Dead 8800GTX - What to replace it with?

[Lodger]

Hi all,

So last night I fire up COD4 (I'm sooo addicted to that game), join a server and bang - lots of screen corruption, Vista attempts to reset the nVidia driver and fails so I'm presented with a nasty bluescreen of death. Upon reboot the POST screen also shows corruption with garbled text and lines/artifacts all over the screen. A hard reboot later, I'm back into Windows, fire up Left 4 Dead and the same thing.

An analysis of the crash dump shows nothing more than a timeout waiting for the driver to respond to a reset. So I can only assume my card is dead, probably due to overheating with it being the middle of summer.

My CPU is watercooled but I guess the airflow in the case just isn't good enough to extract the amount of heat this card kicks out under load.

So the big question is - What do I replace it with? I bought the GTX for just shy of £300 so it's getting on a bit now. I don't really want to spend that much on a card again but I've not looked at the Gfx Card market for a while so I'm a bit out of touch. I've heard good things about the ATI HD 4870 but I could use some expert advice.


My System:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400 (3.21GHz)
6Gb DDR2
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
Thermaltake Kandalf LCS case
Vista 64 Ultimate Edition

 

[Lodger]

It's an XFX 8800 GTX. The vents are nice and clean but the problem still persists. I can't find the warranty card (everything else but), however looking at the XFX site regarding warranties, it looks like a dead end.

I've also just realised that ATI Crossfire is out of the question unless I upgrade my Mobo as it only supports SLI (the clue was in the name!). So I'm stuck with nVidia as I can't afford to replace both.

 

[Lodger]

Today, I will be mostly gaming at 1680x1050 (least until I get a new monitor). In terms of budget, I'm willing to spend up to £250 on a card as long as: It's worth it - I won't have to upgrade for a long while - I'm not going to have any compatibility issues.

I will admit to turning into a bit of a power hungry monster when I get the opportunity to upgrade, so the HD 4870 X2 is looking very tempting at the moment. However after looking at the ATI 4890 & GTX260 specs, the decision isn't getting any easier!

My worries with the 4870 X2 are:

• My OCZ 720W PSU will hack a hairball if I throw this card at it
• My now 3 year old M2N32-SLI (nForce 590 chipset) Mobo will have compatibility issues with what is effectively a Crossfire card (please correct me if this is an unjustified concern)
• It simply won't fit in my case!

My only concerns with the cheaper options are that in a year's time, I'm going to need another upgrade.

I also see that the general concensus is to go with ATI instead of nVidia. I've always been an nVidia fan to be perfectly honest, although thinking back now, this is the third nVidia card that has failed on me. Do the ATI cards have a better track record for reliability or have I just been unlucky with nVidia? I also have a nagging worry about compatibility issues with the ATI cards with my current hardware, or are these completely unfounded?

Whatever card I decide on, I am strongly considering water cooling it as the pump in my case will easily cope with a both a CPU and GPU. Is this feasable? If so, what is the best way of achieving this? Should I put the GPU block before or after my CPU block? If this is a topic for a separate thread, just say and I'll make another post.

I really hate making these decisions so I really appreciate all of your advice!

 

[Lodger]

Thanks for all your replies guys. In the end I went for the HD 4890 1Gb. The 4870 X2 seemed like a waste with my current Mobo, since I can't see myself upgrading that until I do a full CPU/MB/RAM upgrade, which won't be for a while!

Thanks again guys, I would've been lost without your expert opinions.

 

[Lodger]

Have you seen this: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

You might be able to fix your card by putting it in the oven. Not sure if its safe but hey, someone did it and it seems to work, many others have tried it.

I'm actually considering giving this a go! I guess I've got nothing to lose and if it works then my better half gets a new Gfx card I will of course post the results.

Naturally because I'm getting the 4890, I'm itching to upgrade the rest to compliment it! My bank balance however is saying noooooo. I know there will be a bottleneck with my current mobo/cpu but it shouldn't be that bad should it?

 

[Lodger]

Well I've just installed my 4890 and it's lovely!

I've only tried COD4 so far and I'm getting somewhere between 60/90 fps @ 1680x1050 with everything on full. I was expecting to push closer to 120fps but I'm guessing that's down to my Mobo not supporting PCI-E 2.0. The main thing is it's fast, stable and doesn't bluescreen. Plus now I know which way my upgrade path is going

Not baked my old GTX yet, that's a job for the weekend. but I will post pics and maybe a video depending on how well it goes.

I just want to thank you all for your good advice, I really appreciate it. Now for some serious gaming