 chips, or if your looking for something cheaper the FX-6200 to see any real difference. Would help a little better if you can let us know what your budget is. I would recommend one of the 8000 chips though, about $30 difference in price for each of the listed chips.

Not sure what paste that cooler has as stock but i would get something like Shin-Etsu.

[Zenaku]

Yep, all you're getting (in the vast majority of cases) is a regular card, factory OCed. Generally they're better for people who are uncomfortable overclocking. If you're brave enough to overclock yourself then getting a normal version and overclocking that is a fine strategy and should give you similar results.

Another thing to look at is the cooling solution on a particular card. Reference coolers (the ones that are based on the original design spec of the card from either NVidia or ATI) are nowadays pretty good but still not as good as a custom fan like you'd find on an MSI Lightning or ASUS DC2 or something. You could conceivably get better overclocking results on one of those simply because the temps will be a little lower.

ya that what i thought thank you

@abriael

Thanks that even more info did not know about the warranty thanks

[Abriael]

edit: thermal paste is the one that was shipped with the cooler, applied thinly so that it covers the heatspreader but it's still "visible" under it... at least that's how I thought it's done.

The method sounds right, but I honestly have no idea of what thermal paste was shipped with the cooler. I immediately threw it away. I actually must have thrown it away so fast that I don't even remember there was thermal paste in the box ^_^;

I never trust thermal paste shipped with anything, as it's normally very low quality, and you simply don't know what its physical and thermal characteristics are. Every thermal paste is slightly (or majorly) different, and some even require different application techniques. If you don't know what thermal paste you're using, you may very well doing it wrong.

At the moment my favorite is this one.

As for CPU recommendations, what Shura said.

[Soukyuu]

I doubt the thermal paste can change the temps by ~15°C, but might look into it. Does the paste lose it's features over time? I used the paste provided with the cooler this time, but before that it was arctic silver. Didn't really change the temps.

Wrote to AMD to see if they will be willing to do anything, if not, then I guess I will be looking around for a different CPU. My budget is as low as it gets atm, I'm usually aiming for best bang for the buck though.