ATI replacement for a GTX285

Dennis Phelan · Aug 17, 2011

I'm tired three races last week] of my nvidea card freezing me out of SimBin races. It works well with anything I have but Race07, it might go for months without a problem and then wham, I'm sick of it now. While I'd love to get a much better card I just can't spend the money so Im looking for ideas for an ATI card that is as good[maybe a bit better] as the 285 which, about now, should be priced right.

Running XP w/4G ram on a Duo Core 3.16 and 24" 1920x1080 monitor.

Thanks!

EIF · Aug 18, 2011

I dont know at what level the 285 performs but the best value for money cards right now are the 6870 or 6950 by ATI.

I recently bought a MSI 6870 Twin Frozr, priced the same as older 5850s and almost a £100 less than the 6950. It has plenty of power for my needs, racing games on single monitor at 1080p.

If you game with triple monitors the 6950 is a better choice with its extra 1Gb of ram.

Jim Cole · Aug 18, 2011

The GTX 285 is similar in performance to the ATI HD 6850 card. Do a search for that card and you should be able to find a decent deal near you.

Dennis Phelan · Aug 18, 2011

Thanks Wayland, Jim. I just had another freeze tonight, jeez!

Jim Cole · Aug 18, 2011

No problems Dennis, I would start my search at newegg if it were me. I get decent deals from them and their customer support so far has been good to me.

Dennis Phelan · Aug 19, 2011

Newegg is always at the top of the list for product!
I Think I'd love a 6950 but see the 6870, 6850, 5850 and 5870 as reasonable replacements. I just entertained the thought with my wife and as long as I get a good price I think I'm good to go. That means she doesn't know why I need a new card, don't spend too much.

Jim Cole · Aug 20, 2011

If she has given you carte' blanche' then by all means go for one of the cards that ends with 70 as those are more robust and powerful.

Rupe Wilson · Aug 20, 2011

Dont forget the GTX460, if you havnt lost faith in Nvidea

Dennis Phelan · Aug 20, 2011

Rupe, I have lost faith. I know that some, many using GTX product haven't had a problem but I find that many know my problem. Even for me it might go well go several months and it works as well as I expect it to but then it cheats me. ATI cars seem to be preferred among Race07 drivers[no real poll has been made by me] and this is changing my mind. IF I didn't drive Simbin I'd probably have no problem with keeping this card.

Looking at feedback on both ATI and GTX product at NewEgg I can see that every card can have problems and there seems to be no one manufacturer of either that has bulletproof offerings. The problem, as I see it in my system, has been reported in nvidia products for a long time and in discussion even at nvidia support forums without ever getting fixed.

Rupe Wilson · Aug 20, 2011

Ive had problems with my gtx460 and put alot of it down to me and my system. Now it runs so sweet, until the next time.

Bob Miley · Aug 21, 2011

Dennis, download EVGA precision, before you start a game manually set your graphice fan to 90% and set down the processor a couple of clicks, you will have no more freezes. It seems the nvidia cards work to hot but when you up the fan manually it works better and I have not had a screen freeze with mine for over 2 months since using evga.

Dennis Phelan · Aug 21, 2011

Bob, Did you know that the screen that generates the highest temps while ingame are all but the driving screen? Figure that out! A good rule is to never walk away for a break leaving the timing screen or car setup screen up, lol.

I've used a few fan speed programs, I don't know which one is running now but I have it set so as the temps rise above 42 it kicks straight up to 95%. I have nvidia inspector, I'll knock back all the settings to gtx280 level and see what happens. Thanks!

Rupe Wilson · Aug 21, 2011

I use Game Booster, and also set my fan to 90% while gaming, and only use 1 screen when online racing,
Still unsure if it makes a difference,

Dennis Phelan · Aug 27, 2011

As I dislike spending money, no new card has been placed in my machine. I've done some looking locally to see what is available and continue to learn more about the AMD/ATI cards.

In the past I've used a vacuum cleaner to clear dust from the inside of the pc, the fans and the gpu. A couple of days ago I took out the card once again and this time removed the cover completely, exposing the big chip and all the watercooling goodies! There was a considerable amount of dust accumulated that the vacuum hadn't gotten close to removing. It's all gone now! Let's see if there will be any difference in freezes.

The paste used to transfer heat frome the chip to the w/c got disturbed, it was a very high silver content material! I was concerned about having broken the coverage when I removed the heatsink but found it pliable enough to reapply. I did add a little of a paste I had on hand for cpu's to loosen it just a tad to make it easirto spread.

To do this cleaning operation again I think I wll need some of the heat transfer material that looks like a gooey tape, it's used for all the smaller hot items on the board. Any ideas on where to get some?

Jim Cole · Aug 28, 2011

Look online for arctic silver heat sink paste, that is what I have found to work the best.

Dennis Phelan · Aug 28, 2011

Jim, I have the paste. There are strips of a very fragile material that is obviously a heat tranfer item that is laid along areas of the card that produce heat. It falls apart and if I intend to clean out the card again, I'll need some, it looks to be about .030-.040in thick x .6 wide and very soft.

Jim Cole · Aug 28, 2011

Strange, never seen anything like that before. I am guessing that the paste is not going to fill the gap with it being that thick. Maybe send an email to the manufacturer to see if they have replacements for that stuff?