Takaharu

A while ago I was tempted enough to get a GTX 295 because of the price. It plays, as you'd expect, any game (except Crysis) flawlessly on max settings, the way I like it.
However, the major problem that I have is the room temperature. When I'm playing a game for more than half an hour (which, as you might expect, often gets exceeded) my bedroom gets to be around... well, I sweat a lot. As the room's hot, the card doesn't cool down particularly fast so the room stays hot. Rinse, repeat. Having the case fans set on full blast helps the graphics card, just not me.

The predicament is that if I flog the graphics card, what do I go for? I'm not picky on whether it's Nvidia or AMD but I'd like whatever I choose to at least be on par with my current card and more modern to DX 11 (I like to think it's a step back if I go from a 295 to dual 280s, for example). This is proving to be rather difficult when dealing with a budget that's not much higher than whatever I can sell it for (probably around £200). I could probably push myself to £300 but I don't really want to - I don't need more performance, just roughly equal without the masses of heat.

So, given the approximate budget and that I want to match (roughly) the performance of a 295 - any ideas?

Oh, and I'm not adverse to going dual or triple graphics cards if it works out at a decent price/performance compared to a single card (which I'd b surprised at).

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iPlayer

Only way to solve it is to use AC : /.

Switching to 2x280 should increase heat emission at that.

Takaharu

I have a dual PCB so that limits the cooling options down to... stock or watercooling.
Watercooling's just too expensive for me - I priced it up at well over £200, which I might as well spend on an upgrade if I was willing to spend out on it.
I've been contemplating a 5870 becuase quite a few people are selling them second-hand for under £300, mainly XFX 5870s (not XXX edition), which are coming in at around the £250 region.

The 5870 falls short of the 295 in quite a few games but is it worth the change?

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iPlayer

Oh, I meant air conditioning there. Thought it was room temperature you were mostly having issues with.

Takaharu

Thought you meant Arctic Cooling lol.
I have an AC unit but it's too loud - to compensate I have to crank up the volume to everything I'm doing, which isn't really an option late at night. Plus, the noise still bugs me.

I think I've solved my problem of a graphics card that's too hot - get rid of it (well, sell it). The BGF 285 OC2 that I'm currently using as a dedicated PhysX card I can just use as the primary card.
Why didn't I think of this before? The 285 belongs to my gaming PC that I have round a friend's. Having a powerful graphics card isn't really necessary for playing Call of Duty, Battlefield 1942, Dawn of War and the like I had it for when we played UT3 and a couple of other games that were a tad more demanding.

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