250 GTS: are these temps and noise "normal"?

[asintu]

I got an EVGA 250 GTS SC today upgrading from a passively cooled 8600gts.
After booting up my computer (which has the card sounding like a vacuum until xp starts loading), it idles at about 50C with system temp being 40C. Fan speed is set by default to 35% which is bearable but a very noticeable increase over passive.
After gaming for a few minutes Assasin's Creed, fan speed rose to about 65% and temp was around 71C. Now I found this increase in noise very annoying so I manually put the fan back to 35% but temp rose to about 93 and i reset the fan speed to default since I started smelling weird scents (probably heated plastic).
From reviews I read the 250gts was supposed to be very power efficient and therefore not heat so much and be so noisy.

Any comments? Is this "normal"? I'm kind of in a dillema since I expected a "better" product if u will.

 

[JaYp146]

Compared to this review, http://techreport.com/articles.x/16504/10 , it looks like your temperatures are a little above average.

Noise is subjective - what may be quiet to you is not necessarily "quiet" by TechReport's standards.

 

[TC91]

Those are normal imo, I had a 9800gtx+ for one day in august 2008 and it was pretty loud (furmark) with the fan on "auto." Forcing the fan to a lower speed helped the noise levels but definitely made the temps shoot well over 90c under furmark.

 

[AzN]

My 8800gts g92 idles nearly 70C @ 40% fan.

Hits nearly 80C at load with the fan @ 60-80%.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: asintu


Any comments? Is this "normal"? I'm kind of in a dillema since I expected a "better" product if u will.

Well you should have taken the 4870. It ran hot, but whisper quiet at stock fan speed. :laugh:

Seriously now, try using Riva Tuner and set some fan profiles according to your temps. Find that perfect noise/heat ratio.

 

[MarcVenice]

I've tested a GTS250 with a zalman vfs1050 (name might be off a little ), and it idles at 35% as well, but temps are like 35 degrees celsius too. Under load it doesn't go above 57c when playing games. At 35% it is loud though, somehow the fan 'profile' isn't quite kicking in, like it does with 8800gt's or a 9800gtx+ I tried in the same setup.

 

[josh6079]

My 9800 GTX+ idles in low 40's and loads in low to mid 70's. Whisper quiet the whole time.

 

[asintu]

by the way, i forgot to say that under load my mobo chipset goes up to 65C.
I was thinking of getting one of these, the arctic twin turbo:
http://pccyber.com/?v=product&i=CF-ARC-ACCELERO-TWINT

might help with temperatures and noise. what u think? And if I do get it, would I need any extra paste, glue, heatsinks? Any ideas?

 

[bryanW1995]

I thought that the gts 250 and gtx 260 had a similar cooling/fan setup, but I can't hear any noise over case fans until I get to around 45%, and it's not anywhere close to my 4850 even at 60-70%. Temps are extremely cool, too, I have it locked on 35% for 24/7 use in a warm (26c) room and it doesn't go above 80c even during heavy gaming.

 

[asintu]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
I thought that the gts 250 and gtx 260 had a similar cooling/fan setup, but I can't hear any noise over case fans until I get to around 45%, and it's not anywhere close to my 4850 even at 60-70%. Temps are extremely cool, too, I have it locked on 35% for 24/7 use in a warm (26c) room and it doesn't go above 80c even during heavy gaming.

that's weird...for me it reached 90+ in no time...you probably have a better ventilated case. I have an Antec Plus (same as Solo) and keep the rear fan to min. speed

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: TC91
Those are normal imo, I had a 9800gtx+ for one day in august 2008 and it was pretty loud (furmark) with the fan on "auto." Forcing the fan to a lower speed helped the noise levels but definitely made the temps shoot well over 90c under furmark.

Am I the only one that thought "no duh!" when reading this?

1) Furmark is known to have the capability to heat up cards beyond what most games will do, and indeed has been known to kill cards.

2) Modern GPUs like the G92 should be easily able to handle temperatures into the 80-90ºC range at stock speeds.

3) If you have a fairly "silent" system and had a passively-cooled graphics card, then ANY fan-cooled graphics card will sound noisy.

4) Any graphics card with a variable fan speed will be louder (fan will spin faster) under load.

5) What is "quiet" to one person may be "noisy" to the next. Heck, even fan manufacturers can't agree with how to measure noise levels.