Please help a graphics cards newbie !

Alrik Fassbauer

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Hello, everyone,

I must admit that I'm totally clueless regarding graphics cards. I think that I've missed all of the recent developments; simply because I never needed a new card I had no interest in that at all.

Now I find myself staring at an garbled graphics card output from my "gaming PC", and I don't quite know what to do.

The card seems to be a GeForce 9800 GT card, the manufacturer could have been Winfast, if I remember correctly. It's RAM is 512 MB. But I can't see much anymore, due to the garbled view (used GPU-Z to get this information).

Now, my question is : How expensive are 9800 GT cards nowadays ? Or what would be their equivalent today ?

I just cannot spend more that 60-70 Euros, or I would have to save more money over the next months. (Had I known it two weeks ago, before, my possibilities would have been much better, but now I have to take what I can.)

And, besides, what is the state of graphics cards at this time anyway ?

Alrik

Edit : I managed to get the output of GPU-Z saved because the graphic card's output was stable for a few minutes.
 

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A month ago i have pretty much same situation as you are having; a garbled screen output. My graphics card was the Leadtek (Winfast) nVidia GTX 580.

If the garbled display appear immediately (during boot up) then it is likely due to hardware problem such as your graphic card, not its driver. You could swap in another graphics card to confirm, but if no spare available then better take it to the computer shop to check it up. If replacement required, they would tell you which graphics card are supported by your motherboard.

In my case, i replaced the card with the Leadtek GTX 670, and working great in my PC so far.
 
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Dear Alrik, the following web site is very useful for comparison and latest benchmarks on graphic cards:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

You should click on 'High End Video Card Chart' to mark your comparison and selection.

As for price and performance, ATI cards are cheaper and offer similar if not better performance than Nvidia ones (performance from my point of view).

I hope this helps.
 
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Don't aim too low, Alrik. You're going to keep this card for the next couple of years. At least try to go for the low 3-digits. The reason your 8800/9800 (and whatever else this card was relabled to) served you for so long is that it was a medium price card (100-200€ range), not low budget.
The current GameStar recommendations can be found here.

I have a Radeon HD 6850 with some silent cooling. Not because I chose it, but because it was inside an otherwise perfect PC when I bought it. I've seen no reason to switch cards yet, and I doubt I'll replace it within the next 1-2 years. It's fast enough to play nearly everything @max on a 22" TFT … and probably a lot @max and almost everything @high details on a 24" TFT. Cards on that level can be bought for ca. 100€ nowadays.
The AMD or nVidia question is no longer that important.

You can look on Ebay too. A replacement for your 9800 shouldn't cost more than 30€.

edit:
GameStar recommends (-> next page) a Radeon 6870 for 125€.
 
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Thank you everyone.

Well, 125 Euros would require me to wait about 2 months until I have enough money.
60-70 is the border of what I can manage next month.
 
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About a year back I've switched my good old 9600 GT with GTX560 (someone recommended it on this very forum). The difference indeed is drastic.
However, I must say this, 9600 GT can run EVERYTHING. I've played The Witcher 2 on it without any hiccups (and I don't mean the Dragons character! :)). Skyrim too. Etc. The only drawback is that you won't be able to use high graphics settings in recent games.

If you don't care about everything maxed in graphics settings, I'd say 9600 GT would be a great choice in your case. And it's not expensive at all. And a new 9800 GT can be only better.
 
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What do you mean by "garbled graphics", Alrik? It could be as simple a matter as your card overheating. Have you opened the case and checked that the card's fan is still spinning and that it is not clogged with dust?

If it is indeed overheating, I'd recommend just sticking a large fan on the side of your case for a couple months while you save up enough for an upgrade and not simply another 9800gt.
 
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Well, it *could* be overheating. The temperatures here are very high here right now - but it *started* when there was additionally great humidity, too !

Now I'm not sure whether this was caused by the humidity in the air, the heat, or both - or whether it is indeed a defect !

I have been opening and cleaning the whole PC with my vaccuum cleaner - I do so every 1-2 years, because I do know that here's a lot of dust in the air, somehow. Maybe it's because of the Autobahn/Highway/Motorway here, which is lying behing a bigger wood. There is always dust accumulating, which is why I'm always cleaning my PCs about once in a year why the vacuum cleaner.

The only thing is that I was away on a one-week vacation before the failure.

I'm trying it out every now and then to see whether iot has really something to do with the humidity (and thus going back to a normal state as the air becomes dryer), but on the other hand the heat is very high here now, too.
 
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What do you mean by "garbled graphics", Alrik? It could be as simple a matter as your card overheating. Have you opened the case and checked that the card's fan is still spinning and that it is not clogged with dust.

Drithius brings up a great point regarding dust. I'd get a can of compressed air, and give your computer a good cleaning up if you haven't done it in a while, making sure to get all the fans, including the ones on the video card and motherboard. It's worth a shot, anyway.

I had this happen once where I thought I was going to have to build a WHOLE NEW computer because it kept restarting itself when I played a game that stressed the system, when all it needed was a good cleaning, and it worked fine after that.
 
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I suggest you try a different monitor on it before replacing the card. Bad monitor might be the issue as well. Check monitor drivers and the such if you have not done so.
 
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Personally, I don't think it is the monitor, because i have both my gaming PC and my "main PC" plugged into the same monitor, DVI and VGA, respectively.

The only possibility is that there is something wrong with the cables or the plugs themselves.
But that would be on the DVI side, then.
 
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My investigation goes on.

I had built in a sound card into that PC somewhere during winter or spring - It occupies the only available slot that lies as far away from the graphics card as possible - but I fear that it miht somehow cripple the air stream within that PC ?

In that case I would have to go back to onboard sound again, because it is really the *only* available slot …

The only other possibility would be to turn the graphics card around and use the tiny slot that is located next to the current slot. I don't know what it is … and whether it works. According to Wikipedia it would be - at least it looks so - "PCI Express x 1" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_.28standard.29 - the picture on the right side), but that would be counter-productive, I think. The graphics card appears to be in an x 16 slot right now, and I don't have the feeling as if this would be a good idea.

So, I could try and remove the sound card. Which would be a shame, because it is a really good card.
 
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My 9800GT died YEARS ago now. So did those of 2 friends. Winfast use rubbish capacitors on their boards.

You need to understand "built in obsolescence" is a part of all wares in our society. Why make a kettle last forever when there's more profit in selling you one every 2 years?

But to keep on topic,

Id probably save up and grab a 660ti when they near $300, but if you're making do with a 9800 still, you'll probably be very pleased with a GTX550ti.

You can compare stats here. http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=647&card2=575

I'm personally running a GTX 560ti and on modern games I can NEARLY crank everything. The 1GB ram isn't quite enough… almost though. Max payne3, for eg, will use about 1200MB to run cranked. (570, 580 have this) (edit: I have to run 2xAA and not 4xAA. If i go over the limit it DOES still run but not solid 60fps. Also, I have quadcore CPU which helps a lot.)

But don't be fooled by large amounts of ram on rubbish cards (GT 640 2GB) since they don't have the power to use the full settings anyway. Though for you this card would probably suffice. :)
 
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check radeon 6750 it's around 70 euros so it fits your budget for that money it's very good card

People have had problems going from Nvidia to Ati graphics cards because remnants of Nvidia graphic cards drivers being still left in the system. Like that card can run worse if you upgrade from the 9800 GT because of it. Also that card needs atleast a 450 watt power supply.

I personally have never had problems with ati cards but i never upgrade i always buy a new system.

So my suggestion is go with a low end NVidia card.

Check this thread for the issue:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/351573-33-games-lagging-radeon-6750
 
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People have had problems going from Nvidia to Ati graphics cards because remnants of Nvidia graphic cards drivers being still left in the system. Like that card can run worse if you upgrade from the 9800 GT because of it. Also that card needs atleast a 450 watt power supply.

I personally have never had problems with ati cards but i never upgrade i always buy a new system.

So my suggestion is go with a low end NVidia card.

Check this thread for the issue:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/351573-33-games-lagging-radeon-6750

I switched from nVidia to ati year ago (nVidia 8600GT to ATI 6750) and I didn't have any problems.I just uninstalled any nVidia drivers via control panel first before getting out old card nothing more than that.I even run it on 400 W power supply for few months(I was on tight budget back than) before buying new 600W without any catastrophe occurring(still I wouldn't recommend trying).
 
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Thanks.

By the way, an interesting spelling error I found within this linked ATI Radion discussion :

2. Flush your BIOS with the latest version
 
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Someone mentioned the power supply, which can be an issue especially since you added a sound card already. Be sure to check your systems specs on that before getting a new card.

If overheating is an issue you could leave the cover open. I know a few who opt. for doing that instead of adding fans.
 
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Yes, I'm going to try that.
 
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