I think my video card is dying...

[mattdanielc]

Hi guys

I bought my PC almost 2 years ago now, and I got a GTX 460 card. When I play games now my graphics card makes a right racket - a fan or something on it spins so fast I think sadly she is dying. (used to be virtually silent)

I was a bit surprised on amazon to see my card still costs about £100 to buy - I thought it would be cheap by now.

My questions are...

Is there a video card available cheaper that has a better spec than my gtx 460?

I've never replaced a graphics card before - is it quite easy to do?

My spec below if it helps...

Case
InWIN DRAGON SLAYER BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A78LT-M: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Thanks for any help

 

[keynes]

Is your pc still under warranty? Have you try cleaning the fans in the gpu?

 

[mattdanielc]

Hi

Nope not under warranty - I only got the "3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)"

I haven't tried cleaning it to be honest - I'll do this later. I don't like opening the case as I'm afraid I'll damage something or make a connection loose or something - not very confident with the insides of the PC's

 

[keynes]

Hi

Nope not under warranty - I only got the "3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)"

I haven't tried cleaning it to be honest - I'll do this later. I don't like opening the case as I'm afraid I'll damage something or make a connection loose or something - not very confident with the insides of the PC's

So you have not open your case since you bought it? Maybe some dust, I'd try to give it a good clean and see if the noise goes away.

 

[Rakk]

I haven't tried cleaning it to be honest - I'll do this later. I don't like opening the case as I'm afraid I'll damage something or make a connection loose or something - not very confident with the insides of the PC's

As long as your careful and make sure you ground yourself first it will be fine and note where things are before you go pulling things out.
And pretty much the only connections on the GPU apart from where you clip it into the motherboard is the power (and on my machine, also about 2 years old with a GTX460, I found I couldn't actually get the power cables to unclip at all) so I shouldn't worry too much about loose connections, just make sure the ones you're near or fiddle with are firmly in place when you finish

 

[mattdanielc]

Hi guys

I gave it a thorough clean - still makes the noise sadly. It's like a high pitch whining - only the newer games cause it. For example when I play total war during the campaign it is fine but when the battles start the noise starts, and the whole time during the sims.

Can anyone recommend a card for about £80 - will it be as good as the GTX 460 was for me? (in terms of handling graphics but also quietness)

 

[Rakk]

I gave it a thorough clean - still makes the noise sadly. It's like a high pitch whining - only the newer games cause it. For example when I play total war during the campaign it is fine but when the battles start the noise starts, and the whole time during the sims.

It might just be capacitor whine, many graphics cards do it when being stressed - and since it's not a new card anymore, the newer games are probably stressing it somewhat .
If it is that there is nothing to be worried about, its fine.

 

[vanthus]

Hi guys

I gave it a thorough clean - still makes the noise sadly. It's like a high pitch whining - only the newer games cause it. For example when I play total war during the campaign it is fine but when the battles start the noise starts, and the whole time during the sims.

Can anyone recommend a card for about £80 - will it be as good as the GTX 460 was for me? (in terms of handling graphics but also quietness)

You'll be hard pushed to get a graphics card for gaming at that price,probably your best bet would be looking for a second hand one,ebay maybe?

 

[tom_gr7]

Can anyone recommend a card for about £80 - will it be as good as the GTX 460 was for me? (in terms of handling graphics but also quietness)

I'd wait till nvidia release the 660 and the 660ti, although they will probably be in the 200+ mark, it will make other cards lower in price.

 

[mattdanielc]

Thanks for the advice guys. Rakk - ok I'll be patient and won't get a new one just yet - but it's more the annoyance - an annoying sound when I have OCD rather than hearing my game all I hear is the graphics card - but I guess I'll just have to turn up the volume on the speakers to compensate

Thanks for everybody's input

 

[Rakk]

Thanks for the advice guys. Rakk - ok I'll be patient and won't get a new one just yet -

Well, that's only my suspicion (so no guarantees), so I would keep an eye on it, but if it is just capacitor whine then you should be ok.