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New card / problem with old one

vreetech

vreetech

vreetech

Associate
Joined
24 Apr 2011
Posts
25
Hello all

This is a bit of a duel post.

Firstly I am having some serious problems with my current card (GTX 280) and it has been getting worse. It will randomly lock up on me and I have no idea why. It started about 3 months back but wasnt a problem (1 or 2 times a week, didnt think anything of it) but now its all the time. When it happens I have no other option but to restart it. It did it several times just loading the PC this morning yet I played Portal 2 without any problems for hours yesterday. There are a few things that seem to "set it off" like falling in water or smashing glass in any source engine game, immediate lock up. Crysis 2 will just lockup after about a min or two of play. Some games like Oblivion / Fallout etc will crash at random. Yet others like Dawn of War and EVE I can run for hours without a hitch. I have reinstalled the drivers (complete removal first) and still no fix. All my other drivers are up to date and I have checked the temp, 52c idle, around 70 - 80c under load. Here is a picture of the aftermath.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I hope someone can shed some light on this. Rest of the pc specs are-

Intel i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz (stock, not OC)
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
Corsair DDR3 (6 gig of)
Corsair 750w PSU
Geforce GTX 280

Running Windows 7 (64)

My second questions rather relies on answers to the first. If indeed my card is "nackered" then I am in the market for a new one. What would people recommend? Price range is £200 ish but id rather spend less if i can. I like the look of these-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-077-GI
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-064-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

I dont know a great deal about these new cards, havent been keeping track of them so your help would be much appreciated.

Well I think thats about it. Sorry for the long post but I would rather post as much info as possible.

... please help :(

Regards
vreetech
 
Last edited:
RMA the card if you have warranty, or if you want to get a new one, i'd avoid the 560Ti until the price comes down,

the two best options for £200 cards atm are:


the 480:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750


Or a 6950 that can unlock to a 6970:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752


or even a 6950 that cant unlock is great, this is amazing value:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-028-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

if i had to choose, i'd get the 6950 and unlock it, as im pretty sure a 6970 outperforms a 480, but if i was on a budget i'd have the HIS 6950, at £180 its amazing WITH 3 free games... although it only has 1GB VRAM it'll be fine unless wou want to run more than one screen,
 
Thanks for the replies all. I think the card is just (and i mean by a month) out of the warranty. I also wouldent mind a bit of an upgrade.

After looking at the cards people have posted im confused a bit. With the Nvidia cards you would think higher number is better, but it isnt necessarily :mad:

How come the 550Ti is so cheap? Are they any good? I should have said that my maximum is £200 and I would rather spend less than more if I can help it. As long as I get a half decent card that is better than my current I would be happy with that. I think the rest of my system isnt exactly great so it would probs bottleneck any high end card anyway.

Regards
vreetech
 
This is the Anandtech bench if you want to see some comparisons between cards: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188

And also an i7 won't bottleneck a high end card for a long time yet, it's a great cpu and will be for quite a long time, you have a very good system. Looking into overclocking if you want more performance, the 920 is a great overclocker and it should be relatively simple to get to 3.5Ghz+ provided you have sufficient cooling.

EDIT: I also recommend this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-028-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752
 
Thanks for the Anandtech link, its very usefull.

I take it from the way people are linking cards that the verdict is that mine is nackered?

Looks like the Radeon cards are getting a lot more hits. I have never had a Radeon, always stuck with Nvidia, dont know why. Is there any great difference between the two?
 
Very much looks like it's knackered. :) If it was a drivers or power related issue, it would most likely black or blue screen, crashing the whole PC. :)
 
Kaeo said:
Very much looks like it's knackered. :) If it was a drivers or power related issue, it would most likely black or blue screen, crashing the whole PC. :)
Click to expand...

The screen will turn like the picture i posted, sound will stutter for about 2 or 3 seconds then it will be locked up. Only restarting (and profanity) helps.
 
Not much use to you but my GTX 280 has just started doing exactly the same thing. Like you I can play games like Eve for hours without a hitch. Yet other games locks ups every time within minuets.
 
Pottsey said:
Not much use to you but my GTX 280 has just started doing exactly the same thing. Like you I can play games like Eve for hours without a hitch. Yet other games locks ups every time within minuets.
Click to expand...

Yer im struggling on for the time being, the longer you wait the cheaper the cards get :D . I will mosty likely end up running it into the ground before getting a new one. Not the best idea but the cheapest.
 
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