Graphics card predicament

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Sounds like it may just be overheating, have you checked to see if there is dust clogging the heatsink or to make sure the fan is still spinning?

[flyingbullseye]

Originally Posted by Urufu_Shinjiro

Sounds like it may just be overheating, have you checked to see if there is dust clogging the heatsink or to make sure the fan is still spinning?

Kind of what I thought too. I installed a zelman vf-900 on it, about two months ago and have checked to make sure it still works, everything is fine and connected as it should be. The temps max at 62C and idle around 38C so it can't be overheating. I did buy it off ebay about 6 months ago "new" but even though the box was appearnently sealed I can't be totally sure I am the first owner, lesson learned. Switching to DX mode fixed nearly all of the texture corruption but the water sucks and now have a "wave effect" on the land but its much less annoying than the texture problems.

Irregardless I'd still probably be upgrading anyway (this just gives me more of an excuess) as I plan to upgrade my monitor to a 19" LCD that has a 1680x1050 res and when BIA:HH and COD5 come out the 1950 probably won't play them at a decent fps at that resolution. Both of those cards should and won't break the bank doing it. This sim is the only wrench in the works and just want to know the best direction for money well spent. Its starting to look as if ATI is still the way to go.

Flyingbullseye

[Zoom2136]

My previous cards,


1x ATI 850XT - Great card, had great visual ran for 2 years highly overclocked;
2x 7900GTX OC (SLI) - Horrible just horrible visual, stutters, the works; and
1x 260GTX OC - Just bought this card at FuturShop (Canada) for $269 (evga). The visuals are a lot better than the 7900GTX OCs that I previously had. Still have a bit of weird shadows (they appear weird when displayed over water... like they are made up of lines and dots...) but other than that its great. I think it compares to my older ATI.

All in all I went with another NVIDIA card because I have an SLI MB. But from what I've seen, right now ATI (4xxx) and NVIDIA (2xx) are neck to neck. So its rather a question of personal preference.

I would not go for a 9800GT, this card is already outdated.