rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 I've been having some serious issues lately with my video card fragmenting & freezing up during game play. I'm not positive the issue is the card & I'm borrowing one from a friend to find out for sure, but it's looking like I will have to find a replacement for my "ancient" 7900GT. The problem is now it is really difficult to find cards that are just PCI Express x16 & not 2.0 so that I do not have to replace my motherboard as well. So far the best card I can find for under $100 is this EVGA 8600GTS from Newegg. At under $50 it sounds like a pretty good deal & would run anything I would be playing for a while, but I just get the feeling there has got to be some much better options out there. The few 8800 cards that I could find are still around the $200-$300 range which is outrageous considering how they compare with the newer cards. I've found a couple of 9500 cards, but they don't look to be as good as the 8600 & I've found no 9600's at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Every PCI-E card on the market today will work in a PCI-E x16 slot. Don't sweat the 2.0 thing. The only advantage to the PCI-E 2.0 slots is more theoretical bandwidth available and more power available through the bus. Since every modern card that requires more power than the original slot had, supplements it with a direct connection to the power supply, this is a non-issue. And with the exception of the top dual GPU boards, nobody is saturating the original bus bandwidth yet. Two questions: What's your budget and do you have a chipset preference? Every board you've listed above is an Nvidia based board. Do you prefer these or is an ATI board an option? There are lot's of very good boards available today in every price bracket. You should be able to get a much better board than those listed above for a good price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 (edited) Every PCI-E card on the market today will work in a PCI-E x16 slot. Don't sweat the 2.0 thing. The only advantage to the PCI-E 2.0 slots is more theoretical bandwidth available and more power available through the bus. Since every modern card that requires more power than the original slot had, supplements it with a direct connection to the power supply, this is a non-issue. And with the exception of the top dual GPU boards, nobody is saturating the original bus bandwidth yet. Two questions: What's your budget and do you have a chipset preference? Every board you've listed above is an Nvidia based board. Do you prefer these or is an ATI board an option? There are lot's of very good boards available today in every price bracket. You should be able to get a much better board than those listed above for a good price. I thought I'd read or heard somewhere that the 2.0's were not back-compatible with the straight x16. If that's not the case that makes a big difference. I'd prefer to keep it around the $75 range, definitely not over $100. I'd also like to stick with Nvidia partly because that is what I am more familiar/comfortable with, but mostly because I don't want any compatibility issues & be forced into having to replace any other components. Below is what I currently have, I have the processor overclocked to 3.0GHz but the video card is running at stock. I started to OC my video card as well only slightly, but the problems were beginning to occur well before that, didn't change during the OC & have progressively gotten worse with no apparent relation to my tinkering. Case COOLER MASTER CAC-T05-WW Centurion 5 Mid Tower Case PSU Coolmax CX-500B 500W Silent Switching Power Supply w/120mm Silent Fan Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Memory Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Video Card MSI NX7900GT-VT2D256E HD GeForce 7900 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/Dual DVI, VIVO & HDTV-Out Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer Edited April 13, 2009 by rajncajn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 (edited) I find it hard to believe the 7900 is having troubles. What use does it have? Gaming, DVD play back, High Definition play back? I don't think the 7000's series have HA (Hardware acceleration) but it should not be choppy since you have a decent dual core processor. ETA: I don't think the 8600 is better than the 7900 in terms of gaming (in terms of video playback, perhaps). Edited April 13, 2009 by MrTed46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Irish Doggy Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 I thought I read that you can put a PCIe 1.0 card in a 2.0 slot and it should work, but not a 2.0 card in a 1.0 slot. But I did some more reading, and you are right, Smithkt... Learn something new every day at the Huddle. Power could still be a concern, I know all 2.0 cards need extra power, but a lot of the 1.0 cards do not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 I find it hard to believe the 7900 is having troubles. What use does it have? Gaming, DVD play back, High Definition play back? I don't think the 7000's series have HA (Hardware acceleration) but it should not be choppy since you have a decent dual core processor. ETA: I don't think the 8600 is better than the 7900 in terms of gaming (in terms of video playback, perhaps). Gaming is the only place I have troubles with it for the most part, but I do notice pixels flickering during other use. If the borrowed video card runs smoothly then I'll try reformatting/reloading to see if that fixes the problem. Tonight when I get home I'll post some screen shots from CoD 4 to show what I'm dealing with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Gaming is the only place I have troubles with it for the most part, but I do notice pixels flickering during other use. If the borrowed video card runs smoothly then I'll try reformatting/reloading to see if that fixes the problem. Tonight when I get home I'll post some screen shots from CoD 4 to show what I'm dealing with. Did you try lowering the settings on COD4? Does this still happen? Does this happen when its being used lightly? (For example, during a DVD movie playback) Did you try updating to the newest drivers (also your motherboard BIOS/Drivers). I really have a hard time saying that a new card will fix your problems. The 7900 is still a good card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 I don't think the 7000's series have HA (Hardware acceleration) but it should not be choppy since you have a decent dual core processor. ETA: I don't think the 8600 is better than the 7900 in terms of gaming (in terms of video playback, perhaps). Actually choppiness isn't a problem at all. In fact, at the resolution I usually play at (800x600), I can get up to 200FPS, which is good for any card especially one a few years old. I've always kept my game settings down as low as I can stand to get better game play as the "prettiness" isn't as important to me. The only way I can describe what happens is the game geometry sometimes flickers & often extends into infinity, often blocking my view. Most of the time I can fix it temporarily by tabbing out of the game, but usually 1-3 times during the game I have to crash out or just reboot altogether because the game is frozen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Actually choppiness isn't a problem at all. In fact, at the resolution I usually play at (800x600), I can get up to 200FPS, which is good for any card especially one a few years old. I've always kept my game settings down as low as I can stand to get better game play as the "prettiness" isn't as important to me. The only way I can describe what happens is the game geometry sometimes flickers & often extends into infinity, often blocking my view. Most of the time I can fix it temporarily by tabbing out of the game, but usually 1-3 times during the game I have to crash out or just reboot altogether because the game is frozen. This to me sounds like a driver problem or faulty card. I am no expert (I like to pretend), but I think the 7900 should be able to handle COD4 especially on mediocore settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 (edited) Did you try lowering the settings on COD4? Does this still happen? Always play on low settings, also tried the default & high settings with the same results. Does this happen when its being used lightly? (For example, during a DVD movie playback) The only other time it has frozen up was when the girls were playing one of their full-screen games. Did you try updating to the newest drivers (also your motherboard BIOS/Drivers). I haven't gone that route yet, but planned to when reloading the PC. Still, I don't see how all-of-a-sudden the drivers that were working before suddenly don't now. I really have a hard time saying that a new card will fix your problems. The 7900 is still a good card. I do love the card & it certainly has a few good years left on it, so I want to try every option I can before replacing it. I'd rather wait a while & build a new system rather than buy a piece just to get my by now. This to me sounds like a driver problem or faulty card. I am no expert (I like to pretend), but I think the 7900 should be able to handle COD4 especially on mediocore settings. I've been playing it since it came out & CoD 2/Oblivion before that & it has always run like a champ. I'll try the drivers tonight & see if that changes anything. Edited April 13, 2009 by rajncajn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 (edited) deleted double post Edited April 13, 2009 by MrTed46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Always play on low settings, also tried the default & high settings with the same results. The only other time it has frozen up was when the girls were playing one of their full-screen games. I haven't gone that route yet, but planned to when reloading the PC. Still, I don't see how all-of-a-sudden the drivers that were working before suddenly don't now. I do love the card & it certainly has a few good years left on it, so I want to try every option I can before replacing it. I'd rather wait a while & build a new system rather than buy a piece just to get my by now. I would try updating the drivers. Sometimes that fixes certain problems, but regardless, new drivers are supposedly going to make your card more efficient and less buggy (can't hurt). Last question, does this problem occur at random? Or does it occur usually like after 5, 10 minute of gametime? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 I would try updating the drivers. Sometimes that fixes certain problems, but regardless, new drivers are supposedly going to make your card more efficient and less buggy (can't hurt). Last question, does this problem occur at random? Or does it occur usually like after 5, 10 minute of game time? Pretty much immediately upon joining a game & constantly a problem during play with varying degrees of the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Irish Doggy Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Check to see your directx is up to date as well. I had to do both on my comp a couple months back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Pretty much immediately upon joining a game & constantly a problem during play with varying degrees of the issue. Could be a heat problem. Once you enter a game and the card shifts from 2D to 3D rendering, the GPU can start to crank heat. Artifacting is usually what happens followed by a crash. Check for dust buildup in the fan and the heatsink. Blow it out. If your really comfortable with electronics, you could even try to remove the heatsink and reapply some thermal paste. That stuff doesn't last forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 I've had the fan blowing the GPU break and needed to be replaced. Good point by smithkt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 Could be a heat problem. Once you enter a game and the card shifts from 2D to 3D rendering, the GPU can start to crank heat. Artifacting is usually what happens followed by a crash. Check for dust buildup in the fan and the heatsink. Blow it out. If your really comfortable with electronics, you could even try to remove the heatsink and reapply some thermal paste. That stuff doesn't last forever. I've got some paste & have installed an upgraded heat sink on my processor before so that's not a problem. I'll dust it out real good too. I have a filtered case though, so that wasn't my first thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 What Brand card are you using? I'm borrowing one from a friend to find out for sure, Until you do that, everything else is a waste of time. You need to test with a diff card to nail down the culprit. Stick to a good brand, MSI and XFX make the best HSF IMO. Get a 9600GT and be done with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 (edited) What Brand card are you using? Until you do that, everything else is a waste of time. You need to test with a diff card to nail down the culprit. Stick to a good brand, MSI and XFX make the best HSF IMO. Get a 9600GT and be done with it. Mine is an MSI & I agree, up until now it has been an outstanding card. I'll go ahead & try the other suggestions until I get the loaner just because they are possibilities that could save me a buck. If the problems persist even with the borrowed card I'll reformat (which I'll probably do anyway) & take it from there. If it's not a software based problem then I would guess the card is the likely culprit. Edited April 13, 2009 by rajncajn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 If the problems persist even with the borrowed card You also need to try a diff PS, and a PCI card if you can. Otherwise you are just guessing. Does any other game do this, or just this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 You also need to try a diff PS, and a PCI card if you can. Otherwise you are just guessing. Does any other game do this, or just this one? PS? It has done it with one of the kids full screen games as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 PS? It has done it with one of the kids full screen games as well. PS=Power supply. H8? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 Dust As expected the inside of the case was relatively dust free. I blew out the entire case anyway & held the vacuum up to it to pick up what flew which is what I typically do when I clean the case. I sprayed the fans as usual & vacuumed the filters on the front. Then I decided to go an extra step & remove the video card to blow out the contacts & get a better shot at the card. I blew off the fan of what little dust was there & it seemed like that was it. Then I blew on the side of the coil & a little dust came out. Then I ran the air along the coils & huge chunks of compacted dust starting coming out. . I gave it a thorough blast & plugged it back in & now it's looking like no problems once again. A little more testing & I'll be satisfied enough to call off the hunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 I guess that might not have been such a waste of time after all. Looking forward to the follow up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Looking forward to the follow up... +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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