Need a new graphics card, old one died.

**Mathias** · December 03, 2010, 12:37 PM

Hi,
Earlier today, my Geforce 9800 gt 1gig graphics card died (

).
So, I need a new one, but I don't know much about which one I need.
I was happy with the one I had, but I need to see what's out there. A better one wouldn't hurt, but my pc would probably not be able to take advantage of a too good one.

My specs: 4 gig ram
intel Q8200 quad core 2.4 ghz

I run windows 7 64-bit

I need a new graphics card that is not worse than my last one, and on about the same level as the rest of my computer.

Thanks in advance!

**Ishan** · December 03, 2010, 03:51 PM

If you are gonna plug it in this PC then buy something like GTX260, wanna go in advance you could put GTX460 or a HD6850.

While the latter two won't run on full potential but better then the first because they are meant for PCIEX-2.0.

**Mathias** · December 04, 2010, 04:31 AM

Originally Posted by Ishan

If you are gonna plug it in this PC then buy something like GTX260, wanna go in advance you could put GTX460 or a HD6850.

While the latter two won't run on full potential but better then the first because they are meant for PCIEX-2.0.

I think I will look into the first one. I don't I'm going to upgrade my computer for a while, so it will probably be cheaper to buy a better graphics card when that time comes, rather than buy it in advance now.

Edit: Only one net store in my country has GTX 260, and it costs as much GTX 460 does in other stores. I would like a cheaper alternative.

**Freddie** · December 04, 2010, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by Mathias

I think I will look into the first one. I don't I'm going to upgrade my computer for a while, so it will probably be cheaper to buy a better graphics card when that time comes, rather than buy it in advance now.

Edit: Only one net store in my country has GTX 260, and it costs as much GTX 460 does in other stores. I would like a cheaper alternative.

Don't worry about PCI-2 it makes no differance with these types of cards. As for cheaper look at the 5770, 5750 or the GTS450.

**Mathias** · December 04, 2010, 07:03 AM

Originally Posted by Freddie

Don't worry about PCI-2 it makes no differance with these types of cards. As for cheaper look at the 5770, 5750 or the GTS450.

Perhaps this one then: PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5?

**Freddie** · December 04, 2010, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by Mathias

Perhaps this one then: PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5?

I went through the same upgrade process about a year ago (8800GT to a HD5770 - the 8800GT is exactly the same spec as the 9800GT but the 9800 is built on a small process so it runs cooler) and made quite a big impact in terms of performance.

**Zerosliver** · December 04, 2010, 11:46 AM

Powercolor? Never heard of that brand.

Id suggest going with a big brand, like Asus, Sapphire etc.

**Freddie** · December 04, 2010, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Zerosliver

Powercolor? Never heard of that brand.

Id suggest going with a big brand, like Asus, Sapphire etc.

Powercolor are one of AMD's European distributions, there cards came with the same spec and 2 year warranty as you get from Sapphire, XFX, MSI etc (Asus though comes with 3 years but are a bit more expensive as a result).

**Ishan** · December 04, 2010, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Freddie

Powercolor are one of AMD's European distributions, there cards came with the same spec and 2 year warranty as you get from Sapphire, XFX, MSI etc (Asus though comes with 3 years but are a bit more expensive as a result).

I concur with Freddie Powercolor is a reliable manufacturer just like the other ones.

**Zerosliver** · December 04, 2010, 12:54 PM

Pardon me than

.

**Ishan** · December 04, 2010, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by Zerosliver

Pardon me than

.

Never go against Freddie's Green text.

**Mathias** · December 16, 2010, 06:59 AM

The new graphics card is in place, giving me poorer performance than ever

I have had it for a week actually, but haven't played much computer games before now. I played a battle in NTW the day after I bought it, and it worked good then, as I can remember, but having experienced a few moments of lag in Red Orchestra (a very non-taxing game) I suspected something was up. I tried NTW now and it runs with under 20 fps per second. I never experienced any lag with my GeForce 9800 GT card.

What is wrong?

On the plus side, my PC is a gazillion times less noisy when playing games. I never realised that it was my graphics card that made such noise, but I guess it must have been.

**Ishan** · December 16, 2010, 07:17 AM

Which is the new graphics card that you bought over 9800GT? If it's HD5770 then it should run better.
And fps is frames per second so no need to say "20 fps per second".

Anyways i think the old Nvidia drivers might be causing trouble.
Uninstall your graphics driver and then use Driver sweeper to clean all Nvidia and ATI chunks & then restart and install the drivers again then restart again after the installation is complete and see if it fixes the problem.

Moreover i suggest you install the latest ATI drivers from the web not the one that came in the Disk with your G.card.

**Mathias** · December 16, 2010, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by Ishan

Which is the new graphics card that you bought over 9800GT? If it's HD5770 then it should run better.
And fps is frames per second so no need to say "20 fps per second".

Anyways i think the old Nvidia drivers might be causing trouble.
Uninstall your graphics driver and then use Driver sweeper to clean all Nvidia and ATI chunks & then restart and install the drivers again then restart again after the installation is complete and see if it fixes the problem.

Moreover i suggest you install the latest ATI drivers from the web not the one that came in the Disk with your G.card.

I know what fps means. My mind probably couldn't agree with itself whether to write fps or frames per second, so it became a mix of both.

But thanks for your advice, it has improved stuff. I'm still not seeing the performance I want though. GTA IV runs slightly worse than before, and NTW is unstable; I get 20-40 fps, but it makes small jumps all the time. My cavalry teleports itself a small distance ahead rather than run... Same with moving my view around on the campaign map. Rather than moving continuously, it moves continuously alittle, then skips, continous, skips etc.
Highly annoying.

**Big Boss** · December 16, 2010, 10:20 AM

You upgraded from a 9800gt to a 5770?

Did you use Driver Sweeper/Driver Cleaner when swapping them?

**Mathias** · December 16, 2010, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Big Boss

You upgraded from a 9800gt to a 5770?

Did you use Driver Sweeper/Driver Cleaner when swapping them?

Yes and I removed every GPU driver (even to my new card) using driver sweeper and installed the latest driver for my card directly from the ATI website.

**Ishan** · December 16, 2010, 11:15 AM

What's the wattage of your PSU?
Run PCmark or any other benchmark and check the online scores for HD5770 could be that the new card is faulty or something.
Did you checked the GPU temp as well?

**Mathias** · December 16, 2010, 12:37 PM

GPU temp is a stable 38-40 when I'm just surfing on the net and such, goes up to 50-60 when gaming. No problems there.

My PSU wattage is 460, according to the box.
IDK if it has anything to do with anything, but my previous GPU had two power inputs, the regular one (6-pin is it?) and a much smaller one. Both were in use. The new one has only one, so I just removed the second cord the previous one used from my mob. I just figured that the fan on it had it's own power supply.