Graphics Problems

[Mama Sumae]

Well I had problems (system details on the left) for a while now, nothing big though, a few artefacts here and there only during games and normally resolved with a bit of rest.

Well today it got much worse, I find it on the desktop and even on the asus motherboard picture during boot.

Shooter Ingame Screen :


lovely isnt it


If I start any application graphically demanding the pc lags quite a bit and I sometimes get those short black screens as if I am changing resolution. I have reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers and even reverted to an older version with no effect.

It seems that my graphics card is faulty, any advices on tests I should perform to make sure? In the mean while I will start looking for a new GPU, what’s the best options going on for about 100£ to 120£?


Cheers in advance.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would first check if the heatsink of your 7600GT is clogged up with dust first. It maybe that your graphics card is overheating. So the first port of call would be to remove any dust from the heatsink using a blower. Also re-applying the thermal compound between the heatsink and GPU will also help.

If the card is still having problems what replacement you get depends on the resolution you are playing at. Since you have a monitor with a resolution of 1440X900 either an HD4830 or HD4850 will do the job well. However for the £25 to £30 difference in prices the HD4830 is better value for money IMHO!!

I would say that an HD4830 for under £90 would be a massive upgrade from your 7600gt :

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?SAP-4830

I would buy the Sapphire HD4830 as it actually has PowerPlay working and clocks down to 160mhz for the GPU and 250mhz for the RAM when in idle. This mean lower power consumption and lower temperatures. It also has a very good dual slot cooler.Most HD4830 cards and almost all HD4850 cards have broken or poorly implemented PowerPlay.

Here are some reviews of the Sapphire HD4830:

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=654

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...re,2098-4.html

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...=629&Itemid=27

http://www.o v e r c l o c k 3 d.net/reviews.php?/gpu_displays/sapphire_radeon_hd_4830_-_budget_overclocking/2

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapp_4830/

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1415&pageID=5842

On top of this HD4830 cards are excellent overclockers too!! If you can get an HD4830 card upto around 700mhz for the core they are almost the same speed as an HD4850.

I would spend the rest of the budget on some other upgrades for your system. I would look at overclocking your CPU a bit. I would try to get it upto at least around 2.4ghz as it will help in some newer games. You could spend £10 to £20 on a better cooler if you do not have one already.

A good one would be the Akasa AK965 for £10:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=608228

Also increasing the RAM upto 4gb maybe useful:

On this weekend's Today Only Scan have 4gb of Corsair DHX RAM for £32:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

You should get better overclocking results if you use only two of your RAM slots. Your system will probably only see 3.25gb of RAM at most but DDR2 RAM prices have plummeted and there is a possibility they may start going again soon as production winds down with the wider spread introduction of DDR3.


Remember you can get free postage from Scan if you are a Hexus member with 20+ posts!!

These upgrades should set you back just under £130 and will mean that you can play most modern games at decent settings.

[Mama Sumae]

I would first check if the heatsink of your 7600GT is clogged up with dust first. It maybe that your graphics card is overheating. So the first port of call would be to remove any dust from the heatsink using a blower. Also re-applying the thermal compound between the heatsink and GPU will also help.

Yep that was the first thing i did, all clean and nice but it wasnt very dusty to begin with.

If the card is still having problems what replacement you get depends on the resolution you are playing at.

when i can 1440*900 its a 19" widescreen. So ATI have taken the lead again is it?

I would spend the rest of the budget on some other upgrades for your system. I would look at overclocking your CPU a bit. I would try to get it upto at least around 2.4ghz as it will help in some newer games. You could spend £10 to £20 on a better cooler if you do not have one already.

A good one would be the Akasa AK965 for £10:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=608228

Well i am using the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with the cpu at about 2.4Ghz (340*7), reverted to stock speeds after this mess.

Also increasing the RAM upto 4gb maybe useful:

On this weekend's Today Only Scan have 4gb of Corsair DHX RAM for £32:

I need a new pc around the house anyway so i will be building a better system for myself soon enough.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

when i can 1440*900 its a 19" widescreen. So ATI have taken the lead again is it?

Read the section in my previous reply about the HD4830. I posted reviews so you could look at the performance of the card yourself. The HD4830 is a good overclocker and when at similar clockspeeds to an HD4850 is only 10% slower. I pointed out the Sapphire HD4830 because it is the best HD4830 out there and has a better cooler too!! For £86 it is great value for money.

Basically with an HD4830 you should be able to play even Crysis and Crysis Warhead at decent settings at 1440x900. I have an HD4830 myself and when the core is overclocked to 700mhz I can play Crysis Warhead at a mixture of enthusiast and gamer settings at 1440x900 and 1680x1050(depending on the section of the game) quite smoothly under XP. At stock speeds I would say that you could play the game at 1440x900 at gamer settings with the enthusiast setting being the highest under XP. Of course if you reduce some settings down to gamer the gameplay should even be smoother!! As long as the minimum framerates in Crysis and Crysis Warhead does not drop under 20fps it is very playable. Anything over 25fps is very smooth IMHO.

[Mama Sumae]

Read the section in my previous reply about the HD4830. I posted reviews so you could look at the performance of the card yourself. The HD4830 is a good overclocker and when at similar clockspeeds to an HD4850 is only 10% slower. I pointed out the Sapphire HD4830 because it is the best HD4830 out there and has a better cooler too!! For £86 it is great value for money.

Thanks for all the links was doing just that, indeed it looks like a great card sadly Scan doesn't have the sapphire model. I was looking for information about Novathech never used it before but prices and shipping costs look quite competitive .

[blueball]

I was looking for information about Novathech never used it before but prices and shipping costs look quite competitive .

I have used Novatech a lot (since early to mid 90s) and never had a problem - good service on the only RMA I ever had to do with them (HDD broke after about 8 months).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Novatech are meant to be a good retailer and they also do free postage too.

[mac124]

Does it do it at post or only in game? If its like it when posting I would definately say the card is fubar, if not is it possible to try it in another pc?

[Mama Sumae]

Does it do it at post or only in game? If its like it when posting I would definately say the card is fubar, if not is it possible to try it in another pc?

Text is fine at post but the motherboard post picture is all messed up and so is the windows start up screen.

Doubt its anything else, anyway novatech opened a new store in Cardiff so i will probably collect it tomorrow this bodes badly to other retailers

[mac124]

Might just be drivers then, as far as i know fubared gfx cards artifact at post too, might be worth uninstalling drivers, rebooting to safe mode, running driver sweeper or similar then reinstalling latest drivers.

If nothing else it will rule that out.

Edit, actually if it artifacts at the mobo splash screen i don't think gfx drivers are loaded then so i'm not so sure reinstalling drivers will help.

[Mama Sumae]

So any other graphics cards to look at with similar price tag (£100)?

[blueball]

Here is the Hexus "What card for what £" thread

[Mama Sumae]

double post. :


Delete please.

[Mama Sumae]

Here is the Hexus "What card for what £" thread

Thank you thats all i needed, ordered already too.

It was either the HD4830 or the HD4850 but the better cooler in the Sapphire HD4830 model took it for me.

[blueball]

Thank you thats all i needed, ordered already too.

It was either the HD4830 or the HD4850 but the better cooler in the Sapphire HD4830 model took it for me.

Glad you're sorted. Nice choice

[Pob255]

Bit of a late posting here, sorry.

The problem you have is the memory on the card has failed.

Check your +12v numbers, if your psu is dieing that could be root cause and a new graphics card could also be damaged. (+/-5% is the ATX standard so make sure it's not dropping below 11.4v)

4850 is overkill for 1440x900, an ati 4830 or nvidia 9800gt are the cards to look at, both will perform very well at that res and should come in at under £100