Graphics card gone bust?

[The Queen]

I have been noticing for a while that my graphics card seems to be playing up. When I bought The Sims 3 however, and tried to play on full graphics with my native resolution, after around 1 hour it would crash randomly. I now think this is to do with my graphics card because whenever I play any game for around 1 hour -> 2 hours, it will freeze up and produce these triangular shapes etc.. as you can see from the screenshot below.

 

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t270/TheScottishSpotter/IMG_1344edit1small.jpg

 

I have spoken to various people about it and they seem to think it's dieing and/or the chip is burnt out or something. I guess it's time to get a new graphics card as I have had my EVGA 8800GTS (640MB) for around 3 years now so it's about time it died.

I guess I will have to get one soon as this occurs regularly and it won't be doing my current graphics card any good.

Just want to know what people think here, thats why i'm posting!

 

For a new card, i'm thinking about a BFG GTX 285. It's about twice as good as my current card and I was going to upgrade at some point anyway. I have seen one for around £220 so it's not overly expensive and is affordable, I think.

 

Link : http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BFG-285P (They appear to be out of stock but should be in stock again by the time I am able to buy it)

[kalniel]

Yes it's definitely your card on the way out. You might be able to postpone its death by underclocking the GPU and VRAM, but it won't last forever.

 

The GTX 285 is a great card, but not worth £220. For half of that you can get a 4870 1gb which performs slightly slower, but if you want to stay with nVidia then they are good - alternatively look for a GTX 275 which is still very fast, but should be a lot cheaper than a 285.

 

Finally, in the autumn new DirectX 11 cards are coming out, and while nothing takes advantage of them yet, if you wanted to be more future proof then you might want to hang on till then (either by underclocking with the current card, or getting a cheaper, maybe second-hand, card to tie you over until then).

[The Queen]

Yes it's definitely your card on the way out. You might be able to postpone its death by underclocking the GPU and VRAM, but it won't last forever.

 

The GTX 285 is a great card, but not worth £220. For half of that you can get a 4870 1gb which performs slightly slower, but if you want to stay with nVidia then they are good - alternatively look for a GTX 275 which is still very fast, but should be a lot cheaper than a 285.

 

Finally, in the autumn new DirectX 11 cards are coming out, and while nothing takes advantage of them yet, if you wanted to be more future proof then you might want to hang on till then (either by underclocking with the current card, or getting a cheaper, maybe second-hand, card to tie you over until then).

 

Ok, thanks for that, at least I know the situation.

 

I honestly would go for an ATI card, I know they are cheaper etc... but I specifically bought a TRI SLI mobo when I upgraded my computer last year which only supports Nvidia cards so will have to go for one of those. I looked at the 275 but it didn't seem to be much different in quality than my current card. Even with my current card I can't get decent settings on some of the newer games without lag etc.. so wanted something with a bit more oomph. I will look at the 275 again though. Thanks for your comment. ;)

[kalniel]

I honestly would go for an ATI card, I know they are cheaper etc... but I specifically bought a TRI SLI mobo when I upgraded my computer last year which only supports Nvidia cards so will have to go for one of those.

Woah.. hold on. Your motherboard will support ATI cards absolutely fine - what they mean is it only supports multi-card configurations with nVidia, ie if you want to run two cards in SLI then you need to use two identical nVidia cards.

 

 

I looked at the 275 but it didn't seem to be much different in quality than my current card.

Trust me, it is *much* faster than your 8800GTS. If a game can't run max with one of these then it won't with the 285 either.

[The Queen]

Woah.. hold on. Your motherboard will support ATI cards absolutely fine - what they mean is it only supports multi-card configurations with nVidia, ie if you want to run two cards in SLI then you need to use two identical nVidia cards.

 

Trust me, it is *much* faster than your 8800GTS. If a game can't run max with one of these then it won't with the 285 either.

 

Ah, I see. Yeah I wasn't thinking straight, completely forgot about that! I will try looking at a few ATI cards then and see what ones are in my price range.

Will still look at some Nvidia cards but will look at both ATI and Nvidia seeing as I can use either. Thanks again. :)

 

I must say i'm not really familiar with ATI cards. What type of thing would I be looking at if I want a significant upgrade from my Nvidia card? The 4890 looks alright but I don't know how it would compare with the card I have?

[kalniel]

I must say i'm not really familiar with ATI cards. What type of thing would I be looking at if I want a significant upgrade from my Nvidia card? The 4890 looks alright but I don't know how it would compare with the card I have?

The 4870 512mb/1gb and 4890 1gb are all significantly faster than your current card, and the latter is basically the same as the GTX 275. (+/- depending on game and how overclocked it comes out of the box).

 

ATI cards have the advantage of DirectX10.1, which forms a large part of the DirectX11 specifications as well, meaning they'll be faster for DX11 capable games than nVidia's DX10 only cards.

 

nVidia cards have the advantage of PhysX, which some games are starting to use to offload physics calculations from the CPU. IF you have a slow CPU then this might make a difference for non-graphically demanding games, but if the game is very graphically intensive then you don't really want to be wasting GPU power on stuff the CPU can normally do very well. Dragon Age is going to be a good example of a fairly low graphics game that makes use of spare GPU capacity for PhysX.

 

You can't go wrong with either to be honest - look at the price and performance in your favourite games first and foremost, and only if they're dead equal would I swing towards these other features.

[The Queen]

The 4870 512mb/1gb and 4890 1gb are all significantly faster than your current card, and the latter is basically the same as the GTX 275. (+/- depending on game and how overclocked it comes out of the box).

 

ATI cards have the advantage of DirectX10.1, which forms a large part of the DirectX11 specifications as well, meaning they'll be faster for DX11 capable games than nVidia's DX10 only cards.

 

nVidia cards have the advantage of PhysX, which some games are starting to use to offload physics calculations from the CPU. IF you have a slow CPU then this might make a difference for non-graphically demanding games, but if the game is very graphically intensive then you don't really want to be wasting GPU power on stuff the CPU can normally do very well. Dragon Age is going to be a good example of a fairly low graphics game that makes use of spare GPU capacity for PhysX.

 

You can't go wrong with either to be honest - look at the price and performance in your favourite games first and foremost, and only if they're dead equal would I swing towards these other features.

 

Ok thanks for the information. Actually seems like the ATI cards are better value for money than Nvidia and also I don't really have any PhysX games so that won't be a problem.

I am actually now leaning towards an ATI card. I have looked at the 4890 1GB cards and they seem like they would be perfect and are within my price range. If I was to go for a 1GB 4890 what would be the best one to get? Asus maybe? Or are they all similar in what they can do?

 

This actually appears to be similar to the GTX285 I was looking at - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-195-AS

[SLRRR]

Ah, I see. Yeah I wasn't thinking straight, completely forgot about that! I will try looking at a few ATI cards then and see what ones are in my price range.

Will still look at some Nvidia cards but will look at both ATI and Nvidia seeing as I can use either. Thanks again. :)

 

I must say i'm not really familiar with ATI cards. What type of thing would I be looking at if I want a significant upgrade from my Nvidia card? The 4890 looks alright but I don't know how it would compare with the card I have?

 

You can compare the 4890 with the 285GTX :)

 

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,689039/Evga-GTX-285-FTW-vs-Sapphire-HD-4890-Atomic-Battle-of-the-OC-giants/Reviews/

[kalniel]

Ok thanks for the information. Actually seems like the ATI cards are better value for money than Nvidia and also I don't really have any PhysX games so that won't be a problem.

I am actually now leaning towards an ATI card. I have looked at the 4890 1GB cards and they seem like they would be perfect and are within my price range. If I was to go for a 1GB 4890 what would be the best one to get? Asus maybe? Or are they all similar in what they can do?

 

They are all very similar in what they can do - the only differences are caused by how much the factory overclock the card, which is still the same chip as everyone else is using. But I wouldn't go for a highly overclocked card to be honest, as they tend to have a shorter lifespan and you'll end up seeing the same thing as with your current card! Look for what bundle you get with the card, length of warranty, and how easy it is to return a card should you have problems. Asus, Sapphire etc. are rated quite highly for that sort of thing, XFX are rated quite badly.

 

This actually appears to be similar to the GTX285 I was looking at - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-195-AS

Sure, it's fine, better value might be something like this sapphire:

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-195-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1403

[The Queen]

They are all very similar in what they can do - the only differences are caused by how much the factory overclock the card, which is still the same chip as everyone else is using. But I wouldn't go for a highly overclocked card to be honest, as they tend to have a shorter lifespan and you'll end up seeing the same thing as with your current card! Look for what bundle you get with the card, length of warranty, and how easy it is to return a card should you have problems. Asus, Sapphire etc. are rated quite highly for that sort of thing, XFX are rated quite badly.

 

 

Sure, it's fine, better value might be something like this sapphire:

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-195-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1403

 

True. I think I would rather go for a slightly faster than stock card though just to get a little bit more out of it. Sure it will last slightly shorter but imo, it's worth it if you get more potential as I would probably upgrade in another 3 or so years anyway. The Asus 4890 1GB I am looking at seems the best I can find, it has a 3 year warranty and it is also an Asus one and apparently Asus are one of the best brands for graphics cards.

 

Also thanks for that review SLRRR, was very interesting and is helping me make my mind up when it comes to the time when I will buy a new card. ;)

[ShadowGT]

Get a GTS 250 like me. Sure it's only a renamed 9800 GTX but if you get it from gigabyte they have Custom Zalman Cooling which is great for overclocking. plus it will be way cheaper then a GTX 285. A card like that is only useful if you plan on playing at a uber ridiculous resolution with AA (which kinda defeats the point of using AA if your playing at a really really high res)

[kalniel]

Get a GTS 250 like me. Sure it's only a renamed 9800 GTX

Which is itself a renamed 8800GTS.. :p

[The Queen]

I have had a look at cards over the last couple of days and followed up advice from a number of people and it seems I am better off getting an Nvidia card rather than an ATI one as my motherboard is specifically designed for Nvidia cards and if I was to buy an ATI card, there may be problems between the two so I have decided against it.

Depending on what my dad says I will either go for a GTX 275 or a GTX 285. For both models it would the BFG as being with BFG it has a lifetime warranty and is reasonably cheap compared to the rest.

 

I hope you guys think I have made a good decision on this and I should be ordering one of these cards very soon. Mainly because i'm not able to play games any more as my current card will either freeze the screen or produce those triangular shapes if a game is running for 15 minutes.

[kalniel]

I have had a look at cards over the last couple of days and followed up advice from a number of people and it seems I am better off getting an Nvidia card rather than an ATI one as my motherboard is specifically designed for Nvidia cards and if I was to buy an ATI card, there may be problems between the two so I have decided against it.

I'd question the expertise of that advice - there is no such thing as a motherboard specifically designed for nVidia cards - it would be against ATX and PCI-E specifications to do so.

 

But your choice and whatever you feel best about is what you should get.

[The Queen]

I'd question the expertise of that advice - there is no such thing as a motherboard specifically designed for nVidia cards - it would be against ATX and PCI-E specifications to do so.

 

But your choice and whatever you feel best about is what you should get.

 

Well I was honestly going to go for the ATI card but I spoke to Danger Sponge last night and he said that there could be problems with the ATI card with my motherboard so I just don't want to take the risk and want the best performance I can get.

 

Anyway I have just bought the GTX 285 BFG so that will be coming on Monday. Thanks everybody for their advice and contribution in the thread. ;)

[Sponge]

I've said that ATI cards have problems with nVidia motherboards, as I once had an nVidia Mobo with an ATI card.

 

All I had every time I started a 3d game/program up were graphical corruptions, freezes etc. Bought a cheap nvidia card, worked flawlessly.

 

Maybe I just had a bad card, but that has tainted my confidence in ATI, hence why I told David about it.

[TDU 505]

Hmmm the triangles do look quite artistic i have to say :p

 

Congratulations on your new card David!

[hackerslayer66]

Well i have an 8600 GT and i love it got it from new egg but for an extra 60 bucks you can get a 9900 GTX super clocked on new egg