Graphics Card dead?

[Bodhi]

Hi folks. I've got a Radeon 9800 Pro which has been superb up until recently I've been getting weird artefacts on the screen. These are there from the BIOS onwards so aren't drivers problems as far as I can see. I can get it working for a short time then I get garbage all over the screen. The problems started the second I finished playing CnC 3 earlier, I quit a game and went back to the menus only to be greeted by nonsense. Any idea what the problem is? And is there any way of fixing it short of a new card?

I'm running an original Radeon at the mo, which isn't even supported by Vista, so I have 0 hardware acceleration at all, and can't even play full screen video without it stuttering.

 

[Kryten]

I'd be sure it's fucked, likely a memory issue on the board and not something that's going to be fixable.

If you can afford the pennies though, since everyone and their dog is opting to buy a shiney new Nvidia 8800GT, if youre just looking for a like for like replacement there's kit like X850s, Geforce 7900s, X1950's etc (inc their AGP counterparts) going for silly pennies at the moment on ebay.
Getting an 8800 myself next week and Im probably not gonna get a buy now price of £50 on my 5 month old 7900GS :/

 

[Ch3tan]

It's going to be pricey going the PCI-E route Bods, and as you are always claiming to be poor I doubt its the best choice. If you can get a x1950 AGP equivalent on the cheap then go for it. I have the pci-e version and it runs everything perfectly.

 

[Bodhi]

Damn I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. Really can't be affording new top of the range graphics cards right now, although I am helped by not really playing games on this rig - it's just for music and video mainly, with a little bit of CnC 3. I'm not going down the PCI-E route as my CPU/RAM/Mobo are still doing the job fine (P4 2.8Ghz, 2Gb DDR RAM, Abit 1865PE Mobo), just need something that will play videos without stuttering, so I guess I'm looking at AGP cards. I've found an Asus X1650 for 60 notes, and an X1950 for 100. Is the 1950 worth nearly double the price for what I'll be using it for? Bear in mind I need a TV-out so I can get movies on me telly (which is a 28" Panasonic CRT, so DVI nonsense, just a proper old fashioned S-VHS or composite output needed) and I plan on sticking with a Radeon.

Oh and as an aside, I plan on also getting an external hard-disk soon to back all my movies and tunes on to, been looking at anything around 500Gb. There's a LaCie one on OcUK for 60 quid, anyone know much about em?

 

[Guest]

i use a lacie terrabyte external hard drive at work, never let me down....