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Broken graphics card? Which new one should i go for?

ryu8946

ryu8946

ryu8946

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Joined
6 Dec 2006
Posts
3
hiya guys, quite new to all this, know the basics (put my pc together etc) but the techy stuff seems to be way above my head, so here for advice...first up i need confirmation my current card is completly borked before i fork out for a new one... the situation is as follows:

my pc was working fine, then on switching it on in the morning weird things started happening on my screen... strange green thick vertical lines appeared that covered my display while it was booting up, which remained while it was running... thinking graphics card problem i reset, only to have lots of weird symbols appear during start up almost covering the text, then pc gets to normal display then freeze's and restarts itself, this time screen is full of symbols and random text, then freezes quicker and restarts, this continues a few times...
so i shut down pc and give it a good hoovering (having noticed the 15 tons of dust that had piled up) accidently snapping a fin off the fan on my graphics card.
then start pc up.... power comes on, fans start up, but nothing comes up on screen at all, and pc wont reset or switch off when i press the power button, i have to manually pull out the power cale on the tower.
on my mobo i hav a digital error display, which comes up with error number "25", which my booklet describes as a very helpfull "reserved".
i can pull out the graphics card and i think pc runs normally (no beeps or error numbers, and shuts down when i push power switch).

Now i figure my graphics card is rogered, but cant afford/dont have another card to to confirm it (and my mobo doesnt have an onboard graphics output i can find) so can someone confirm my worst nightmare that my pc is dead? sorry for the longwinded explanation but like i said, i'm a nub and just wanted you guys to know the whole situation.


my full pc specs are as follows:
EPOX 8RDA6+ pro mobo
amd 3000 processor (old socket A 32 bit thingy)
2 x 512Mb ram (running in dual channel i think)
and a (possibly broken) sparkle geforce 6600GT
+ an old 80Gb hard drive which is running fine... tested in a friends pc



Now if the graphics card is the prob i can just about afford a new one, but which one? i have a max of £100 to spend on it and it has to be AGP as i cant afford to upgrade the rest of the pc...
have been looking at getting any of the following:
another 6600 gt
6800 gt
7300 or 7600 gs or gt

not sure which would provide the best value for money? dont think i can get a 7600 gt for under £100, but is a 7600 gs better than a 7300 gt? or are the 6000's still the best "bang for bucks" cards?

many thanks for any help/opinions offered :)
 
Personally I think you'd be better off buying a 2nd hand 6800 or 7600 and saving your money for an up to date rig next year maybe.

As you still have an AGP mobo and all newer model gfx cards are now PCI-E i'd wait and get a new rig. IMO
 
financially a new rig isnt on the horizon for quite a while, well aware i'll need to do a big upgrade at some point but that wont be for a while and saving isnt a strong point of mine :)
the current system handled games fine at the mo so would be happy with another card equal to the one i had, but is the performance difference in thecards i'm looking at worth the extra £30-£40 i'm looking at spending?
 
Exactly the same thing happened to my sparkle geforce 6600GT, so it is definately borked.

I replaced mine with a 6800 GS (unlocked to a GT). Very happy with it, and a good match for your CPU/mobo combination.

I put an after-market cooler for extra cooling :cool:
 
If you can i'd try to stretch to a 7600GT or an X1650XT. They give performance slightly faster than an X800XT/6800U.

Very nice cards.
 
cheers for the opinions people

so it looks like i'm avoiding the 7300 gs and looking for either a 6800 gt or a 7600 gs, doubting i can afford the 7600 gt but will scour ebay etc for a 2nd hand one.
and i dont have a problem with radeon cards, but i've kinda grown up solely using nvidia for some unknown reason and would rather stick with them simply because i have a rough idea of their naming system and dont have a clue with the radeons! :D

anyways, again many thanks, but if someone has experienced this with their graphics card and managed to get it working again give me a bell :)
 
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