Please help w/new graphics card & system build

(1) Please help with new graphics card

Hi, I have a newly installed Nvidia GeForce 8500GT. I also installed driver version 162.18 which looks to be the newest according to their website. This is the first card I have ever installed. I've heard someone mention a burn in period. Is this neccessary and if so, what do I need to do?

I've heard the temps run high on this card, I checked with speedfan and if I'm reading it correctly, it's showing 56C. If this is too hot, what can I do to lower the temps?

Also, do I need any of the optional software included on the cd and mentioned in the utility tab of the second link I posted? Can I also disable some or all of the autostarts that the driver installed? I have an emachines W3410 with XP home and 1 gig of RAM. Any other help or pointers will be greatly appreciated.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=NX8500GT-TD256E_OC&class=vga

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1228&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=136&cat3_no=138

Thanks,
innerpeace

 

(2) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Not, it isn't neccessary

It's OK. You may want to check temps while you're gaming or running a stress tool

They aren't neccessary and they're mostly useless.

Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide
Tidying Up

 

(3) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Hi Innerpeace,

Firstly forget about any myth of burning in a card,thats a new one!

I am running an 8600GT card,similar to yours and all cards do run fairly hot,compared to a CPU.
Your temp.isnt unreasonable ,depending on the ambient temp and I wouldnt worry about it unless it gets over 60c regularly.
My card has been running at about 53c for about a year without any problems.

If it does concern you or gets appreciably hotter,you can either increase the size of a nearby fan or better still,install a VGA fan,similar to here.(local site only)
At this stage,I would just leave it, the temp may drop a bit,after a short time in any case.

Its a good idea to install the nVidia Control Panel and access it from desktop Properties-settings-advanced -nVidia 8500,which can be done even if the autorun is disabled.This way no resources are generally used.
The Panel does have various useful adjustments for color display,resolution,video color settings

At one stage ,I disabled all Nvidia autoruns from starting up without any effects-they are mainly for viewing the NVidia Control Panel and for tweaking.CC Cleaner is a simple way to do this,under Tools-Startup.
You will probably find the nVidiaCplDaemon will revert-doesnt matter.
They do use a fair bit of resources,so disabling is not a bad idea.

 

(4) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Thank you Lucas for your help and the great information. I feel a little better about the temps now. I will have a look a the tweak guides and see what I can do.

Also, the GPU fan points downwards and blows through/across the heat sink fins towards the back of the computer. Would it be useful to remove a empty pci expansion bracket below the installed card and drill holes in it to let the warm air escape? I would just remove the bracket, but when it's warm here, a few small spiders occasionally find there way into the pc.

Thanks,
innerpeace

 

(5) Re: Please help with new graphics card

That design allows the fan (in single-slot cards) to suck fresh air and generate a good air pressure over the heatsink. Other designs occupy two slots and do what you want to achieve (let the hot air scape)

 

(6) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Hi Hairy Coo ,

Thanks and it's good to hear two confirmations that the burn in period is a myth.

The card I have is supposed to be OC'd which I didn't know until after I bought it LOL. I would say that is part of the reason it's running a little warm. The vga fans look interesting. I'm really trying to keep from ordering any more hardware for awhile. I did get 2 round IDE cables for my internal burner and HDD to hopefully keep things a little cooler.

I have the Control Panel installed. I've already disabled it from the system tray and I thought the desktop properties. I see what you mean about getting to it though. I did the same with my old ATI chip.

I did see the auto starts within CCleaner. Since I reinstalled XP, I've tried to stick with one autostart program so I will see what I can disable with Autoruns.

CCleaner shows:
NvCplDaemon
NvMediaCenter
WinSys2 (I'm not sure where this came from)
nwiz

 

(7) Re: Please help with new graphics card

WinSys2 may be a trojan-better check it out.

The other three are nVidia

 

( Re: Please help with new graphics card

I can't afford that one Lucas . I see what you mean though and it's a great design. This card has to last a while and I will probably use it in my next computer since it's DX10 compatible. It was $65 US and it has a $20 mail-in-rebate. Much better than my on-board ATI Radeon Xpress 200.

Thanks

 

(9) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Thanks Hairy Coo, I'm checking it out now.

 

(10) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Its either a trojan or its part of the 8500 install.
If it only appeared since installing nVidia.you are probably OK.

See post half way down-MrGenie here

 

(11) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Thanks! I think your right. I remember glancing over the literature that mentioned Dynamic Overclocking Technology. When I look in Autoruns it say DOT MFC application and in the properties mentions DOT.exe. I will upload to VT and see what they say. I know I scanned the driver download with Avira, SAS and A-squared before unzipping it and after unzipping it. I'll edit this post when I'm finished.

Edit: The files had been submitted before and show as clean 0/32. I checked winsys2.exe and winsys.exe.

 

(12) Re: Please help with new graphics card

As a quick update, I played Battlefront for a little while and then checked the temps. The GPU was at 64C and my computer processor was at 48C. Is this acceptable? I'm off to bed for now.

Thanks,
innerpeace

 

(13) Re: Please help with new graphics card

I installed the GIGABYTE nVidia GEForce 8600GT on my new rig with superb results,after I downloaded the GeForce Series 8 Ultra drivers for it at nVidia

 

(14) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Obviously this game is stressing both,so probably OK,certainly the CPU.
I find its best to ignore the GPU or it will drive you crazy
Personally I would be looking at a card fan sooner or later if it runs that hot often,it would effect the whole system temp. to some extent.
For a start, I would fit an expansion slot cooler like THIS-cheap and very easy to fit.

 

(15) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Are these Ultra special drivers?

 

(16) Re: Please help with new graphics card

I wouldn't worry about your temperature too much i heard some run 8500GT upto 100C overclocked and that would i'm sure shorten the lifespan of the card. If you want a great vga cooler to bring it down alot there is this http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/thhr.html which you can also attach a 120mm fan to it and probably can use it on your next card. ThermalRight are quality. A cheap way but not so effective is buy a pci card thats 2x120mm fans mounted that you put in the next pci slot and point at the graphics but this could just circulate the hot air already and not make a hardly a difference. Ideally you need to get rid of the hot air in the case first and suck in cold air. That case is not ideal for air intake. The best way to cool a case is to create a vacuum effect with slight pressure, cold air from the front and hot air out the back. You probably have to do some DIY on your case to lower the temps. When i had this http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/890/3/page_3_in_the_box/index.html it wasn't the heat that was so much the problem which was 65C on full load it was the noise from the fan so i ended up watercooling it and cut the temps in half and no noise. That was bliss. Is your card noisy playing a game?

Can you play a game like Company of Heros http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/companyofheroes/index.html with everything turned on full and is it still playable? Download Fraps http://www.fraps.com/ This will monitor your FPS(framerate) in your game.

 

(17) Re: Please help with new graphics card

DVD+R, What is the difference in the Ultra drivers?

Hairy Coo, I'll have a look at the coolers and or fans. As an experiment, I removed the PCI bracket below the card and it's idling at 54C now. There is a lot of air coming out of the bracket slot now. I'll also try not to get to crazy about it .

markymoo, The card doesn't seem loud. I didn't think to listen when I played last night. I normally play with headphones on. At NewEgg, some people complained about the noise and others said it was quiet. One person also reported it running as warm as 70C so I guess it all depends on your machine.

I'll take a look at the different methods of cooling the card. I haven't tried any of the slightly newer games I have. There not installed yet. I did notice a big difference when playing BattleFront. I normally play on medium difficulty and I had to switch back to easy because it ran that much faster. I was gettin' my butt kicked . I also noticed other special effects which I didn't see before. I'll see if I can install NFS Most Wanted tonight and see how it does.

Also, will the free version of FRAPS work ok. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=149 I'm not going to worry too much about getting it perfect, but it's sort of fun knowing what my card and system can do.

Cheers

 

(1 Re: Please help with new graphics card

Those drivers are old. Go here for updated and tweaked drivers. I am currently using the 174.16's.

http://www.tweakforce.com/

As far as temp monitoring and overclocking and anything else you need to do. Rivatuner is the best tool.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTuner-v2.06-download-163.html

 

(19) Re: Please help with new graphics card

I wouldn't spend anymore as it's in an e-machine. It be ok just accept it running hot and the sound isn't that bad. If you can get a FPS of between 30 and 60 that's ideal anything over is wasted as eye can't tell. The higher the resolution the lower the FPS. If you turn on anti-aliasing on full that gives you greater quality but will lower the FPS alot. So try everything on full settings and then first of all drop down anti-aliasing until above 30 FPS. If it run too slow turn anti-aliasing off and turn all other settings on full and bump up the anti-aliasing bit by bit. As i was saying the cpu might not be fast enough to catch up with everything on full. Just try to get the best graphics display and FPS between 30 and 60. Maintain your pc and tweak it to give more performance to run games faster. The reason it run faster on easy is because there be less graphics action to make it easier to play. So thats the point to know the FPS you could be running minimal graphics and too high FPS and not even using all the features. Cpu, Memory and Video affect FPS.

That's a really old version of FRAPS. Get this newer version
http://www.fraps.com/download.php

 

(20) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Thanks Dieselman and markymoo. I will have a look at what you suggested.

Last night, I install 'Need for Speed Most Wanted' and turned it up full. I left Vsync off because I wasn't sure was it does yet. I then ran a quick race which lasted 11 minutes. I didn't check the frame rate, but it ran great. I closed the games and checked the temp and the GPU was 80C and the CPU was 62. I know everybody gave great suggestions on coolers and fans. With knowing the above, would you advise to do something immediately?

I let the temps get down to normal and then booted to my normal everyday image. The computer wouldn't boot and just ran with all fans on high. I held the power button to turn off the computer and it wouldn't shutdown. It looped into another attempted boot with fans running on high, no BIOS or anything. I inserted one of my boot cd's and then pulled the plug. I waited a little bit the tried again and the same thing happened. It wouldn't even boot to my cds. I then waited about 20 mins. and the computer booted normally. What would cause this? Would it be the CMOS battery going bad?

Thanks for all your help,
innerpeace

Edit: How long will a graphics card continue to smell badly? It even makes me a little dizzy...

 

(21) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Your temps are fine. Most cards can hit 100 c is still be ok. You can set up Rivatuner to turn you fan at different speeds ant different temps. Such as I have mine to low at 55C, then medium at 60C, then full fan high at 65C. Works like a charm. Slot coolers do nothing in actuality. I leave me side cover off and have an Artic Cooler on top of my GPU. Artic Cooler,Thermatake, and Zalman all make very good coolers. Artic Cooler usually has the best and lowest temps. You don't need to reboot after gaming. I have been pc gaming for years. Send me a PM with any other questions you might have.

 

(22) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Thanks Dieselman, I'll look at Rivatuner and see about changing my fan speeds. I'm also going to try using a small fan blowing on my case while gaming.

 

(23) Re: Please help with new graphics card

This is the cooler I have on my 8800 GTX.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=276

 

(24) Re: Please help with new graphics card

innerpeace,
What PSU do you have?

 

(25) Re: Please help with new graphics card

Hi lucas,
It's a Antec EarthWatts 380. I bought it before my GPU because I heard that factory emachines PSU's weren't that good. http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=27380

FWIW, If your in the US, NewEgg has this for $34.99 while supplies last. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005

Dieselman,
That's a nice cooler. I really like the looks of the Zalman models.