Graphics GTX 460 Appreciation Society - Plus VGA Cooling Thread!

Outside of a desire to see better performance, there is another reason for me to try an OC, I want to try and get to the bottom of an irritating repeat error I keep getting:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=100800&hl=nvlddmkm

I hope stressing the card will consistently reproduce the errors so I can prove it's a hardware fault.

I have tried all sorts of software fixes, including clean driver re-installs, mainboard driver updates, windows updates, audio and network driver updates and even a format and re-install/update of windows. But still I get the problem.

Obviously if the driver stop error happens in windows it's less of an issue as you only have to worry about a blank screen and error popup as it re-initialises but if it happens mid game, it's a bit of a problem.

 

Well I finally got around to updating the bios on my GTX 460 to the f3 one. I managed to get 830 core and 1010 memory on the old bios with stock voltage so am hoping to achieve something pretty good on this one.

 

EVGA GTX460 1GB SC at Scan today only for £103.19, bargain!

 

You do have the right model of Gigabyte GTX 460 I assume? It was the first issue as follows...

GV-N460OC-1GI

 

Yes it was the correct model, rev 1 not had much improvement so far.
Had the core to 840 now and it runs games/furmark fine and then I was using vlc and got an opengl error. May have to scale back the memory a fair bit to see how far I can push the core on stock voltage. Although I've only seen peak temps at about 70, with the low ambient and some good airflow so increasing voltage might not give a heat issue

 

Got a little mod to share with you all.

Up till now I've been running my 460 at 800MHz core on 1v; due to lack of VRM cooling I'm not overly comfortable pushing the full 1087mV into my GPU... but that's all about to change.

Since moving back to one card I decided I'll crank it up to the highest possible OC for daily use, and to allow me to do that I'll see if I can get something on the VRM.

Step 1 - an old XBOX 360 aluminium heatsink, perfect width for the graphics card, but all I need is a thin strip to sit on the VRM



Step 2 - measurement taken and Dremel to the rescue



Step 3 - test fitting after sanding and filing



Step 4 - VRM sink installed with MX-2 and secured (provisionally) with a band. The fan on the HR-03GT was bought speficially for this installation; it's a low profile Yate Loon 92mm fan, only 15mm high, with good airflow and a VERY pleasing noise profile.




After installing the card I immediately fired it up to 1087mV, 900MHz core, and ran the Furmark test. The core reached 81C (not bad for silent cooling) and the VRM sink was extremely hot to the touch, so it's definitely doing its job.

In the long run I might opt for a dual-fan setup on this, one for the HR-03GT and one for the VRM sink.

 

AWESOME! Your card looks the biz!

 

Heh thanks It takes up a lot of space but the cooling performance is just incredible... as of now, my in game load temps are 55C with 20C room temperature and fan barely audible.

I also got a Delta AUB0912VH to play with - it's a seriously powerful 92mm fan that has a top speed of about 4000rpm and 72 CFM!



But it's a particularly nice 92mm fan as well, because it's a 4-wire PWM fan... which means it can therefore be configured in my BIOS to behave either in terms of duty cycle or in accordance with a specific temperature threshold.

One thing I LOVE about this motherboard is that it comes with temperature probes which are to be used in conjunction with three of the fan headers. I plugged in a temperature probe for this fan header and taped the sensor to the heatpipes on the HR-03GT, and I set the fan to min speed @ 35C, max speed @ 90C.



The fan profile works really well because at desktop the fan is at only 1800 RPM and is silent; if I go into a game it speeds up a little but is never "loud" and keeps temps at about 55C, and as soon as I go back to desktop the fan immediately starts slowing down.

Furmark will make the fan a lot louder, but temps will not go very high - nowhere near 81C like they did with the low profile Yate fan!

 

I would love to fit that cooler to my 560, but I suspect that it will interfere with my cpu-cooler because of those fittings on the back of the card.



I have been toying with the idea of making a shroud for the 140mm fan to channel air directly on to the heatsink.

 

I am leaving the 460 club soon.

It's been a great 18 months but this bios issue with the new card is not acceptable so it's going back to dabs today.

My fantastic original 460 will be up for sale soon tho if someone wants to join the club!

Every cloud

 

I'll be leaving the 460 club as soon as I can afford something better. I recently bought and promptly returned an Asus DirectCuII GTX 570, but that's because it was £240 and I'd get exactly the same performance (though more heat) from a GTX 480 for a lot, lot less money.

I hate that there is such an enormous jump in price with cards which are better than the GTX 460, so I suspect I'll be keeping it for a while. Would love to get a 480 though.

 

I may take that card off of you hands, my brother would like to join methinks

Let me know when you're selling

 

Just took it out and had a photo shoot will put the for sale (price check perhaps) thread up hopefully by 5 - 6

 

Hope I'm not out when it goes up then.

And Lenny, I know what you mean about upgrading, I'm looking at a 480, had one in the past, very good cards, and can be had for not bad money now.

 

Thread is up as a price check - pics included

 

I had two 470's once now im back on one , it's still a great card and at some point when i see my single one start to struggle and see another one cheap enough i will buy a 2nd and go back to sli.

 

Nice work! How about a little love for the RAM cooling though?

Perhaps even an adaptation so you can PWM the fan from the graphics card itself?

 

^ Cheers Blogins. I previously considered connecting the fan directly to the graphics header as it would be amazing to have that level of control over the fan via Afterburner, however I have no idea what the pinout of the header is so I'll have to look into it. Might give that a try tomorrow actually

As for the ram, I never overclock it so decided not to sink it, even though I have TR sinks for it - the fan blows onto it anyway so it's kept well ventilated. I'm amazed how cool the card runs when I OC it to 900MHz with 1087mV... so far I've never seen it even reach 60C in-game.

 

Decided just to go ahead and do it.

I managed to find a pinout on google, but just to be safe I checked it with the original Palit fan and a spare PSU, and right enough it's exactly the same as a standard CPU PWM fan, with wires in the following order from one side to the other: ground, volts, tach, pwm.

It was a REALLY fiddly job because the wires are sooooo thin, but it soldered up fine and I got it heatshrinked to keep it well isolated. Cable length is perfect and there's no mess, and the cable is completely hidden from sight when the card is installed so I'm chuffed!

For some reason Afterburner won't let the fan go below 40% duty cycle, which is a bit annoying because although 40% is very quiet it could still be quieter! At 40% the fan is at 2000rpm, whereas when I had it connected to the mobo it was 1800rpm and noticeably quieter (basically silent).

Any ideas on lowering that 40% threshold, or is it imposed by the vBIOS?

Anywho, pics:

 

Use the Fermi BIOS Editor to alter the lower limit. You would need to take an image of your GTX 460 BIOS alter it and then flash it back to the card. Make sure the fan still spins at any point below 40% however as it could cut off at some point!

Nice work by the way!