Gfx card died...Need New

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03-31-2007, 12:43 AM
Seedler

Gfx card died...Need New

I need something as cheap as possible that will give me acceptable gaming standards. (No radeon X300, etc etc).

I did do research and looked at benchmarks online but there are too many choices and I can't decide.

Anything over $100 I'd have to scrap together, so the price range should be $200 CAD maximum and the lower the better, I'm on a tight budget.

The 7600GS 512MB looks okay, but do I need the 512MB of memory as the 7600GS won't be fast enough anyway?

Or the 7600GT which is quite old but only 128-bit memory interface and I read it struggled with shader 3.0 games?

Please recommend, much appreciated.
03-31-2007, 01:02 AM
S!X

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

For your price range this is what I've come up with. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=eVGA
03-31-2007, 01:12 AM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linkin Park

For your price range this is what I've come up with. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=eVGA

That does look like a good buy, but would you recommend a 7600GT? It's only around $120 CAD, opposed to a $180 CAD 7900GS.
03-31-2007, 01:16 AM
S!X

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seedler

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linkin Park

For your price range this is what I've come up with. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=eVGA

That does look like a good buy, but would you recommend a 7600GT? It's only around $120 CAD, opposed to a $180 CAD 7900GS.

I've heard a lot of good things about the 7600GT check out the customer reviews in the link below and search for some hardware reviews on google, if you are determined to get that instead i'd go with this one just because i'm an eVGA fan. Honestly, if you can afford to get the 7900 go for it instead. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=eVGA
03-31-2007, 01:30 AM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Thx LP, I was wondering if you kept a watch on gfx card prices lately? I'm leaning towards the 7900GS now, but the last time I bought a gfx card they dropped the price by $40 three days after I bought it.:frusty:

In other words, tell me when the next price drop is?:P
03-31-2007, 01:32 AM
S!X

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seedler

In other words, tell me when the next price drop is?:P

Sure thing. :01:
03-31-2007, 01:32 AM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Btw, sry for the many posts, but anyone have the 7900GS here? I read the reviews and there were conflicting reports of the GPU fan being "very loud" and "barely noticeable".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linkin Park

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seedler

In other words, tell me when the next price drop is?:P

Sure thing. :01:

And the price drop will occur on....
03-31-2007, 01:35 AM
S!X

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seedler

And the price drop will occur on....

I believe the 7900's have already dropped in price, plus that one has a $15 rebate on it so you can't go wrong. :dabs:
03-31-2007, 01:55 AM
Virtualbody1234

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

How did your card die?

Overclocked?
03-31-2007, 02:25 AM
peat moss

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

How did your card die?

Overclocked?

Fan quit ? :huh:
03-31-2007, 03:08 AM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Yes it was overclocked for a month or so, then I dropped settings to stock because I didn't need the nosier fan/marginal performance boost when playing "old" games like HL2 and UT2004.

But just 2 days ago, when I started PVK (a HL2 mod), the game crashed almost instantly with messed up colour lines on the screen. After reboot, the same thing happened again when I tried to start any sort of 3-D application.

However 2-D applications were fine for windows usage, so I didn't worry too much about it and decided to leave the problem till the weekend.

Then today when I got home and turned on comp, this happened:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...a/DSC00311.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...a/DSC00312.jpg

Basically random lines/dots decided to arrange themselves on my screen:dry:

Windows does start, but everything is DEAD slow. For example right clicking and the menu would pop up 3 seconds later. Closing Firefox and going back to desktop takes about another 5 secs. And when I ran PC probe,RAM, CPU, and mobo seemed fine so it had to be the gfx card. So I used dxdiag and under display it said my video memory was not applicable:frusty: and that Direct3D and AGP texture acceleration were non-existent.:huh: Bad/Corrupted memory? Most likely.

I did try underclocking the card, which yielded no improvements. Anyone know how to isolate the bad memory and fix the card?

Btw I'm still using the same gfx card, and it took about 30 secs to scroll from the top of this tread to the bottom:angry:
03-31-2007, 03:28 AM
S!X

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

That doesn't look healthy at all :ermm:
03-31-2007, 03:46 AM
Shiranai_Baka

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Holy crap, that is one of the worst artifactings(?) I've seen in a while. Gives me the goosebumps. Don't you have a warranty on your card?
03-31-2007, 04:17 PM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Nope, I don't have the warranty anymore?:frusty:

Just ordered an eVGA 7900GS KO edition tho, for $169.99. Sweet deal.
03-31-2007, 05:18 PM
Colt Seevers

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Nae luck!

I have had similar display issues, I think it's corrupted memory that causes those lines... stupid ATI Sapphire piece of shit. :( Won't be using them again.
03-31-2007, 07:50 PM
S!X

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seedler

Nope, I don't have the warranty anymore?:frusty:

Just ordered an eVGA 7900GS KO edition tho, for $169.99. Sweet deal.

Good stuff! :D
03-31-2007, 11:15 PM
Ludvig

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Will you power supply follow ?
04-01-2007, 01:42 AM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ludvig

Will you power supply follow ?

485W Twin 12V Rail at 32A should suffice.
04-01-2007, 11:46 PM
Ludvig

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

How many devices on usb ,Seedler ?

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/7...0911/13041.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/7...0911/13044.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/7...0911/13043.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/7...0911/13042.png

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2835&p=12

Sounds very good anyways ! :)
04-03-2007, 02:53 AM
Seedler

Re: Gfx card died...Need New

Thx for the benchmarks! I think I should be fine.

Only a mouse, a wireless G adapter, and a webcam on USB. The occasional jump drives as well, but as I'm not planning on any major upgrades after this one I should be fine in terms of my decent PSU.