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opinions for replacement graphics card please?
Hi,
Im just looking for some advice.
I currently have GeForce 7900 gtx which is about 2.5 years old. I currently use Win XP pro, but could use Vista if I had to.. (dont really like Vista ) and I have 2 gb RAM.
I think the card is starting to be on its way out as I have intermittent problems (can hardly play Lotro at all)
EQ2 has been alright but recently noticing some tearing in the graphics. Have done all the relevant driver cleaning and reinstalling in safe mode. What has made me think its the hardware itself is that I get occasional horizontal lines moving from the bottom to the top of the screen even during boot up. I read that this is likely to be hardware than software, so thought Id start sussing out new cards.
Trouble is I am a student and on a tight budget, so is there any card which would not break my bank but would let me play these games well enough?
Thanks for input 
Comments
The 7900 GTX is still a good graphics card but if you want a new one that would give you some amount of performance gain to validate the spending of money then you should go for the 9800 GTX+ it will also possibly come in March renamed as the GTS 250.
So the bottom line is: if you can't afford to buy what I mentioned then don't bother to upgrade yet because the 7900 GTX is still a good graphics card.
Is your graphics card overclocked?
If so then set it back to it's original setting.
You could also carefully remove the fan and apply some more thermal paste.
Avoid those thermal pastes that contains aluminium because that could fry your graphics card if not being extra careful when applying it.
Thanks Jefferson for your reply,
I will check on the price of that one, the card is not overclocked, been using it at default settings.
As far as using thermal paste, Ive never done that sort of thing before, I will check on that as well
I had the 7900GTX and like you but with me after having it about 1.5 years I noticed tearing and graphical errors and similar lines you speak of poped up with several games where certain games I didn't have a problem, I brought the card to my favo. comp. shop, they checked it out and noticed that the card was busted, they replaced it for a 7950GT/512 as they didn't have the 7900GTX anymore.
So I fear it's your card and not some driver issue as your issue seems to be very indentical to mine when I had that card, question is it a ASUS card? if so try contacting them, my comp.store is a ASUS dealer, the reason why my problem was fixed very quickly.
Its not an ASUS card although it is on an ASUS motherboard.... its and INNO (Ithink)
I had the PC built at PC specialist ... maybe I will contact them and see what they suggest?
It depends really on your budget, and what you want out of the card.
Myself, I've just got a radeon HD 4670 to replace my failed geforce 7800GT. The raw performance is a little bit behind my old card, but I can get away with having a few more fancy features enabled, and better textures due to the increased texture memory. It plays lotro at 1280x1024 with everything on full, and it's been perfect so far, the only slow down is from the hdd loading the next area in, and that only lasts a couple of seconds. The 4670 is at the bottom end of what is a reasonable gaming card, anything below is going to need a lot of things turning off to get it to run. My 4670 cost me around £60 including delivery, so for a budget, it's not a bad choice.
If you can afford to go a bit higher, but not that much more, then something like the geforce 9800GT will offer a bit more performance, but will probably be around the £100 mark. From there, you can just keep throwing more and more money in all the way up to £400. For a budget though, I'd personally say 9800GT if you can afford it, or higher if you can stretch, but if you need a really low budget card, the radeon 4670 has the bottom end recommendation.
------------------------------
Currently playing: Rift
former player of: DAoC, Everquest 2, Guild Wars, SWG (pre-NGE), WoW, Warhammer online, LotR:O
I think the HD4670, HD4830, and the HD4850 are the ideal graphics cards to aim for when you are on a budget. The problem with the 9800GT is that its tech is more dated and the HD4830 will beat it out performance wise. I would say upgrade your ram first though since ram is cheap and upping to 3~4GB will have an impact over 2 GB.
Why are you giving bad advice to the poor lady?
Everyone knows about the bad quality of the ATi drivers.
So don't push a shoddy product on an unsuspecting buyer.
Just hush now, Cleffy.
And it's the 9800 GTX+ and nothing else.
Fast and simple.. depends on yout definition of "low budget". If you dont want to spend at least $250 you better keep your 7900GTX a bit more.
Personaly I prefer nVIDIA over ATI and when buying a nVIDIA you must check the following:
- Using a 9800 as an exemple.. the 9 is the card's generation and the 800 is what you can call "model" or "brand". Now, a 9300 (low brand) aint really worth the low $ you pay.. a 9600 is a medium brand and well, might be a bit better then a 7900 but not that good overall.. you should never pay lets say $500 for a graphics card since sooner or later it drops to a more acceptable price, but $200~$250 for a high brand like a 9800GTX+ or a GTX260 is a well invested money since you will be able to play basicly all with high or almost high settings.
I dont simply say you'll play all at high because nowadays.. there are more factors to be taken into account.. a Dual Core CPU for exemple is a must.. if possible, a Quad Core. A good motherboard with PCI-Ex 2.0 (although not totaly necessary since a 9800GTX+ that uses PCI-Ex 2.0 works very well on a PCI-Ex slot), just uses half bandwidth which goes unnoticed on most games, only the ones that push your computer to the limit will lose performance from this lack.
And well.. 4GB of ram, DDR2 800mhz minimum is also a good idea, getting 2x 2GB is better since you can setup it in dual-channel easily.
Main point.. keep your money if you aint thinking on a $250 at least. paying less 80$ for a medium card, although a bit better then a 7900GTX, aint that worth it.. I know it, I've went from 1x 6600GT to 2x 6600GT in SLI to a 7950GTX and finaly to a GTX260 (which is a bit better then a 9800GTX+ but basicly the same).
HA! And dont get a card based on "it has more RAM, it's good".. that's crap.. I knew a guy that bought a 8500 that had 1GB of RAM and my 7950GTX with 512MB beated the crap outta it.
You should check out this article at Tom's hardware, they keep monthly list of best video card for the money at different price ranges: www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118.html
As for ATI drivers, I recall them having some issues in WoW a few years back around when the 9800 came out but I picked up an ATI HD3870 and haven't had any problems. They used to have an interesting setting in the driver to apply sepia-tone, embossed, chrome and other special effects but those don't exist anymore. The ATI HD line all have hardware acceleration for movie codec decoding which was a big plus, where as NVIDIA only had that on the 8800gt at the time (all GeForce 9 series and higher do hardware h264 decoding).
NVIDIA has had their share of problems too ($200 million loss for faulty chips lol?) so I wouldn't say one brand is straight up better supported or more reliable.
I would just find your price range on that list and go with a suggested card
I doubt you would need more than a $150 card for EQ2 and it's a good performance value but around $200 seems to be the sweet spot for me.
Oh I imagine you already did this but you should be sure to make sure the heat sink is air dusted out, a lot of dust on the heat sink can cause it to run hot and give artifiacts and glitches.
If you're playing EQ2, Id suggest getting an ATI unless you can avoid nVidias G92 chipset. It has some issues with EQ2.
an ATI 4850 is a very solid board with EQ2
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
I am thinking of upgrading too , from my 7800gt to a 9800 gtx 1 gig.
Dont forget to make sure your power supply is enough for your replacement.. 500 W are propably the minimun requirement !
Why are you giving bad advice to the poor lady?
Everyone knows about the bad quality of the ATi drivers.
So don't push a shoddy product on an unsuspecting buyer.
Just hush now, Cleffy.
And it's the 9800 GTX+ and nothing else.
bad ati drivers? in 1998, maybe...
Not a single problem with mine, and i've had the card nearly 6 months now. drivers have been good quality, and all gone in with no problems, and all worked as they should.
Nvidia are still the best choice at the higher end, but at the low end, ati have the edge, and they're stable as any nvidia platform to boot.
------------------------------
Currently playing: Rift
former player of: DAoC, Everquest 2, Guild Wars, SWG (pre-NGE), WoW, Warhammer online, LotR:O
4850 can be had for less then 150 bucks. Seen some as low as 125. They are current gen and can play most games at a high Rez. The old 9800 GTX are a steal at 125-135 on Newegg. If you have the 2 six pin conectors to run them. I would avoid the lower end offerings of ATI if you can If you can afford grab a mid range card. It will last much longer.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". No one can stop anyone from pursuing happiness, but life and liberty are said to only exist if they are deliberately sought and paid for".
hd4850. nuff said.
Ohh guys .. a lot of info there!!
Thanks for all that input, I think I might be able to stretch to a 9800 next month after I do a couple of shifts at the local hospital
I will read all this again and think it through more, but from what I have gleaned from it so far ... looks like Id be better going for the 9800 as suggested. The 7900 hasnt quite given up yet so I can make it do a bit more!
Thanks for all your help
I'm glad somebody brought up the PSU issue! It's crazy that folks are just recommending cards without mentioning that you need to buy something that doesn't need more power than you already have or you'll need to upgrade yoru PSU, too. On top of that, there are other issues:
Simply put, you at least need to consider these factors before just plopping in a new card.
FYI - a good site for comparing cards is gpureview.com. It'll let you pull up two cards side-by-side to see how they compare to each other.
~Ripper
I would definately contact the company that build your computer to begin with. They would be able to more effectively tell you what your computer can handle,and if you need to add a new power supply to go along with the video card or not.
The 8800 Nvidia series is very good as well...but avoid the 8600's. They are budget cards...cheaper but not great gaming cards at all and would be a downgrade to what you currently have.
Another thing to actually pay attention to is your monitor's max resolution because the high end cards just go completely to waste if your monitor can't go high enough res to put the card to work (though it doesn't sound like you're going for some crazy $400 card or anything)
My buddy is using a 9800 on a (quality) 400w PS with no probs, the quality of the PS can matter more than the rated watts because some companies use very dodgy rating systems to reach a high wattage value to stamp on the box. There is also a lot of overestimating of PS requirements, a 9800gtx system only draws 265W of power at max load; if you aren't going SLI then a 400W PS technically covers everything except a 4870x2. If you're using a pre-built computer they generally come with low quality power supplies but if you were handling the 7900gtx you should do fine. PS manufacturers don't really have a way of rating the quality of their PS with a simple number so they find it's easier to market higher wattage ratings even though they're usually wasted unless you're really dumping a lot of money into your PC. Though if you do need a new one then I would get a 500w or 600w for posterity
Like some people here have mentioned, your PSU can play a significant part in your choice.
While total watt output is important, for the newer cards, having sufficient amps on the 12v rail(s) is most important for stability.
As for a card upgrade? Like others have mentioned, depends on budget.
9800GT - Basically an 8800GT in 9 series clothes, but still a good card.
9800GTX - Better than the GT, but a few more dollars. Would be my second choice.
9800GTX+ - Best card for the money (IMO). Would be my first choice.
9800GX2 - Best card in the 9xxxx series. Might as well get a GTX260 .
Anyway,
Good luck.
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Why are you giving bad advice to the poor lady?
Everyone knows about the bad quality of the ATi drivers.
So don't push a shoddy product on an unsuspecting buyer.
Just hush now, Cleffy.
And it's the 9800 GTX+ and nothing else.
No, the problem is people who do not know how to install drivers. They do not uninstall previous drivers correctly, thus the issues. I have had ATI for awhile now and never have I had an issue with drivers on my 4850 machine or my dual 4870 machine.
Your advice is bad, saying to get a 9800GTX+ which draws more power, has heat issues and has less tech then a GTX 260 or 280, both of which I would of recomended over a 9800GTX+ for nvidia.
ATI makes a superb graphics card in their 4000 series. The 4850 is capable of playing crysis at max settings at 1680x1050 on a 23 inch LCD in XP with no lag and in Vista all settings maxed except particles effects, around 30 FPS.
A 9800GTX+ seems to be the worst choice for choosing nvidia atm, if you did not recomend a 260 or 280 then sobeit, but I do know those choices I recomended are better then your 9800GTX+.
For a single card solution anyway. www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis/
Who let you in the VIP section?
Why are you giving bad advice to the poor lady?
Everyone knows about the bad quality of the ATi drivers.
So don't push a shoddy product on an unsuspecting buyer.
Just hush now, Cleffy.
And it's the 9800 GTX+ and nothing else.
No, the problem is people who do not know how to install drivers. They do not uninstall previous drivers correctly, thus the issues. I have had ATI for awhile now and never have I had an issue with drivers on my 4850 machine or my dual 4870 machine.
Your advice is bad, saying to get a 9800GTX+ which draws more power, has heat issues and has less tech then a GTX 260 or 280, both of which I would of recomended over a 9800GTX+ for nvidia.
ATI makes a superb graphics card in their 4000 series. The 4850 is capable of playing crysis at max settings at 1680x1050 on a 23 inch LCD in XP with no lag and in Vista all settings maxed except particles effects, around 30 FPS.
A 9800GTX+ seems to be the worst choice for choosing nvidia atm, if you did not recomend a 260 or 280 then sobeit, but I do know those choices I recomended are better then your 9800GTX+.
For a single card solution anyway. www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis/
The 260 and the 280 costs too much money with too little performance gain versus the increased cost.
nVidia have superior drivers that are more optimized than ATi's drivers.
The 9800 GTX+ draws less than 180W on a full load with no overheating issues whatsoever.
But it's good that you buy ATi so that atleast nVidia gets a little bit of competition.
Wow!
Ease up guys. The OP was just looking for advice, and not a Nvidia vs. ATI debate.
Not knowing what the OP's budget is, I tried to keep my suggestions in the $100-$150 range.
I have always used Nvidia cards, so that is what I am familiar with. That's why I didn't mention any ATI cards.
Anyway, no need to make this a debate...
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Thanks guys, the debate was fun though
I dont know that much about choosing the right hardware so its enlightening for me to read these. But as I am on a budget I will have to just think about the 9800gtx+.
I would love a whole new system... but hey as long as I have a computer to use, and can hopefully keep to the same standard that I have had, and not less, then I will be happy.
The things hasnt fried just yet, so I still have a bit of time to ponder on it , but your input was valuable.
Thansk again
Edit : Ohh and since Im not very technical in that sort of thing, maybe you can tell me this too .....
my motherboard is an ASUS P5LD2 SE with a standard 350 PSU + 80mm fan. Would the 9800 fit in there? The 7900 is pretty big too, and would the PSU be ok with that as well? If it isnt ... does anyone want to tell me the ABC's of what to do about it before I buy?
Also I have never taken the 7900 out of its slot, but I have fiddled with other cards in and out like TV cards and reseated the ethernet card. Is it just possible that I might have knocked the 7900 out of the slot a bit? Could that cause these problems, or is it just likely that the card is dying?
Thanks
Another Edit : Sorry.... just keep thinking about things.... what about BIOS? I have never updated a BIOS ... is that something I should think about? I always avoided that ... heard a few horror stories!
I just reviewed some benchmark tests showing that the 9800GTX+ performs slightly faster than the HD4850 in most cases, even at high resolutions like 1920x1200 with some AA, which is where I previously thought the ATI card pulled ahead.
Your motherboard is fine. Flashing the bios isn't that painful anymore, just follow the instructions from the manufacturers site.
As far as power supply, if you will check the specifications on some othe cards that I linked previously, it will state what requirements are needed.
Most (if not all) newer cards require at least 24-26 amps from the 12v rail(s) of a power supply.
Your current PSU should have a label on it that will tell you this information.
Whether or not the 9800 GTX+ will fit or not kind of depends on your case. Is it a custom built computer, or pre-manufactered?
If you haven't already, get some canned air, open up the case, and blow out all the dust.
Whatever you do, don't be tempted to use a vacum cleaner!
If your current card isn't overheating and you still have the problem, it probably is the card.
Go ahead and grab another 2gig of ram. It will help your system out overall.
Hope this helps.
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