AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-29, 09:03:

My Athlon 64 3400+ is going to be retired only if motherboard fails as I have no spare with pcie. I have a couple of GeForce GTX […]
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My Athlon 64 3400+ is going to be retired only if motherboard fails as I have no spare with pcie. I have a couple of GeForce GTX 260 so a failing GPU isn't going to lead to retirement. GPU is the most frequently failing component.

As for games which can be played on it - Rise of Nations (2003), Sims 2 (2004), Battlefield 2 (2005), Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005), Quake 4 (2005), Silent Hunter 3 (2005), Civilization 4 (2005), IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 (2006), Fifa 2007, Nhl 2007, Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition (2007), Europa Universalis 3 (2007). It isn't for Crysis or Far Cry 2.

I recently bought a little 4x4cm fan Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX to cool the nForce4 chipset. It is quiet even at 5000 rpm. The heatsink was too wobbly so I took the motherboard out and replaced the chipset thermal pad which was heavily deformed with a thicker one and used push pins instead of screws with rubber (helped to avoid too much pressure, but caused wobble in time).

I would not bank on GeForce 5900xt surviving long. In 10 years they will probably be gone even from Vogons.

The best way to keep old GPUs alive is to really go overboard with the case cooling and going for overkill aftermarket gpu coolers, my x1900xtx was pretty much killing itself by reaching 85C every damn time i played a game, then i modded my case for intake and exhausts fans + a zalman cooler and ram heatsinks for the gpu, now it idles at 44 and under load reaches MAX 59.

I did it for every single gpu i have, it prologues the life of every component by a lot, virtually they will outlast you if you get lucky and your caps are the zombies ones that never break and just lose a small margin of capacitance.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-29, 09:03:

My Athlon 64 3400+ is going to be retired only if motherboard fails as I have no spare with pcie. I have a couple of GeForce GTX […]
Show full quote

My Athlon 64 3400+ is going to be retired only if motherboard fails as I have no spare with pcie. I have a couple of GeForce GTX 260 so a failing GPU isn't going to lead to retirement. GPU is the most frequently failing component.

As for games which can be played on it - Rise of Nations (2003), Sims 2 (2004), Battlefield 2 (2005), Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005), Quake 4 (2005), Silent Hunter 3 (2005), Civilization 4 (2005), IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 (2006), Fifa 2007, Nhl 2007, Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition (2007), Europa Universalis 3 (2007). It isn't for Crysis or Far Cry 2.

I recently bought a little 4x4cm fan Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX to cool the nForce4 chipset. It is quiet even at 5000 rpm. The heatsink was too wobbly so I took the motherboard out and replaced the chipset thermal pad which was heavily deformed with a thicker one and used push pins instead of screws with rubber (helped to avoid too much pressure, but caused wobble in time).

I would not bank on GeForce 5900xt surviving long. In 10 years they will probably be gone even from Vogons.

I like to stash spares for the systems i use if i can get them for cheap/free when i can. Including motherboards. Retiring a system because something died is always a possibility of course, but i like to prevent that if possible.

Also why FX5900XT have to die? They are not very hot, too old for bumpgate... if memory dies or if there is a BGA issue it is repairable...

iraito wrote on 2025-08-29, 12:32:

The best way to keep old GPUs alive is to really go overboard with the case cooling and going for overkill aftermarket gpu coolers, my x1900xtx was pretty much killing itself by reaching 85C every damn time i played a game, then i modded my case for intake and exhausts fans + a zalman cooler and ram heatsinks for the gpu, now it idles at 44 and under load reaches MAX 59.

I did it for every single gpu i have, it prologues the life of every component by a lot, virtually they will outlast you if you get lucky and your caps are the zombies ones that never break and just lose a small margin of capacitance.

The biggest way to keep GPU cooler is making fan curve more aggressive. Many cards/coolers can maintain pretty low temperatures, like 55-65C, if configured to do so. Stock fan curves are often... as if designed to kill the card intentionally. Like heating up to 70-80C idle.

Once that's done noise level becomes deciding factor and a reason to upgrade case cooling or leave it as is.

Also lower temperatures do not guarantee longevity. Stuff can and will still fail. After all it was never designed to last as long as it already did...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-29, 13:58:

I like to stash spares for the systems i use if i can get them for cheap/free when i can. Including motherboards. Retiring a sys […]
Show full quote

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-29, 09:03:

My Athlon 64 3400+ is going to be retired only if motherboard fails as I have no spare with pcie. I have a couple of GeForce GTX […]
Show full quote

My Athlon 64 3400+ is going to be retired only if motherboard fails as I have no spare with pcie. I have a couple of GeForce GTX 260 so a failing GPU isn't going to lead to retirement. GPU is the most frequently failing component.

As for games which can be played on it - Rise of Nations (2003), Sims 2 (2004), Battlefield 2 (2005), Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005), Quake 4 (2005), Silent Hunter 3 (2005), Civilization 4 (2005), IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 (2006), Fifa 2007, Nhl 2007, Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition (2007), Europa Universalis 3 (2007). It isn't for Crysis or Far Cry 2.

I recently bought a little 4x4cm fan Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX to cool the nForce4 chipset. It is quiet even at 5000 rpm. The heatsink was too wobbly so I took the motherboard out and replaced the chipset thermal pad which was heavily deformed with a thicker one and used push pins instead of screws with rubber (helped to avoid too much pressure, but caused wobble in time).

I would not bank on GeForce 5900xt surviving long. In 10 years they will probably be gone even from Vogons.

I like to stash spares for the systems i use if i can get them for cheap/free when i can. Including motherboards. Retiring a system because something died is always a possibility of course, but i like to prevent that if possible.

Also why FX5900XT have to die? They are not very hot, too old for bumpgate... if memory dies or if there is a BGA issue it is repairable...

iraito wrote on 2025-08-29, 12:32:

The best way to keep old GPUs alive is to really go overboard with the case cooling and going for overkill aftermarket gpu coolers, my x1900xtx was pretty much killing itself by reaching 85C every damn time i played a game, then i modded my case for intake and exhausts fans + a zalman cooler and ram heatsinks for the gpu, now it idles at 44 and under load reaches MAX 59.

I did it for every single gpu i have, it prologues the life of every component by a lot, virtually they will outlast you if you get lucky and your caps are the zombies ones that never break and just lose a small margin of capacitance.

The biggest way to keep GPU cooler is making fan curve more aggressive. Many cards/coolers can maintain pretty low temperatures, like 55-65C, if configured to do so. Stock fan curves are often... as if designed to kill the card intentionally. Like heating up to 70-80C idle.

Once that's done noise level becomes deciding factor and a reason to upgrade case cooling or leave it as is.

Also lower temperatures do not guarantee longevity. Stuff can and will still fail. After all it was never designed to last as long as it already did...

A fan curve helps but it doesn't stack up to a zalman pure copper flower design cooler at the same speed or any equivalent or better cooler and better paste, even more so if the die is not enclosed in plastic.
GPUs are designed to last as long as the electronic doesn't fail, amiga 500 were not meant to work 40 years later without any repairs and yet...
Clean and cool might keep a gpu alive for decades or not but it very well might.

iraito wrote on 2025-08-29, 14:11:

A fan curve helps but it doesn't stack up to a zalman pure copper flower design cooler at the same speed or any equivalent or better cooler and better paste, even more so if the die is not enclosed in plastic.
GPUs are designed to last as long as the electronic doesn't fail, amiga 500 were not meant to work 40 years later without any repairs and yet...
Clean and cool might keep a gpu alive for decades or not but it very well might.

Yes, but only in terms of noise. Temperatures will be as configured as long as the fan in not simply too slow or half-dead. I've seen many cards on which cooler can maintain good temperatures with low enough noise, but stock settings are ridiculous like 85C target. High noise under load can be acceptable too, for example i use headphones most of the time if i actually play games which reduce audible noise significantly.

It is always worth trying before trying to replace the cooler. Especially since on quite a few cards it may not be feasible/possible at all...

Also yes, stuff may last and i agree that lower temperatures may help. I just think that getting too obsessed with as low temperature as possible does not necessarily make sense. Nobody knows how much it actually help and going down from 65C to 55C, for example, can require significant effort and increase in noise...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-29, 14:40:

Yes, but only in terms of noise. Temperatures will be as configured as long as the fan in not simply too slow or half-dead. I've […]
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iraito wrote on 2025-08-29, 14:11:

A fan curve helps but it doesn't stack up to a zalman pure copper flower design cooler at the same speed or any equivalent or better cooler and better paste, even more so if the die is not enclosed in plastic.
GPUs are designed to last as long as the electronic doesn't fail, amiga 500 were not meant to work 40 years later without any repairs and yet...
Clean and cool might keep a gpu alive for decades or not but it very well might.

Yes, but only in terms of noise. Temperatures will be as configured as long as the fan in not simply too slow or half-dead. I've seen many cards on which cooler can maintain good temperatures with low enough noise, but stock settings are ridiculous like 85C target. High noise under load can be acceptable too, for example i use headphones most of the time if i actually play games which reduce audible noise significantly.

It is always worth trying before trying to replace the cooler. Especially since on quite a few cards it may not be feasible/possible at all...

Also yes, stuff may last and i agree that lower temperatures may help. I just think that getting too obsessed with as low temperature as possible does not necessarily make sense. Nobody knows how much it actually help and going down from 65C to 55C, for example, can require significant effort and increase in noise...

It takes a ton of work indeed but for me at least i love it, modding is also a big part of retro PCs for me, so if i can build something and get incredibly low temps and noise while having fun it's all a big plus.

iraito wrote on 2025-08-29, 12:32:

The best way to keep old GPUs alive is to really go overboard with the case cooling and going for overkill aftermarket gpu coolers, my x1900xtx was pretty much killing itself by reaching 85C every damn time i played a game, then i modded my case for intake and exhausts fans + a zalman cooler and ram heatsinks for the gpu, now it idles at 44 and under load reaches MAX 59.

I did it for every single gpu i have, it prologues the life of every component by a lot, virtually they will outlast you if you get lucky and your caps are the zombies ones that never break and just lose a small margin of capacitance.

I always reconfigure fan profile in BIOS with NiBiTor and flash it with nvflash. I use "Automatic Speed" in fan settings for best cooling. GPU temperature while gaming is max 60'C. Heavy GPU benchmarks like Sanctuary benchmark is max 70'C (the limiting factor here is lack of PWM regulation in motherboard for system fans so they run at constant speed). This is an excellent guide - https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/th … nibitor.119954/

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-29, 15:58:

iraito wrote on 2025-08-29, 12:32:

The best way to keep old GPUs alive is to really go overboard with the case cooling and going for overkill aftermarket gpu coolers, my x1900xtx was pretty much killing itself by reaching 85C every damn time i played a game, then i modded my case for intake and exhausts fans + a zalman cooler and ram heatsinks for the gpu, now it idles at 44 and under load reaches MAX 59.

I did it for every single gpu i have, it prologues the life of every component by a lot, virtually they will outlast you if you get lucky and your caps are the zombies ones that never break and just lose a small margin of capacitance.

I always reconfigure fan profile in BIOS with NiBiTor and flash it with nvflash. I use "Automatic Speed" in fan settings for best cooling. GPU temperature while gaming is max 60'C. Heavy GPU benchmarks like Sanctuary benchmark is max 70'C (the limiting factor here is lack of PWM regulation in motherboard for system fans so they run at constant speed). This is an excellent guide - https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/th … nibitor.119954/

I usually use custom voltage regulators with potentiometers with after market coolers, way more control for fans that are quieter while also going faster.