DocOpt

Well thats what i think happened anyways, so im going to give a explanation of the symptoms the best I can. while throwing in my specs.

Radeon X1900 GT
1 gig corsair ram (Other is in mail for replacement so normally 2)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 cpu 6400 @ 2.13ghz
ASUS Pb5 motherboard

Noticed it first while i was at collage were its extremely dusty i hadnt blown out my computer in awhile i started noticed my textures going crazy in most games that are above or around the quality of half-life 2 games (CS:S TF2 ETQW even WC3) Did some research found out this is usually caused by temperature issues. Purchased another fan and started blowing the dust out of my computer more often.

But sometimes a game will crash Catalyst control center will pop up and tell me my card has had a error that couldnt be recovered. Also on occasion my computers graphics will go crazy again with the textures were a texture will just continue past were its due and make long lines during the game across my screen.

Basically id like to know if you think my card has suffered permament heat damnage and if not what i could do about it.

Thanks for your time if you need anything else just ask.

Buckets

Did you try taking the card out, blowing out the heat sink and re-installing it? You might also want to do a fresh install of the drivers. It does sound like you might have fried it.

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"

DocOpt

havent taken it out but i have reinstalled the drivers several time with older version ill try that.

Also i guess since it seems that its more and more likely that i did fry it what would be a good video card to replace it will just get that started early hopefully i dont have to listen to any of your suggestionsthough.

Buckets

What would your budget look like? There are a lot of good options depending on your price point. Also, how comfortable are you with re-installing your OS? If you end up with an Nvidia card, you probably ought to do that.

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"

DocOpt

Well Budget isnt nessisarly a problem something reasonable without going to much overboard so half of it wouldnt get used with my current system not looking for a entire rebuild. Havent been in the market for anything for over a year so im not even sure what prices are looking like now.

I didnt try resetting the card yet had some stuff to do. After work tommarow ill let you know how that went.

I reformat atleast once a year so i have no trouble reinstalling my OS.

Long Bow

I wouldn't think you need to re-install your OS but I have never switched between ATi and nVidia. I have switched between different nVidia cards without issue.

What you need to do and is crucial no matter the card is use a driver cleaner program. Have you done that when re-installing drivers? Some require that you uninstall your driver, re-boot into safe mode and run driver cleaner on your ATi drivers, re-boot again and install new drivers. If not you can have reminants of the old driver left, this could even be your problem now?

As for recomendations I would advise you wait about a month. There are new next generation cards being released by both ATi and nVidia within the month. See what card does well in benchmarks and fits your budget. Apparently the new ATi 4850 is scoring the same 3Dmark vantage score as an 8800GTX This isn't even the 4870 or X2 card either, just the moderate ATi card. nVidia will of course have nice cards as well but apparently they are going to be rather pricey.

Again I would try the driver cleaner and wait to see what cards come out this summer first.

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ZaBoo

Did you have a 1900gt revision 1, or 2?

REV1:

REV2:

Revision one had higher speeds than revision two, and a worse fan / heatsync. I had a revision 1 and managed to permanently wreck it. Same deal.. getting 3d video artifacts where geometry would stretch to infinity. If your getting video artifacts, and they are getting more common and common, its probably shot.

As for a new video card, I'd look to see what people have posted around in these forums. Theres lot's of good information.. lot's may come down to whether or not you can bear waiting a few month(s) for next gens.

Video Artifacts:

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DocOpt

Heh those are perfect screen shots of what i see on occasion zaboo. I also have Rev 2. Tried the blowing out the heat sink have yet to play a game though so more info on that to come. As i said earlier havent been looking around the market lately what are the next gen cards going to be priced at the moderate ones that is.

As for the driver cleaner i reformated twice to try to fix this. Actually only once to try to fix it just happened these problems were coming up when i was going to do my yearly reformat then about a week later i did it again in mind to fix this and i installed the drivers one back. So i dont think thats the problem.

Buckets

You really need to give a dollar amount when you say "moderately priced" because that can mean different things to different people. The good news for you is that there are quite a few cards taht perform really well on the market right now in many price ranges.

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"

Steamers

I suggest you clean the insides of your cpu (Take out the graphics card... blow the graphics card slot well), reinstall OS, driver, everything!!! Then play =)

Evo<^|SiNz|^>

I just got a great deal on an nVidia 8600GT 512 GDDR3 from Newegg for $60 bucks, when you factor in the mail-in rebate. Quite a steal. Here's the card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814134039

I realize it's not top of the line and it's the budget card from the previous generation, but it should easily be able to handle any games I throw at it.

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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
- Attributed to General George Patton, Jr.

DocOpt

Yea sorry about that. Id say the 200 area is about as high as im willing to go. Just because id like for it to last me awhile. Steamers already tried that.

Buckets

If you can wait a few weeks, ATI and Nvidia are coming out with new cards and ATI, at least, is rumored to have a really awesome card in that price range. (the 4850) Otherwise, I'd go with an 8800GT. EVGA and XFX have the best customer support. This looks like a really good deal here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130319

Keep in mind, you might have to format and reinstall your OS if you switch from ATI to Nvidia. A few runs of DriverCleaner Pro in Safe Mode might save you from that though.

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"

DocOpt

Alright thanks alot buckets think ill wait a few weeks then its summer i dont spend much time on the compy anyways.

Ill probably just end up reformating.

Buckets

If you wait a few weeks, definitely look at some reviews of the Radeon 4850 when it comes out. I suspect that Nvidia's good stuff will be a bit more expensive and that you might get pretty great performance out of a 4850 in your budget.

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The artist formerly known as "pecker"