Asus gtx260 overheating problem

Hi guys. I'm hoping one of you can help me out with this frustrating problem I have. As per the thread title, my graphics card is overheating somewhat. I'm trying to play fallout 3, and the game only runs for about 5 minutes or less before the graphics go all strange and it freezes. Or I try to access the pip-boy and it just freezes. Or it freezes when I pause the game. Or it freezes when.... yeh you get the point. It freezes. I actually managed to play the game up until the point where I got to Megaton.

I have tried lowering the graphics settings. Still freezes. I have spent about 4 hours researching for a solution but have come up with nothing. I did everything that was suggested to other users like uninstalling the asus drivers and loading nvidia drivers. Still nothing. So i took the card out and did a complete uninstall of every driver I had installed. And now whenever I boot up windows I get a message asking me to install drivers for the coprocessor!

I have run furmark, and the temperature got to 86 degrees before my pc actually shut itself down. The processor is an AMD athlon 64 x2 dual core 4400+. I read somewhere about someone else in a similar situation to me, and it was suggested that it might be a case of the power supply being underpowered. I took a look at mine, and its total output is rated at 680w max. Motherboard is an asus M4N78 PRO. I would be especially grateful if someone can point me in the direction of a driver to the coprocessor as well.

Is it just fallout 3?

Also how long did you leave FurMark running to get to 86 degrees? Also it sounds odd that it would auto shut down at 86 degrees.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=626740

That's a tread I created about a week ago about how I almost killed my GPU at 96 degrees. Mine to is a GTX 260 but no auto shut-off.

So yeh, is it just fallout 3? and how long was FurMark running for?

Also you can use rivertuner to bump up the fanspeed if it is a heat caused problem.

Well yes it is just fallout 3, since that is all I am playing at the moment. I was halfway through the furmark test (halfway along the temperature graph) when my pc just shut itself down in all of 2 seconds. Not sure how long furmark ran for, I'd probably say about 5 - 8 minutes.

What brand is that PSU ? Some use highly inflated numbers on their products but a 680W should be way more than enough.

I am playing FO3 as well and it runs quite cool on my 285, maybe you could try to turn vsync on, that should lower maxfps and make the card run cooler.

Isn't the cooler of the card dusty ? Stock cooler ? Is there enough airflow in the case ?

I really doubt this issue has anything to do with the GPU overheating. Big cards like the 260 can easily reach those temps and they're nowhere near harmful levels, yet.

Try a different set of drivers, the 185.xx were the only ones i could use to play FO3. Bethesda has problems with FO3 and nvidia drivers, i had the same and worse issues until i reverted to way earlier drivers.

Kuroimaho said:

What brand is that PSU ? Some use highly inflated numbers on their products but a 680W should be way more than enough.

I am playing FO3 as well and it runs quite cool on my 285, maybe you could try to turn vsync on, that should lower maxfps and make the card run cooler.

Isn't the cooler of the card dusty ? Stock cooler ? Is there enough airflow in the case ?

Click to expand...

It appears to be a SHAW P4 S680. I had the whole side of the case off when I was trying to run the gtx, but it was still getting quite hot.

Shadowmonk said:

Try a different set of drivers, the 185.xx were the only ones i could use to play FO3. Bethesda has problems with FO3 and nvidia drivers, i had the same and worse issues until i reverted to way earlier drivers.

Click to expand...

I will try this, and report back. Am downloading 185.85 drivers at the moment. But I have a long day at work tomorrow, so no idea when I can be back.

A dodgy PSU is the one and only thing that's been killing my rigs over the years. Not a single problem has occurred without the PSU behind it.

Your power supply sounds like a low grade PSU they put into pre-made computers. I would STRONGLY recommend something branded.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129282

That's my PSU
Can't fault it.
3v rail is always at 3.03
+12v is always at 11.94
-12v is always at -11.96
Vcore is always less than 0.01v off what it should be
GPU vcore is always 0.02v over what it should be

All the voltages are well within the +- 0.5% range

I would strongly recommend it or a similar high quality product.