XFX GTS 250

[ArchAngel777]

I just wanted to post this information in case others find it useful. I purchase an XFX GTS 250 about a month ago. First thing is first, the card performs great in my HTPC. I just want to make that clear from the get go. But there are three complaints I have with the card, and I think it is because XFX deviated from the reference cooler design.

1) The fan at full speed 100% is very loud.
2) The fan runs at full speed until the nVidia drivers are loaded.
3) The fan pushes very little air at full speed.

The third is the biggest one I take issue with. When that thing is spinning at full speed I can barely (and I mean barely) feel anything coming out the vents at the back of the machine. Even my GTX 280 at 50% fan speed pushed out about 3-5x the pressure that this thing does. My 8800GTS 512MB also pushed a lot more air out. Both of these cards followed the nVidia reference design.

Consquently when I load up games the card is really loud and I feel part of the blame has to go on their cooler design. It just does not work that well.

One disclaimer:

I only have my card to base my results on. It is possible that my card was assembled incorrectly. Although I doubt that very, very much, it is still possible. Due to other variables it is also possible that my card does not represent all XFX GTS 250 cards.

If anyone else has an XFX card with the same cooler design, feel free to post your results.

 

[AmberClad]

This one?

I wonder if the oddly shaped octagonal opening is causing airflow / turbulence issues?

I remember complaints about the custom cooler XFX had on some Alpha Dog 8800GTs a while back. Smaller than the stock heatsink and always ran at 100%, iirc.

 

[OCGuy]

1. Every modern card i've owned sounds loud @ 100%

3. Are you having temp problems? Unless you have temps that are too high, does how much air it pushes matter?

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
This one?

I wonder if the oddly shaped octagonal opening is causing airflow / turbulence issues?

I remember complaints about the custom cooler XFX had on some Alpha Dog 8800GTs a while back. Smaller than the stock heatsink and always ran at 100%, iirc.

Unfortunately I can't go to that link. The Untangle server will not allow the redirecter link to go through on our server here at work. However, it is item N82E16814150357. If go to newegg and search that item number, that is the card that I have.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: OCguy
1. Every modern card i've owned sounds loud @ 100%

3. Are you having temp problems? Unless you have temps that are too high, does how much air it pushes matter?

1) Yep, they do sound loud at 100%. However, most of them do not run at 100% at default. It is not a huge deal or a deal breaker, but definitely something worth mentioning.

3) Yes, it matters immensely. If a card is not efficient in moving air, it will be forced to run at higher speeds to keep temperatures in check. Since the fan speed is controlled by the temperature of the GPU, this will require the fan speed to ramp up to push more air and thus dissipate the heat on the heatsink in order to keep temperatures within specification. To put it simple, it matters because the fan needs to spin faster and a faster spinning fan creates more noise.

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

XFX GTS 250 Core Edition - Item No. N82E16814150357

Seems to be the same card that Amber linked AFAIK. I think the same coolers are on the XFX HD4850's and they do not seem to push much air at all from what I could tell. The card was cool and could not be distinguished from the overall system noise; that system is a friend's and is somewhat noiser than what I'm used to, though it was not intolerable.

What was probably the most annoying aspect of that cooler was that the plastic shrouding did not channel the air directly to the slot exit, rather there was a 1/8" gap at the end of the cooler and about a 2"x1/2" opening on both sides of the cooler near the exhaust. Card did not go over 65c in Crysis.

Edited for dimensions of the gap.