[Solved] MSI GTX 460 Hawk Talon Attack and BF3/Skyrim?

My friend might be able to get a GTX 460 Talon Attack for $150, and he was wondering how it would perform with newer games. Could he play Skyrim and BF3 with high settings? His monitor has a low res, and the desktop is actually just an HP from Costco. It has a i5 2600, 16GB DDR3, and a 400-500W PSU. I actually am not sure if his PSU has connections for the card though...
So the question is, could he play BF3 and Skyrim at high, or even max settings on a res under 1440x900??

at that res, I would think so, the Is that hawk new? if so that's a great price (although they are overpriced to begin with)

I am sure that it can play BF 3 on High / Ultra on that resolution... atleast i can

How are your fps on say a 64 player server on maxed out settings (or whatever settings you have)?

He got the locked 2600 because that's what was in the HP at the local Costco here.

well,with the hawk, he should have no problem OC'ing for more performance. and it's very possible that he may have to upgrade his PSU if his is non-modular and doesn't have the two 6 pin connectors required for the gtx 460. You could probably get a Legacy to 6 pin adapter provided that he has enough Legacy connectors. Oh and do you know if his PSU meets the requirements?

It's actually my friends pc. But, I'll tell him. Why wouldn't it work though? He has the 2600 (And I know it's not unlocked, but it should still be playable, and also 16GB of ram...) I know his PSU should be upgraded, and monitor, which he says he's going to buy. Will any PSU work with his HP?

Oh nice a SeaSonic. I'll tell him tomorrow. Thanks!
I had another question, but for me. I have an EVGA GTX 580, but it gets kinda warm in my RV03 (I think to like 70-80 when playing BF3 maxed out at 1920 for a couple hours) and was wondering, should I upgrade? I can get the PNY XLR8 Liquid Cooled CPU and 580. Should I get that and cool my i5 2500k which gets to like 60 under load with my Hyper 212+? Is it worth buying?

Yeah, that's what I thought. I didn't think it was that cool. Maybe it was the thermal paste? It was a cheapy one I had that was hard as hell to spread evenly, or even spread at all. I want something that already has pre-applied thermal paste.

Most of the water cooling kits like the h100 or Kuhler 920 have pre-applied paste...

Those GPU temps are really good and a PNY CPU/GPU liquid cooled edition costs about $650.

Yeah, reapplying the thermal paste and/or upgrading the CPU cooler is a much cheaper way to go. I thought the hyper 212 was already a good cooler. Maybe check to see that the heatsink is firmly applied after applying new thermal paste. Actually, now that I think about it, since your GPU is so cool that means your case airflow is good, and therefore your CPU problem is related to your heatsink installation.

Here is a great roundup of thermal pastes:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/art [...] 012/1468/5

yes, IMO

No, you should start gaming right away. The curing process, if there is one, is something that will just improve the performance over time. It doesn't prevent it from being effective.

No I have not heard of that one. In the Hardware Secrets thermal paste roundup, they also give results for common household items like chocolate and butter. But no I they have not tested any auto products that I am aware of.

Oh OK...I'll take a look for some thermal at Frys or something when I get some cash. Thanks

It should be cheap, $5-$10.

No more than $15 for the best stuff.

I built and sold a system with an MSI cyclone gtx 460 1GB and could play bf3 at 1920x1080 on high with AA off with an average of 55fps. Your friend should be able to play in ultra but may need to turn off AA to maintain higher than 50FPS. Skyrim takes a little less gpu power to run in ultra but you need a good cpu to keep up. I think that is mostly since it really does not take full advantage of multiple cpu cores. For me, bf3 uses all 4 cores and 4 threads and they continuously run at 70% but skyrim only ever uses 2 or 3 cores at the same time and just as many threads. I sigh a little bit when I see 2cores and 2 threads dormant while I am playing.

Wow so these 460s are still pretty decent cards...I was originally going to get two MSI Hawk Talon Attacks but chose to go with a 580. I don't think he bought it, but thanks for the information. I never OCed my 580 because I'm way too scared to blow it up or something.

I can use MSI Afterburner with my EVGA 580??

Best answer selected by MisterFuuManchu.