GPU Throttling = Dying card?

[Misanthrope]

I've noticed lately that certain games are starting to get some performance issues (mainly skyrim) So I decided to run Kombustor and sure enough my GTX 260 quickly goes all the way to 105 Celsius and starts throttling down about 300 or so mhz. Since I figured this is a torture test I decided to run Skyrim for a while and after a few minutes I started to see chopping in the video, I went back to check and sure enough I was hitting 105 celsius and throttling down again (though not immediately since the GPU usage wasn't constantly maxed out, it went up and down depending on the areas of the game and such)

Now bear in mind that I have no AC whatsoever and current temperatures this days are hitting between 30 and 40c so my room temperature it's like 28-30 throughout the day and most of the night and the idle for the GPU it's 73-76 c (CPU sits at 46-50 idle and 67-69 on load) It seems like gaming in the summer might not be an option without water cooling (though most water cooled GPUs are completely out of the question for my budget and I don't think I can even get equipment for a custom loop without a painful and expensive importing process) 

I underclocked the GPU (it's an EVGA card that comes overclocked to GPU 626mhz and I scaled back to 586, about to try the default 576) and the performance hit isn't that significant but again, between 5 and 20 minutes of playback or less than 2 minutes of Kombustor and I'm back at 105c. Is this card dying/in need of re-applying thermal paste or is my town just unreasonably hot right now?

 

In any case I think really need a maxwell card or some other solution (is there such a thing like USD $200-300 water cooled or really damn good air cooled card?) 

[AMICLG]

Try replacing the thermal paste and thermal pads as with an old card this is likely the culprit.

[Monti]

has this Gpu temp common with your card?

[Flight1sim]

The 200 series is quite old, and gets hotter (my geforce 210)

From what i have seen, the default thermal compound is pretty bad ( or at least mine was ), so i suggest you replace that.
If you bought it in 2008 (thats when it was released right?) then i wouldnt be surprised that it might be dying

[Misanthrope]

has this Gpu temp common with your card?

 

I honestly never checked before because I never had performance issues at all (once I found my sweet settings spot of course)

[Misanthrope]

The 200 series is quite old, and gets hotter (my geforce 210)

From what i have seen, the default thermal compound is pretty bad ( or at least mine was ), so i suggest you replace that.

If you bought it in 2008 (thats when it was released right?) then i wouldnt be surprised that it might be dying

 

Yeah it is rather old I got it in 2008. I just tried my ghetto solution (open case and a house fan blowing right up there) and knocked my CPU and mobo temps quite a bit (10 degrees down for the mobo (from 51 idle to 41 idle) and the CPU 5 degrees (51 idle down to 46) and the GPU now idles at 69 down from 74 but at soon as there's load it goes up to 105 within 2 minutes.

 

So since I'm likely forced to shop for a new one (even if I reapply the paste and get it stable I was thinking of flipping it to get a new system anyway) what's the best performance to temp card? I'm thinking 750ti but I might want something beefier (r9 270 or 760) however seeing how we're in the middle of the summer and it's likely to get a lot worst (the next couple of months will likely see 45-48 celsius temps here) I want something that can seriously keep as cool as possible while still doing reasonably well in 1080p and I don't think the 750ti can cut it. Thoughts?

[Flight1sim]

Yeah it is rather old I got it in 2008. I just tried my ghetto solution (open case and a house fan blowing right up there) and knocked my CPU and mobo temps quite a bit (10 degrees down for the mobo (from 51 idle to 41 idle) and the CPU 5 degrees (51 idle down to 46) and the GPU now idles at 69 down from 74 but at soon as there's load it goes up to 105 within 2 minutes.

Yeah, thermal compound on the entire system is a good idea

(cpu, gpu)

[Misanthrope]

Yeah, thermal compound on the entire system is a good idea

(cpu, gpu)

 

Actually the CPU it's ok since I changed the heat sink I had due to a dying fan (a stupid proprietary fan there's no easy way to mount one) back to the stock AMD heat sink.

[Flight1sim]

Actually the CPU it's ok since I changed the heat sink I had due to a dying fan (a stupid proprietary fan there's no easy way to mount one) back to the stock AMD heat sink.

Yeah the GPU thermal compound should be switched

[Sonefiler]

Get the R9 270. Best value card out there. With the AMD price drops with the death of Mt. Gox (YAY), AMD is always the better deal ATM. If you go higher, maybe a R9 290, get the PCS+. DO IT!

[Misanthrope]

Get the R9 270. Best value card out there. With the AMD price drops with the death of Mt. Gox (YAY), AMD is always the better deal ATM. If you go higher, maybe a R9 290, get the PCS+. DO IT!

 

DOO IIIIT!! 

 

 

 

No but yeah I'm thinking of the following upgrade kit: AMD FX 6300, a cheap mATX assrock mobo (about 50 bucks), 8gigs ddr3 dims and r9 270. Everything else it's rehused till it craps out or I get more cash