Quote from mosquito25 :

Yes, the 6600GT GPU gets pretty hot with standard heatsink (mine was 73°c when playing or benchmarking), but a Zalman VF700 Al-Cu gave me a full 20°C gain (GPU heat 53°C) with far better overclocking. Checked with SpeedFan, so I had a 12mn graph).

As I know there's only 1 restriction : that heatsink needs a wide case (at least on AGP cards)

And the true reason for changing was the noise level only , not the heat (73° is not so high for a GPU)

Hmmmm, i will inherit 2x 6600 Gt's (XFX PCI-E 128 Mb) from my dad and a SLi mobo soon, should i need to buy a specil cooling mechanism?

most if not all GFX cards come with a thermal pad placed between the gpu and heatsink , these pads are quick and cheap for production but will never perform as well as some good well applied heatsink paste like artic silver . this is probably the case for every heatsink (inc CPU) in a "brand name" pc.
Its not hard to take off your GFX card heatsink and clean the surfaces (or lapp them if you feel extreme ) properly apply some thermal compound and with the same heatsink see improved tempratures .

However if your cards not showing any signs of overheating and your not interested in overclocking its better to just leave it as it is.

SD.

Quote from SparkyDave :

most if not all GFX cards come with a thermal pad placed between the gpu and heatsink , these pads are quick and cheap for production but will never perform as well as some good well applied heatsink paste like artic silver . this is probably the case for every heatsink (inc CPU) in a "brand name" pc.
Its not hard to take off your GFX card heatsink and clean the surfaces (or lapp them if you feel extreme ) properly apply some thermal compound and with the same heatsink see improved tempratures .

However if your cards not showing any signs of overheating and your not interested in overclocking its better to just leave it as it is.

SD.

I find the cleaning whipes you get in first aid kits work well for cleaning off stuff like that.

@Forbin:

Your PC may be able to run on 250watt, but you have a CPU that runs on a low voltage. The P4 uses a much higher vcore and draws more power. It needs a bigger PSU.

@srdsprinter:

Most new cards wouldn't run on a 250watt PSU. And if they do it wouldn't be very stable. You'll be stuck with a low end card, or Dell still sell parts, but a better PSU from them (last time I checked you could buy upgrades from them).

Quote from Jakg :

Hmmmm, i will inherit 2x 6600 Gt's (XFX PCI-E 128 Mb) from my dad and a SLi mobo soon, should i need to buy a specil cooling mechanism?

I have my second (MSI) 6600GT now, the first one started to show artifacts (funky polygons all over the place) and then finally died due to overheating. Got it replaced but the new one had a ridicolously ineffective cooler, too (actually the very same as on the first card).

The card got into 90°C+ and ofcourse started showing artifacts like the old one did. It was definitely the cards fault because everything else was running fine and dandy, CPU got to ~50°C, the rest was 30-40°C, so no excessive heat buildup in the case.

So, not too long ago I finally decided to shell out a few €€€ and buy a Zalman VGA cooler. Shortly after, the nasty 8000+ RPM southbridge cooler was replaced by a Zalman passive cooler too. Dang, no more overheating and much more silent PC overall.

Conclusion: The standard cooler on 6600GT's may suck. The one from MSI cards is definitely undersized.

Quote from Jakg :

Hmmmm, i will inherit 2x 6600 Gt's (XFX PCI-E 128 Mb) from my dad and a SLi mobo soon, should i need to buy a specil cooling mechanism?

IMO, with 2 card, probably.
But I'm a kind of noisemaniac Now I can sleep near my PC, with the standard heatsink, it was almost impossible.

Edit : 53° burning, with the Zalman in 5v

srdsprinter -

oh duh, I just remembered this.. I have a dell 8600 in my closet somewhere, it has a 250W psu. I had a 6600GT in it for a while, and it ran it flawlessly.

Quote from SladiVadi :

Nope, it's 12V, 5V, 12V-Ground, 5V-Ground. :sun:

And you need multiple grounds because...?

Only reasons I can think of are less resistance and less heat. But oddly enough I think you may be right... 2 black wires.

Thanks to all the help I've gotten from everyone on these boards! With everyone's advice I've decided to upgrade my system with....

a sapphire Radeon 9600XT 128MB AGP video card and an additional stick of 512MB of RAM.

I decided to go fairly modest with the upgrades, due to:
my slow AGP 4X video slotillepall
my slow PC2100 RAM
my slow P4 1.8GHz
my 60Hz monitor (1280x768 HDTV widescreen , analog and digital inputs)
I'm planning on building a new pc late this summer, with lots of bells and whistles (dual core amd, sli ready, etc) So my parents might inherit this pc later, or it might be a backup for friends to race me on.

Anyway, the parts have been processed and are on the way!

What are some simply ways of quantifying the improvements my upgrades make?

I usually pull 35-40+ fps in single player and hotlapping on lfs with no hvs, aa, or af. This fps drops rapidly with more cars online racing. CS:S runs smoothly on low settings with high detail on the character models. I dunno what fps I'm getting tho. I have now experience with the lfs benchmark or anything of that nature.

I'll be happy with any improvements the video card makes to fps or detail level

Thanks again for all the help!

Check out the LFS benchmark. http://lfsbench.iron.eu.org/?c=news

Another easy way is to load up a bunch of AI's on a particular track and start yourself in the back. Make note of the FPS before the lights go green. This is pretty much as low as your FPS is ever going to get.

Quote from srdsprinter :

I usually pull 35-40+ fps in single player and hotlapping on lfs with no hvs, aa, or af. This fps drops rapidly with more cars online racing. CS:S runs smoothly on low settings with high detail on the character models. I dunno what fps I'm getting tho. I have now experience with the lfs benchmark or anything of that nature.

Make sure it's activated with the new card.

Hi srdsprinter.........

Not exactly the same cards, but I have just upgraded from a GeForce 4Ti 4200 64MB to a GeForce 6200V+ 256MB and lfs works fine until I try to race/drive? All graphics are in place for the menus and option screens, just the game play is messed up (Really messed up I`ve never seen such a mis-mash of colours all scrambled on my screen.its hard to explain the image, but is visible to others via web cam, and they agree!! )thats on-line, off-line and single player.
I`ve reverted back to the GeForce4 and using the same, but freshly instaled `forceware` drivers, the gameplay is ok. So definately having some sort of problem here with my system and the new card. However, all other games / programs ect work fine, only lfs is not working???????
I`m frantically searching for a solution, and would like to re-fit the 6200, but need a remedy...........

As I said, not exactly the same cards, but just good info......maybe someone reading this will guide me to my solution, I hope you find yours!

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

@Forbin:

Your PC may be able to run on 250watt, but you have a CPU that runs on a low voltage. The P4 uses a much higher vcore and draws more power. It needs a bigger PSU.

I just checked the specs on the Intel website. The old Socket 423 chips ran at 1.75V. The Socket 478 chips dropped to the 1.5V range and then the 1.3V range when they moved to .90 nm. The current 65 nm chips on LGA775 are still in that same range.

My Socket 462 Athlon XP, on the other hand, has a rated voltage of 1.65V. My motherboard won't let it run any lower than 1.74V. Low voltage? Hardly.

I do realize P4's are extremely inefficient with their power usage and do draw quite a bit more than Athlons, but I felt it necessary to correct your statement.

@Charic: Which version of the drivers are you using?

9600pro or XT cheap & cheerful plus it plays BF2.
If u are planning to upgrade anyway then this wont dent your budget
& still does the business.

I have 1 question!
Can I play with this Card:http://www.hardwareschotte.de/ ... ack+Ultra2350PCX+Bliss+GS
And a AMD Athlon64 3200+@3800+ LfS with 8xAA/16AF on 1248x1024 with enough FPS

Hi Forbin.........
I`m using `Forceware` 84.43 at present...........have also used 84.21 & 81.98
Today I have reinstalled the GeForce 6200/84.43 Drivers and also re-installed lfs? In its basic setup the image should show the error that I`m getting. Looking just below name/player where the 3 planes meet is the focus and the graphics rotate clockwise at this position..pretty strange !! Also, this only happens in LFS, nothing else??
Take care
Charic

ps........Fully registered S2, but pic shows just after install?

Hmm, very strange. What motherboard do you have?

Quote from WIGGA :

I have 1 question!
Can I play with this Card:http://www.hardwareschotte.de/ ... ack+Ultra2350PCX+Bliss+GS
And a AMD Athlon64 3200+@3800+ LfS with 8xAA/16AF on 1248x1024 with enough FPS

That card is more than sufficient to run LFS with those settings.

.....Forbin........
been out , hence the delay in comms?
I`m using the following.....
Jetway MoBo V400DB (VIA KT400/KT400A chipset) AMD Athlon 2400+CPU & 768MB(pc2700)RAM XP Pro SP2......Like I said, this works fine for every use I have at present, but just lfs is having the problem. Ive even re-tested the Gf4Ti4200 and that still works, but when back to the Gf6200, I get a similar pattern to the one displayed in my previous link!!

here you should find details of the AGP http://www.digitalyes.com.au/prodView.asp?idproduct=19872

Quote from Forbin :

That card is more than sufficient to run LFS with those settings.

OK thanks, but i think I buy the Golden Sample Goes like Hell edition that is @
485/1300MHZ illepall

Quote from Forbin :

I just checked the specs on the Intel website. The old Socket 423 chips ran at 1.75V. The Socket 478 chips dropped to the 1.5V range and then the 1.3V range when they moved to .90 nm. The current 65 nm chips on LGA775 are still in that same range.

My Socket 462 Athlon XP, on the other hand, has a rated voltage of 1.65V. My motherboard won't let it run any lower than 1.74V. Low voltage? Hardly.

I do realize P4's are extremely inefficient with their power usage and do draw quite a bit more than Athlons, but I felt it necessary to correct your statement.

@Charic: Which version of the drivers are you using?

Hah, I forget I was using an XP-M. I could run it at 1.5v stock, and with a little play time got it down to ~1.45v, though I rarely ran it at that.

At all depends on the core, but then I was comparing the old P4's to AXP's, if you change the generation then I can say that my current A64 runs at 1.375v (could go lower but no need), and that Optrons run at ~1.3v, the X2's and the FX's also run around that.

@Charic: If it works with the 4200 and not with the 6200, my guess is you got a bad card. You could try underclocking it and seeing if that helps/fixes it. That's usually the kind of thing that happens when A) the drivers are bad/wrong or B) the GPU and/or RAM is overclocked or C) the GPU and/or RAM is bad. If underclocking fixes the problem, you know the card is bad and you can send it back knowing that the replacement will (probably) work.

EDIT: Then again... you said it only happens with LFS. Stumped again... Still, try underclocking it.

Do you have the 6200 with turbocache? If so bin it. They share the RAM like intergrated graphics. Unless you have the version which has 64mb onboard RAM (Can't remember the version number, but you'd be able to see the RAM chips), in which case you can flash it to a none turbocache version, which is a lot better

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Do you have the 6200 with turbocache? If so bin it. They share the RAM like intergrated graphics. Unless you have the version which has 64mb onboard RAM (Can't remember the version number, but you'd be able to see the RAM chips), in which case you can flash it to a none turbocache version, which is a lot better

I was under the impression that the PCI-E version was Turbocache, not the AGP one. I could be wrong, though.

Hmm... you know, I'm not sure. I'll have to check. But you're probably right.