GTX 260 Lifespan?

[cogman]

just wondering.. how long would a gtx 260 last until it ... dies?

[antipesto93]

its most likely you will replace a graphics card before it dies, if a graphics card is going be dead, its most liley when you first get it - from manufacturing defects etc...

People still have great old cards, like 8800GTX's running in their rigs with no problems,

heat is the biggest killer, so as long as the case has decent cooling it will last a very long timer

oh and if you have the original invoice, when it breaks...they send you a new one :) and if the product is discontinued, they send you whatever replaced it :)

[Zap]

heat is the biggest killer

Just wanted to add that dust and/or overclocking is the biggest producer of extra heat.

[EarthDog]

Yes, it will live until it dies.

But on a more serious note, you will likely require an upgrade before it dies if left at stock and not volt modding, etc.

[Marshmallow64]

I say on average most people upgrade their video card every 1-3 years. 1 year for those that like having up to the date graphics. It will easily last longer than 3 years for the most part and is covered during that time with the manufacturers warranty.

[Brutal-Force]

I have two almost identical video cards, one I bought a year ago and one I just got a little more than a month ago. The second one died last week. The good news is a lot of card manufacturers have lifetime warranties, so its like you can resurrect it from the dead!! YAY!!

Usually its the Fan that starts making noise which is the first thing that requires it needing to be fixed or replaced. In the past I have had cards that needed new fans, and actually preferred the cards w/o fans because of this.

With the lifetime warranty, cards will last as long as you want them. In the past it appeared as though there were new generations ever six months, but I think it is slowing down some. I am thinking my two GTX 260s should last me another 3 years before I need to upgrade.

[col_sanders]

i've had my 2 gtx260s folding for almost a year and a half now non stop and they are overclocked. I cleaned the dust out of them once but they are still going strong

[CompuTamer]

I have an ATI X1600 Pro that's still running great. Fan died a long time ago, so i just took the air duct off of it, and put it in front of the 120MM on the side of my case, and that kept it plenty cool.

It's in my brother's machine with a low speed 80mm fan ghetto rigged onto the heat sink, and it's running just fine, so i think you'll get a few years out of it.

[tinymouse2]

Nvidia FX5200. Still running strong back in g'ford 7 years later.
It's on for about 15 hours a day and it hasn't shown any sign of wear except for a load of dust :D

As long as you keep the temps down it should last for years.
I'm keeping my 260 temps below 65 degrees (max is 105) since I'm planning to keep this for in excess of 10 years. Will it make it? I have no reason to doubt it. After the first 2-3 years it'll only be used for the OS so no real strain on it unless my new rig dies.

[Adragontattoo]

I have video cards that IF I had a board compatible (AGP Pro, etc) would still work fine. I have an ancient PCI video card that is used for testing and installs on headless machines. I bought it new, longer ago than I care to think about.

Video cards are the same as any other electronic/machine. They will last until a manufacturing error kills them or it is not economical to keep them running.

[wingman99]

I have a factory overclocked 8800gt in a game, listen play sever that has been running in a hot case at 90c for 2+ years.

[diaz]

My friend still runs my old ATI 9600XT, which I think has like 12 shaders or something lol... I bought it about 6 years ago, then he bought it off me and is still using it today.

My oldest one still running is the 3DFX voodoo 3 16M, which I installed in a pentium 2 machine a long time ago... cant remember how long, but it was when the voodoo3 just came out lol - still rockin windows XP today!

[EarthDog]

Those cards didnt have shaders. They were vertex piplines or something like that.

My old 9800pro (flashed to XT) is still going strong in a friends computer as well!

[diaz]

Those cards didnt have shaders. They were vertex piplines or something like that.

My old 9800pro (flashed to XT) is still going strong in a friends computer as well!

Yeah, Pixel shaders and Vertex shaders, all shaders.:p

[ScottinIndy]

I had a 6800nu agp that is still going strong in my brother in laws rig. I really liked that card it unlocked to 16/6 on the pipes and shaders and was a sweet O.C.er.

[wingman99]

My friend has a oveclocked evga 7900 AGP in his OEM case with no fans just a power supply fan going strong.:rock:

I had a 2 voodoo2' with SLI in a p3 last yeare, till I moved.

[Trottel]

Yeah, Pixel shaders and Vertex shaders, all shaders.:p

They had pixel pipelines. Totally not the same as today's programmable shaders.

[Careface]

Had my GTX216 oc'd since about 20mins after I opened the packet September '09, and since then it's done around 2.2quadrillion FLOPs for SETI and .. well, not a heck of a lot for games, but yeah.

Still going strong :) Really need to clean the dust bunnies out, but its so hard to find canned air in my city o_O

In fact, I've yet to find any, anywhere -_- *shakefist* The vacuum cleaner just doesn't work well enough :(

[arcanise]

my 260 is OC'd to insane specs and forced to stay in 3d performance mode, no problems at all, fan gets loud, and TBH ive never seen a good GPU die before 12 years

[EarthDog]

LOL, Im curious what those 'insane specs' are... :)

[tinymouse2]

Agreed with Earthy :P
Currently have mine at 712/1212 with no voltage change, very happy with that :)

[EarthDog]

Whats your shader at? Mine with mods was 810/1656/12xx. Prior to voltage was mid 700's and 1512 or so.

[tinymouse2]

I haven't been pushing it at all really, I just push it up until my temps get to high (hasn't crashed yet).
With 712 I have my shader at 1535. It does make mine look like crap though :P I often underclock it to about 550 core, 1186 shader and 950 memory. I have my core and shader linked :)

[arcanise]

core 720
shader 1552
mem 1200
fan 80
locked in performance 3d permanently
avg temp with kumbuster is 75ºC

i could jump core to 750 if need be

[tinymouse2]

core 720
shader 1552
mem 1200
fan 80
locked in performance 3d permanently
avg temp with kumbuster is 75ºC

i could jump core to 750 if need be

Looks like earthy has you beat by a mile :P (dominates me as well, that's why I love him :D)
I wouldn't say those are insane specs but their not terrible by any account.

[arcanise]

insane for not touching voltage which i am unsure how to do atm, will have to break out my OC notes and see what i can do with OV

[EarthDog]

About right is closer to insane...Below are my results with it straight up on air, then water, then volt modded under water. ;)

Initial on air (100% fan): 729/1566/1215
Water, stock volts (1.06): 771/1656/1215
Water, bios volt modded (1.12): 810/1656/1215

[MIAHALLEN]

Not sure about the 260, but apparently this thread outlived cogman LOL :D

[EarthDog]

LOL, MIAH, the first reply to this thread outlived him...hehe

[arcanise]

=[ i want water cooling soo bad now

[sandyduff]

Not sure about the 260, but apparently this thread outlived cogman LOL :D

hahaha

he's away looking at 260's waiting for one to die... then he will report back, it could be days... it could be years....

who knows... :D