Video card problems - my options (opinions needed)

Eck

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OK, I've been having quite a bit of trouble with my Radeon 9700 Pro video card, and I've tried everything and I doubt I'll be able to fix it with my current hardware. See this thread at NTFS or this thread at Rage3D.

Here are the things that I'm considering doing:

1. Buy a new motherboard, probably an Asus P4G8X, and another stick of 512 MB DDR 3200 (since it's dual channel and has to have two sticks) and then seeing if my card will work. If it does work, I'd sell my Soyo P4X400 on E-Bay. If it didn't... I'd be thoroughly pissed.

2. Sell my 9700 Pro on E-Bay and buy a GeForce 4 TI 4800 (4600 that's 8x compatible).

3. Wait for a few months, buy the Radeon 9900 (r350 or whatever) and then sell my 9700 Pro.

Right now I'm leaning towards #1, but that's nearly a $300 upgrade. Opinions please...
 
512 MB DDR is enought in major cases ..
change it with Nvidia .. ati still have premature drivers
 
Go for the upgrade mate, did u ever try the card in another system?

Skazz
 
Originally posted by Cosmin
change it with Nvidia .. ati still have premature drivers

ATI had some driver issues in the past, but this isn't an issue with ATI anymore.

/Waits for Sazar to get mad and write a page long post ;)
 
Originally posted by Eck
OK, I've been having quite a bit of trouble with my Radeon 9700 Pro video card, and I've tried everything and I doubt I'll be able to fix it with my current hardware. See this thread at NTFS or this thread at Rage3D.

Here are the things that I'm considering doing:

1. Buy a new motherboard, probably an Asus P4G8X, and another stick of 512 MB DDR 3200 (since it's dual channel and has to have two sticks) and then seeing if my card will work. If it does work, I'd sell my Soyo P4X400 on E-Bay. If it didn't... I'd be thoroughly pissed.

2. Sell my 9700 Pro on E-Bay and buy a GeForce 4 TI 4800 (4600 that's 8x compatible).

3. Wait for a few months, buy the Radeon 9900 (r350 or whatever) and then sell my 9700 Pro.

Right now I'm leaning towards #1, but that's nearly a $300 upgrade. Opinions please...

how bout option 4. ? rma the card and get a new one exactly same... perhaps it has been a hardware issue all along ? :)
 
No SkazzyUK, I never did get to try it in another system.

Well, I would do that, but I'd rather be certain the card was bad... yeah.. I know I know, try it in a another system. I would if I could, and I can't seem to find another to try it in. Anyone wanna lend me a harddrive? :D Then I'd try it in my Pentium III system. I could use a bigger HD anyway. Maybe I'll just buy one.
 
Eck

Read your post above and went to the Rage3D link you had and read that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your system. I wish I had it (well, ok maybe a bigger HD). If you had a ge2 pro and a pentium 4 at that clock speed you will not see any improvement in games. You already had more frame rate than you needed. Whether anti aliasing is on or not is settings on the card software and possibly a function of the game.

You did not mention your power supply size. Should be at least 300W with that radeon in there.

You did not mention cooling either. 2 case fans is a good idea with that system. One front, one back. Your system temp should be under 40 deg C (preferable closer to 35 C). Check it in your bios or using sisoft sandra

Assuming the supply and case cooling is ok its gotta be the radeon card. I know lots of people with radeons and no one is having problems.

RMA the card. If you try and sell it and its bad you are in trouble.
 
Originally posted by LeeJend
Eck

Read your post above and went to the Rage3D link you had and read that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your system. I wish I had it (well, ok maybe a bigger HD). If you had a ge2 pro and a pentium 4 at that clock speed you will not see any improvement in games. You already had more frame rate than you needed. Whether anti aliasing is on or not is settings on the card software and possibly a function of the game.

You did not mention your power supply size. Should be at least 300W with that radeon in there.

You did not mention cooling either. 2 case fans is a good idea with that system. One front, one back. Your system temp should be under 40 deg C (preferable closer to 35 C). Check it in your bios or using sisoft sandra

Assuming the supply and case cooling is ok its gotta be the radeon card. I know lots of people with radeons and no one is having problems.

RMA the card. If you try and sell it and its bad you are in trouble.

Woah, woah, backup. GeForce 2 being ideal for games and no improvement over 9700 Pro? I've seen a few benchmarks that tell me otherwise. My frame rate in Splinter Cell was 25-30 the whole time, barely playable. My 3D Mark score was only 4500-ish, 5500-ish overclocked. The only thing good about that card was that it had good drivers and no performance problems. My crippled 9700 Pro still beats it.

I did mention my power supply specs in the Rage3D post. I think it's on the 3rd or 4th page though, not sure.

My SYSTEM temp stays around 28C while my CPU stays around 43C.

About selling it and it being bad, yeah, I would even feel bad. I'd take it back. For some reason, I doubt it's the card. I'm desperately looking for a harddrive to borrow. Heck, I might even buy a new 60 or 80 gig tomorrow.

Edit: And as far as cooling goes, there's the fan on the processor (duh), power supply fan (duh), and an 80 MM Thermaltake Smart Case Fan II on the back. No fan on the front. I don't think cooling is an issue.
 
Option 1 !
lose the soya mobo and get the asus or an abit nforce2 ,
and u need a new hd ! min 80gig maxtor SATA !
first buy the hd and try ur card out on your old system with your old hd and as soon as you got the proof that the problem is not you radeon go and then exchange the mobo in your new system connect the sata and ur 9700pro and off you GOOOO !
 

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