So, last night my computer locked up, and when it came back I discovered that my video card went belly up (Blue bars across the screen, random characters on boot, windows deactivated it [as seen through the device manager]). I’m asking two things :
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Anyone know a way to verify w/out having to have a spare on hand? I got rid of all my spare parts when I moved about 2 years ago (just after I built this monster).
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Of the video cards out there, what ones surpass my current dead card in power, but are in the 150 - 250$ price range? (old card was an Nvidia 8800 GTX 768mb card)
I don’t have an answer for #1, but in regards to #2:
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3538&p=2
Also, in the higher end of your budget are the ATI HD 4890 and the Nvidia GTX 275.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539
the 4890 just came out this week, and the GTX 275 won’t be out for a few more.
What’s your power supply?
I’ve got a Corsair 620 watt. I generally stay away from ATI…I’ve had very bad luck twice with them; this is the first for an NVidia card. I think I may try out the 9800 GTX + 1gb card; I can get one for $187 and on Tom’s Hardware it compares favorably to most (and improves on my previous still).
Can’t you get a GTX 260 core 216 for about the same price? This is USD we’re talking about, right?
Also, look at the GTS 250 1GB as well. They’re pretty much exactly the same card as the 9800GTX+. Newegg has them for ~$160.
Performance comparison from Tom’s :