Right now I am using a xfx GTS 250 card, which is breaking down on me (games will hang mysteriously, Portal refuses to run and etc.) As I live at the tropics, and I have heard stories that the xfx cards are usually overclocked by default, I am now shopping for alternative.
Looking for something as good as the GTS 250 about a year ago; it doesn’t need to be the top of line, but yes, do recommend those who allows me to turn up all the settings at max too. Stability and heating management, however, are the bigger issues.
The Radeon 5770 goes for about $160. Great card, should play most games at max settings at 1920x1200 rez or lower.
I would recommend perhaps some cable management accessories and another case fan to help with the heating issues. Just make sure your card/CPU and hard drives are getting fresh air. Don’t keep your PC inside any type of enclosure, or on top of carpeting. And clean it out regularly.
You want to be sure it’s actually the graphics card being faulty before you replace it, easiest way being to test a known good card in your system or testing your card in another system. If the former works, and the card you’re testing has a similar power/heating profile, then it’s time to replace. In the latter case then it’s probably a heating issue you’ll need to resolve.
But assuming you can pin it down to the card, the 5770 is the best deal by far out there in your price range.
Thanks all for the recommendation. Current games like Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 and so on runs fine on highest settings, but Mass Effect 2 tend to freeze (and there is one part where it will reliably hang, which is during the last part of the game).
It hang within 5 minutes of Portal, though.
Temperate while doing nothing is 63 degrees. Will try to get some readings while playing games.