Political Crossfire Forums

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:31 am Post subject: What Graphics Card Should I Get?

Well, I think my graphics card is shot. Everytime I move a window on the screen, or scroll through a webpage, all this garbage fills up the window, video, or explorer. It's like thousands of short, horizontal lines. It's expecially bad on forums. I can't even use my 3D Design Software anymore.

I think my graphics card is shot.

It is a Radeon 9800 Pro, with 256 megs DDR Ram. What card should I get to replace it. I want to keep it about $150 bucks though, for now. Can I get something substantially better than the 9800 Pro for that? Some info, It won't be used for gaming. I need one geared toward Multimedia, Video, 3D Modeling and Animation, Macromedia Flash, Photoshop, Digital Imaging, things like this.

What's the baddest ass card for this price range for this stuff? Anyone know what I should get?

David · Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 11900 Location: Louisiana

Have you tried removing and reinstalling the driver first?

PricklySponge · Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 8687

If its AGP you could try this 7300gt

I think it should be fine for what you're using it for. Best to get a second opinon, though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150198

FCTE · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 18697 Location: Illinois

The Grandmaster wrote: Well, I think my graphics card is shot. Everytime I move a window on the screen, or scroll through a webpage, all this garbage fills up the window, video, or explorer. It's like thousands of short, horizontal lines. It's expecially bad on forums. I can't even use my 3D Design Software anymore.

I think my graphics card is shot.

It is a Radeon 9800 Pro, with 256 megs DDR Ram. What card should I get to replace it. I want to keep it about $150 bucks though, for now. Can I get something substantially better than the 9800 Pro for that? Some info, It won't be used for gaming. I need one geared toward Multimedia, Video, 3D Modeling and Animation, Macromedia Flash, Photoshop, Digital Imaging, things like this.

What's the baddest ass card for this price range for this stuff? Anyone know what I should get?

I'd just get something decent for now that will last you the next couple of months before DirectX 10. These current cards will be obsolete when Vista is released.

A 7600GT should be fine and around a $150 price range.

FCTE · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 18697 Location: Illinois

David wrote: Have you tried removing and reinstalling the driver first?

Yeah definitely fiddle with the software first, make sure it is seated correctly also, etc., before shelling out any cash.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:53 am Post subject:

FCTE wrote: David wrote: Have you tried removing and reinstalling the driver first?

Yeah definitely fiddle with the software first, make sure it is seated correctly also, etc., before shelling out any cash.

I did take it out, blow it off with a blower to remove dust, then put it back it. It was fine for about 30 minutes after than, then right back to this.

I did reinstall the driver...but I did not deinstall anything first though. So I didn't think it was software related, but I didn't know if deinstalling would make a difference in this case.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:54 am Post subject:

Also, would the Nvideo 7600GT Beat the Radeon 9800 Pro?

David · Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 11900 Location: Louisiana

You always want to remove a driver before you reinstall them.I'm not sure but if your card uses the all-in-one drivers like mine does then ATI has a tool that will remove any trace of the old driver.There's also an updated driver you can download (It's why I know they have the tool).It's a bit of overkill but I always reboot whenever I remove or uninstall a program and If I'm just reinstalling what was already there then I let Plug and Play do the install but on an update like this I cancel the install (Windows will load a driver that will work until you do the install) and when it finishes booting up then I install it.

FCTE · Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 18697 Location: Illinois

The Grandmaster wrote: Also, would the Nvideo 7600GT Beat the Radeon 9800 Pro?

By far. I had the 9800 Pro before going to my Geforce 6800 and it was a pretty huge difference.

I would definitely try the software uninstall/reinstall route that David pointed out first before buying a card you don't need.

PricklySponge · Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 8687

If the driver reinstall doesnt work, you might as well stick with a 7300GT and save a few bucks. A 7300GT should work fine for you're kind of stuff.

If you think that will be insufficient, go with a 7600GS or even a 7600GT

David · Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 11900 Location: Louisiana

That would be my next step.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:29 am Post subject:

Alright folks, tomorrow I'm uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them. I'll keep you updated.

If it doesn't work, I'll go with the 7600GT then. I can't have mediocrity in my graphics card. 3D Studio Max brings most computers I've ever been on to their knees. It's nice to know I can get a serious upgrade for 150$.

I looked on mwave, and they had all kinds of 7600GTs, seemingly from different comanies. It was odd. Anyone have a link to the proper on on NewEgg or something?

PricklySponge · Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 8687

The Grandmaster wrote: Alright folks, tomorrow I'm uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them. I'll keep you updated.

If it doesn't work, I'll go with the 7600GT then. I can't have mediocrity in my graphics card. 3D Studio Max brings most computers I've ever been on to their knees. It's nice to know I can get a serious upgrade for 150$.

I looked on mwave, and they had all kinds of 7600GTs, seemingly from different comanies. It was odd. Anyone have a link to the proper on on NewEgg or something? Do you know if you are using an AGP or PCI-E slot? You'd be hard pressed to find an AGP 7600GT under $150.

Good luck witth the drivers :tu:

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:27 am Post subject:

PricklySponge wrote: The Grandmaster wrote: Alright folks, tomorrow I'm uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them. I'll keep you updated.

If it doesn't work, I'll go with the 7600GT then. I can't have mediocrity in my graphics card. 3D Studio Max brings most computers I've ever been on to their knees. It's nice to know I can get a serious upgrade for 150$.

I looked on mwave, and they had all kinds of 7600GTs, seemingly from different comanies. It was odd. Anyone have a link to the proper on on NewEgg or something? Do you know if you are using an AGP or PCI-E slot? You'd be hard pressed to find an AGP 7600GT under $150.

Good luck witth the drivers :tu:

Ohhh... :? Yeah this computer is a December 2004 Motherboard, so AGP. (I'm 99% Certain)
I thought PCI-Express was more expensive.

Protostar · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:59 am Post subject:

The Grandmaster wrote: PricklySponge wrote: The Grandmaster wrote: Alright folks, tomorrow I'm uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them. I'll keep you updated.

If it doesn't work, I'll go with the 7600GT then. I can't have mediocrity in my graphics card. 3D Studio Max brings most computers I've ever been on to their knees. It's nice to know I can get a serious upgrade for 150$.

I looked on mwave, and they had all kinds of 7600GTs, seemingly from different comanies. It was odd. Anyone have a link to the proper on on NewEgg or something? Do you know if you are using an AGP or PCI-E slot? You'd be hard pressed to find an AGP 7600GT under $150.

Good luck witth the drivers :tu:

Ohhh... :? Yeah this computer is a December 2004 Motherboard, so AGP. (I'm 99% Certain)
I thought PCI-Express was more expensive.

Old tech usually becomes more expensive than new tech as manufacturers develop more efficient and cost effective ways of making hardware. Also nVidia doesn't sell cards under its own name; it manufactures the chipsets and then licenses them out to third parties to sell under their own name. I can't really tell you which third party dealer is the best, but I'm using an Asus 6600GT and it works great. All I can say is read the reviews before you buy.

Melcar · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:56 pm Post subject:

Are you sure it's not the PSU? You should check that before anything else. Still, given the symptoms in the first post I have to go with overheating, so you can either replace the heatsink or just get a new card.

For around $150 and in AGP these are as good as they get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161032

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122011

The ATI card is better by a considerable margin, and not just because of clock speeds.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject:

Melcar wrote: Are you sure it's not the PSU? You should check that before anything else. Still, given the symptoms in the first post I have to go with overheating, so you can either replace the heatsink or just get a new card.

For around $150 and in AGP these are as good as they get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161032

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122011

The ATI card is better by a considerable margin, and not just because of clock speeds.

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by PSU. I thought I was okay with hardware, but did you mean CPU? What is this PSU you speak of?

And that ATI looks pretty impressive. It is quite a bit better than the Radeon 9800 Pro?

PricklySponge · Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 8687

The Grandmaster wrote: Melcar wrote: Are you sure it's not the PSU? You should check that before anything else. Still, given the symptoms in the first post I have to go with overheating, so you can either replace the heatsink or just get a new card.

For around $150 and in AGP these are as good as they get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161032

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122011

The ATI card is better by a considerable margin, and not just because of clock speeds.

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by PSU. I thought I was okay with hardware, but did you mean CPU? What is this PSU you speak of?

And that ATI looks pretty impressive. It is quite a bit better than the Radeon 9800 Pro? Power Supply Unit.

It distributes power to the parts of your computer. You could have a cheap PSU killing off your graphics card.

The Grandmaster · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:50 pm Post subject:

PricklySponge wrote: The Grandmaster wrote: Melcar wrote: Are you sure it's not the PSU? You should check that before anything else. Still, given the symptoms in the first post I have to go with overheating, so you can either replace the heatsink or just get a new card.

For around $150 and in AGP these are as good as they get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161032

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122011

The ATI card is better by a considerable margin, and not just because of clock speeds.

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by PSU. I thought I was okay with hardware, but did you mean CPU? What is this PSU you speak of?

And that ATI looks pretty impressive. It is quite a bit better than the Radeon 9800 Pro? Power Supply Unit.

It distributes power to the parts of your computer. You could have a cheap PSU killing off your graphics card.

Oh. Okay. I know what the power supply is, but I wasn't familer with the acronym PSU.

Well...the PSU has been fine so far. It was pretty decent quality. I think I might take a small video of what is going on with this thing, and have you guys take a look.

Melcar · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:26 pm Post subject:

Like all hardware, power supply units can fail over time also. You can check them with software programs if your motherboard has the appropriate sensors, or better yet do it yourself with a multimeter.
If you want to go the software route: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
It may not be as accurate as a multimeter, but it can give you an idea of what your voltages are. Look for the readings for the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails and see how much they fluctuate under load (run some graphic intensive application); the values, respectively, must be 12V, 5V, and 3.3V with a +/- 5% fluctuation; if it's less than that (or more) you have a faulty PSU.
If you want more accuracy: http://hardwarelogic.com/news/136/ARTICLE/1143/2006-03-25.html
However, I really think it's a problem with the card itself (overheating or just faulty). As I mentioned earlier, you can try changing the heatsink (the thing with the fan on it) or just get a new card. You can install this http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/ and check if your card is overheating by scanning for artifacts.

Edit: And yes, the X1650PRO is much better than the one you have.