Video card update questions

[Massack]

Hey guys. Wanted to get some advice. So some back story: Currently i'm a big gamer and a streamer on twitch and have been running my current graphics card for a while now. It's an EVGA geforce 660ti and it's been an absolutely fantastic card for me all this time. However, just this week the temps on my card have spiked. what used to run around 50-60 celsius is now running at 80+ even with the fan running as fast as it possibly can. I've taken to assuming this means that the card is on it's way out but i'd like some confirmation on this. I've physically checked the card, cleaned it out nice and good to make sure it isn't dusty, but the temps persist even when it's not running on a heavy load.

That said, if it is time to look into a new graphics card I'd like to get a better one naturally. Thus enters my dilemma, my natural approach was "i'll just find an EVGA card with better clock speed, memory speed, and stuff and be right as rain" however all the modern cards seem to want pci express 3.0 which only comes on intel boards from what I understand and seeing as i own an amd mother board and processor already it would be an expensive switch. That said i also understand that pci 3.0 will run on the 2.0 but might slow down because of bandwidth. Therefore using (possibly bad) logic it is possible i'd get less performance from a pci express 3.0 card on a 2.0 slot than i got from my current card, and the numbers seen under specifications might not be accurate to my rig. Though i've also heard that 3.0 is a big gimmick and not really necessary at all for most things you would usually put in the slot, but then why do the cards list the slot? I'd like some guidance here if people could help.

Sorry if that was long, just kinda trying to work things out so i can start doing what i need to to keep my computer running reliably and keep on streaming. Thanks for the time guys!

-Massack

[Godlygamer23]

You will not experience any issues using a high end single GPU on PCIe 2.0. Have you checked the thermal paste on the card? Not sure if you're comfortable with taking the cooler off.

[Norwegiantweaker]

Hey guys. Wanted to get some advice. So some back story: Currently i'm a big gamer and a streamer on twitch and have been running my current graphics card for a while now. It's an EVGA geforce 660ti and it's been an absolutely fantastic card for me all this time. However, just this week the temps on my card have spiked. what used to run around 50-60 celsius is now running at 80+ even with the fan running as fast as it possibly can. I've taken to assuming this means that the card is on it's way out but i'd like some confirmation on this. I've physically checked the card, cleaned it out nice and good to make sure it isn't dusty, but the temps persist even when it's not running on a heavy load.

That said, if it is time to look into a new graphics card I'd like to get a better one naturally. Thus enters my dilemma, my natural approach was "i'll just find an EVGA card with better clock speed, memory speed, and stuff and be right as rain" however all the modern cards seem to want pci express 3.0 which only comes on intel boards from what I understand and seeing as i own an amd mother board and processor already it would be an expensive switch. That said i also understand that pci 3.0 will run on the 2.0 but might slow down because of bandwidth. Therefore using (possibly bad) logic it is possible i'd get less performance from a pci express 3.0 card on a 2.0 slot than i got from my current card, and the numbers seen under specifications might not be accurate to my rig. Though i've also heard that 3.0 is a big gimmick and not really necessary at all for most things you would usually put in the slot, but then why do the cards list the slot? I'd like some guidance here if people could help.

Sorry if that was long, just kinda trying to work things out so i can start doing what i need to to keep my computer running reliably and keep on streaming. Thanks for the time guys!

-Massack

if you want to upgrade just get one of the new 970 cards ?

[LabRat]

pull the card out. blow though the exhaust end and see if any dust comes flying out of the fan shroud. you may only need to pull it apart to clean up the dust and also pull the heat sink and reapply thermal paste as suggested above.

[Tenge500]

Get a Gigabyte GTX-780 TI (Windforce). It'm saving up for that atm, it'll be worth it.

[Jgeorge610]

have you installed any programs that might be automatically overclocking the card every time you log on... are the fans on the gpu spinning? maybe its time to upgrade to a new gtx 970?