PC Graphics Card Suggestions

GWC Community GWC Hive Mind
#1

Okay, hivemind, here’s the deal:

I have an nVidia GT 220 graphics card in my box at home, manufactured by BFG. Last night while using both monitors (I don’t always), both screens began to black out and lose signal. I had Windows Media Player going full-screen on one monitor while surfing on the other. WMP ended up becoming useless and I had to kill its process. Then Windows Explorer crashed and restarted.

I got warnings telling me that the nVidia display driver service kept dying and restarting. Seeing something like this before on my other desktop when the GPU began to overheat, I checked the temperature reading. I was floored when it read the GPU was operating at 145C! I shut the machine down for the night to let it cool and restarted it this morning. It began with a GPU temp reading at about 40C, which is pretty standard for idle operations. Within an hour, it was up to 80C, and this was after doing no graphics-intensive operations.

BFG, the manufacturer, has since liquidated its assets, and gone under, thus providing me no one to RMA the card to. PNY, another nVidia card manufacturer, was offering RMA service at the start of October, but ended it on Halloween.

So it appears I am forced to look at getting a new card. Does the hivemind have any suggestions what I should replace it with?

#2

get a Nividia 460. Anything else is overkill.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333 is what I got

#3

Agreed. If you’re looking for a “latest-gen” card, the 460 is likely the best bang for the buck; the larger ones aren’t worth the price jump. Personally, I’ve stuck with NVIDIA, but to be honest I haven’t had any experience with the AMD(ATi) hardware in recent years, so my recommendation is solely based on my grandfathered-in brand preference.

#4

both ATI cards I’ve had have gone to crap. I’m off their bandwagon for awhile your mileage may vary

#5

I bought myself an XFX ATI 5670 a few months back and I’m very happy with it.

I’d been an nVidia fanboy for the last few years but their last few drivers had been pretty bad so I switched over to ATI.

The new card lets me run three independent monitors and doesn’t get noisy or hot =)

#6

Did you give a price range?

I llke the 465 and 475 over there 460 and 470 counterparts. Factory overclocked performance (and warranty) for a few more bucks. ATI just released their 6000 series, so everyone is lowering their prices now. Depending upon your price point you can really get away with either Nvidia or ATI…

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850,2782.html

#7

by the way, it sounds like you graphic card’s fan has died.

#8

ATI6000 is a joke series. It’s barely an upgrade and a downgrade in some cases

#9

According to a review, 2 6830 or 6850s actually can perform equal to their 5000 series cards counterparts in crossfire. So, it depends on a person’s plans. But yes, single card wise, a 5000 series or Nvidia 400 series is better than a 6000 series.

I myself would get a 465 or a 475 or a 5850 depending on price, brand (preferably XFX), and warranty.

#10

Sure enough, that was the issue. It died in a colossal fashion. At another geek friend’s suggestion, he said to spin the fan with my finger to see if the bearings had worn out. Before I turned the power off, I saw the card’s fan wasn’t even spinning.

I took the card out and tried to spin the fan with my finger, and it wouldn’t budge. One less brand sticker on the fan assembly later, I found that the center of the plastic fan assembly had MELTED! I managed to force the fan assembly free of the electromagnet coils, and saw LOTS of black charring underneath the coil assembly. Long story short, this card is incredibly fubared.

So yeah, with nowhere to RMA it to, I’ll be investing in a new one. Thank you for the suggestions about the GTX 460, it’s certainly looks like a viable option.

#11

Were you trying to load the model for Transformers 2’s Devastator?

“While rendering Devastator, one ILM animator’s computer reportedly overheated, and its internal circuitry melted.”

#12

Fraid not. I was watching an episode of Babylon 5 when it started to flip out on me.