My Sparkle GTX 260 core 216 w/ 1792mb idles at 36-40 degrees at 300/600/100, when the clocks kick in (576/1242/1100) for games it's gotten up to 80 degrees C and the fan runs at 40% all the time as I haven't yet been able to work out how to change the fan profile in rivatuner.
It's probably power phases, though my old 8800GTS 320mb never underclocked itself, it always sat at 570/1242/900 no matter what it was doing, and its idle temps were woeful IMO, with the fan set to auto in rivatuner it idled at about 58 degrees C and wouldn't go lower than 48 degrees, no matter how hard I tried, an 8 degree night didn't make it go lower either, even with all the fans on 100%. It'd go up to 70 degrees easily though, and once I got it up into the 90's.
Thank you 9.6 drivers!
Crysis benchmarking :
Run #1- DX10 1400x960 AA=16xQ, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 47.04
Run #1- DX10 1900x1200 AA=16xQ, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 37.01
Got my new case. It's HUGE. But I am so happy with it. Idle temp of CPU is same. Still have to put it under load. The GFX cards now run 55 degrees with 50% fan. So that's a (whopping) 13 degrees difference! I'll go test and put them under load now.
Good to hear I'm also doing some shopping for a new GFX card.. looking for something which may just be able to handle Arma II. I've never played the previous games before and I'd not seen anything about the new Operation Flashpoint. Arma 2 looks astounding, on a whole new scale- but I hear there are some problems as well. I also hear that it eats graphics cards
TBH I didn't really understand where all the negativity towards Crysis was coming from. I played it after all the hype and hoopla had died down, and found it a very entertaining and immersive experience. You might also like Warhead, but I'd play through the orig first. FarCry 2 has really nice GFX but the gameplay somehow falls short, considering the freedom you are given, your abilities and the reactive environment. I just uninstalled it today as I was fed up with it.
If you've never played any of the Stalker games, I'd recommend taking a look. Graphics probably aren't cutting edge by todays standards, but the atmosphere is incredible. I also recommend reading 'Roadside Picnic' if you can get your hands on it- the book which originally inspired both the movie and the game. It's a great accompaniment to the game as it helps to bring you closer to the mindset of the wise and hardened Stalker, and fleshes out the underlying vibe of 'The Zone' in a way that only good literature can do.
Some other gfx intensive titles you may like..
PT Boats (looks interesting- not out yet. DX10 gfx are nice. There's a benchmark to test your rig in the link)
X3 - Terran Conflict (if you have the time and like big ships in space, this might be for you. It's a fairly complex game.. lots to chew on).
Fallout 3 - Great game with TONS of environmental and narrative detail.
err.. iRacing?
I don't get to play many games these days but I've just found Plants Vs Zombies. By no means will this stress your new card, but it's fantastic nonetheless.
E6750 C2D @ 2,66Ghz
4GB 667Mhz RAM
XFX ATI HD4890 1GB GDDR5 (VERY fast card, just got it a week ago instead of my 8600GT as this is my main gaming/lfs rig)
Edit:
I run LFS 1280x1024 with all highest, all bars graph-wise to the right, Vsync, AAx16, texture filteringx16 and whatnot..
~70fps
IMO this is kinda bad? Or am I wrong? however greatly playable but I would think a pc as mine would run above 150 fps while this gets to 140 max..
Far Cry 2 @ max settings all aa etc @ steady 70fps too..
Try using in-game AA and AF. I was getting 50-90 fps with nvidia 32xq AA, but that looked pretty bad - too much AA haha. Switched to in-game 8xaa and 16x AF with default LOD values. Now I get 200-250 FPS, never dips below 150 (v-sync'd to 75 though)
Also try to overclock a bit, maybe 3.2ghz, spend $30 usd on an aftermarket cooler (xigmatek dark knight is good), 3.5-3.6ghz. Will get you a lot of performance.
ur cpu is faster than mine so is your gpu
i use 1680x1050 setting the rest same as you (i have hi res pack to) and i get 90-200fps, i would say something is wrong yes.
sure vsync is off?? also in the driver menu, it limmits framerate to your screens fefreshrate.
I just realized he said "Vsync" among things he had on. So yeah, if you turned off vsync the fps would fly to 270 easily. But keep vsync on, your monitor can only display a certain amount of fps (in your case 70)
in the case of fps and v-sync: i would really like to have a 22" monitor that supports more then 60Hz. is there anyone of u guys here that can point me in the right direction of one that supports that? :P i would like to find one in the $250 - $300 range.
OT: as mijnwraak said, turn of the vsync and ull get a higher, tho not noticable, fps.
I've had good cards from both ATI and nVidia. I've put off getting a new card for now but I'd almost decided on a Geforce GTX 275, mainly because the card was quieter than the ATI equivalent.
Well, im not dumb i think. Taking it as i moved from nVidia 8600GT to ATI HD4870 ... its a good upgrade and im really happy with it since im still nVidia fanboy and i prefer nvidia. Also, this is my very first ATI card - i was thinking that it really sucks and ive gotta deal with hilariously huge number of problems but no ... the card works like charm and i havnt had any compability issues yet, except some games what have been installed with nVidia PhysX settings and stuff, AGEIA PhysX didnt help tho. Im talking about Mirrors Edge and there are few more games. Shadowww, i was like u before - that "ATI sucks" and stuff, but now when im pretty proud owner of one HD4870 then i can say people who say it sucks are stupid. Its just the way it is, my ATI card performs so well that im just so amazed. Before i had to play GTA IV with crappy lowest settings and 800x600 to play it almost on realtime fps. Now i can cranck everything on max and 1920x1080 resolution and bang, huge fps and even better gameplay.
I'm also doing some shopping for a new GFX card.. looking for something which may just be able to handle Arma II. I've never played the previous games before and I'd not seen anything about the new Operation Flashpoint. Arma 2 looks astounding, on a whole new scale- but I hear there are some problems as well. I also hear that it eats graphics cards 
Because ATi is better: D