xt1900 down(?) New card advice required

[Sparky1234]

xt1900 down(?) New card advice required!

Hi there guys and girls.

I’m away from my PC, making a daring raid for supplies in the kitchen. Upon my return, I am shocked to discover that my screen is full of big green blobs, and that Windows had crashed. I restart my machine, and manage to get into Windows without incident. Upon starting my Eve client up, I’m greeted by more screen shenanigans, and another Windows freeze. A second restart proves fruitless, with my screens sitting in power saving mode, and no graphical response.

I have tried shuting the machine down, letting things cool, re-seating the heatsink on the graphics card – but all to no avail. So, my graphics card is dead, right? If so, I would greatly appreciate some advice on my choice for a new card. My old card was a 512mb ATI x1900xt, and performed admirably.

Most importantly, I run dual DVI screens, so the replacement card must be able to support this. Currently, the only game I play is Eve-Online (sometimes dual and triple clients). This isn’t a particularly demanding game, so I don’t need anything too powerful - although, it wouldn’t hurt to have something with a small degree of future proof-ness, and be able to play some of the newer games. Last of all, my PC is on quite a lot, and I will often leave games running while I am AFK. This is infact the second graphics card that has died on me, so I am going to assume I am looking for something that can run safely for long periods of time, at a low power consumption and temperature.

Thanks in advance for any help and adviced.

 

[lukext]

have you got a spare old card to try to make sure it is the graphics card before you shell out on a new one?

if you do need a new card i'm sure a 4850 will be more than sufficient. i would recommended the IceQ4 one. My X1900xt is a IceQ3; its quiet and keeps temps low

 

[ACESHIGH]

As said above a 4850 is a great choice.

 

[Sparky1234]

Ok, I picked up a cheapish 3650xt to make sure it was the graphics card, and not something else. Luckily enough, everything seemed to work fine with the new card. I thought that the 3650 might make a suitable replacement for the xt1900 - but to my surprise, it appeared noticeably slower.

I’m a bit behind on the graphics card market, so I have been reading up on things to try and get a better idea of my options.

The 4850 seems like an excellent card, but I’m really worried about the heat issues. A lot of the reviews mention very high temperatures, even to levels that burn the testers fingers. Without wanting to seem pedantic, I’m not sure if this card is suitable for my requirements. I’ve had two cards die what I believe to be a heat related death, and I have no reason to think that a 4850 wouldn’t do the same in 6 months time. I’m also not sure as to whether just getting one with a bigger heatsink would be the solution either.

What are my other options?

3850 – I’m sure it would be noticeably faster than my old 1900xt, but how much speed would I loose over the 4850? How does it compare in the power/heat terms?

9800gt/8800gt (is there much difference between the two?) Again, I’m sure it would be noticeably faster than the old 1900xt – but not too much of a drop off from the 4850 in performance? What about temperature issues, would there be a noticeable drop from the 4850? There also seems to be a range of memory capacities - is there much of a jump from the 384mb, 512mb and 1gb versions? Are there any 55nm versions on the market yet? If not, is this something worth waiting for?

9600gt – would a good solution to heat issues be to drop down a model of the newer cards? Would this help with temperatures? Would this be much of a hit in performance terms?

 

[kppanic]

If you are deterred from picking up an HD4850 because of heat, you don't have to worry about it as there really is no problem with it as these GPU are capable of taking it. I always see people saying that they burn their fingers touching the sinks or the vrms, but to be honest, that's the way it's supposed to be. You got a cool sink, you've got a problem

Think of the amount of money you're willing to shell out. 4850 is one of the best bang/$$$ cards out there. Whatever you do, do not go 3850

 

[ACESHIGH]

Well the HIS ICEQ 4850 is out and should keep temps cooler than the stock HSF. The 4850 is double the performance (at least) of the 3850 (which in turn is probably 50% or more faster than the X1900). The 9800GT/8800GT are the same card renamed and the 9600GT is slower than these and slightly faster than the 3850, but none of these offer the performance or value of the 4850. 512MB ram is ideal for nearly all resolutions though 1GB helps for say 1900x res and the like.

 

[reflux]

Well the HIS ICEQ 4850 is out and should keep temps cooler than the stock HSF. The 4850 is double the performance (at least) of the 3850 (which in turn is probably 50% or more faster than the X1900). The 9800GT/8800GT are the same card renamed and the 9600GT is slower than these and slightly faster than the 3850, but none of these offer the performance or value of the 4850. 512MB ram is ideal for nearly all resolutions though 1GB helps for say 1900x res and the like.

HIS ICEQ 4850 for win.

 

[psychas]

4850 iceq4 silent blows heat away from case (not like singe slot coolers)

 

[Sparky1234]

Hi there guys, thanks for all the replies so far.

Sounds like the 3850 is a bad choice (with something like a 9600gt cheaper, faster and cooler) - so i'll knock this off the list.

Sounds like its a choice between the 4850 and a 8800/9800gt. I am impressed by the reviews and comments in this thread regarding the 4850, the Nvidia cards can be had for almost £50 cheaper than the ICEQ4. Not that I mind spending the extra cash - but it the 8800/9800 is still significantly faster than my old 1900xt (along with temperature advantages over the 4850), it would seem like a logical choice.

 

[fastwunz]

yes but in terms of bang for buck - the 4850 is by far adn away the best choice. I know what i would do matey. 4850.