8800 GTX is dying + couple other questions

[Draconian Guppy]

I need a suitable replacement for my now faulty 8800gtx. I have this power supply:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151027

 

My other system specs include:

q6600

2gb ddr some corsair ram

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 775 - GA-P35-DS3L

 

 

I can currently boot into safemode, but I can see artifacts since BIOS, if I manage to boot into normal mode it just hangs. I removed completely the video card and I can hear boot up into normal mode without an issue, which is why I nailed it down to the video card.  The card runs perfectly fine in safemode, but this is pretty useless to me.  So which card would be on par with the 8800gtx AND run on my current system?

 

Also is buying more ddr2 be worth it at the current price ratio that DDR2 is at?

 

I don't want to buy a whole new system  up until october this year, so I just need to keep this one up and running for the time being.

 

Edit: Also please make any recommendations from amazon.com as this would be internationally  shipped. (And amazon accepts international credit cards).

[corrosive23]

Amd R7 250

[Phouchg]

You're looking to replace a former hi-end. Something that keeps up with it is probably going to be more expensive than expected despite whole 6 years having passed since G80.

 

An R7 250 or GTX 650 (non-Ti, non-Boost) would be a safe bet - both mid-range "not quite there" cards, pretty much alike (unless you mine guppycoins, then go for Radeon *cough*)

 

Or if you're inclined towards GeForce for any reason, you could probably invest in a superior card already (your PSU allows for, say, GTX 760, although you'll have to use Molex-to-PEG adapters). You'll bottleneck it terribly, but it will fit and run - PCI-Express is backwards compatible (mostly; in very rare cases it won't "take"). Litecoin miners are currently making shortages of high-end Radeons, so that might be worse choice.

 

To additional memory stick - unless you really feel running out of RAM all the time (say - it's paging all the time and hammering your HDD to hell), I'd wait out.

[Draconian Guppy]

Amd R7 250

 

You're looking to replace a former hi-end. Something that keeps up with it is probably going to be more expensive than expected despite whole 6 years having passed since G80.

 

An R7 250 or GTX 650 (non-Ti, non-Boost) would be a safe bet - both mid-range "not quite there" cards, pretty much alike (unless you mine guppycoins, then go for Radeon *cough*)

 

To additional memory stick - unless you really feel running out of RAM all the time (say - it's paging all the time and hammering your HDD to hell), I'd wait out.

The ATI HD7790 seems to be on par performance wise and  has less thermal dissipation.

 

http://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-AX7790-1GBD5-DH/dp/B00C5916O8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390342171&sr=8-1&keywords=ati+hd+7790

 

And the AMD 260X seems to be on par as well:

 

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-RADEON-1075MHz-Graphics-R7260XCNF4/dp/B00FUR6FJ8/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1390342837&sr=1-4&keywords=amd+260

 

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GDDR5-2GB-2xDVI-Graphics-GV-R726XOC-2GD/dp/B00FONIOB0/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1390342837&sr=1-6&keywords=amd+260

 

But how can I find out if my PS has the juice and/or required connector for it ? As both the cards above are missing any 6 pin connectors from what I can see?

[SYBINX]

Why Don't you just get a cheap GFX card for now to tied you over until you get a new PC in October When Windows 9 is ready...

 

I found this on Newegg.com SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6570 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.1x16 HDCP Ready Video Card for $64.99 which is a bargain of a price. and it will tied you over until October. I checked your MB to make sure it had PCIE and it does. For nearly $65.00 you can't go wrong.

[Digitalfox]

Ok, what I'm about to recommend is RISKY!!!!

 

I have a 9800GT on my Home file server, and yes before anyone start's screaming I know it's overkill for something that manly does DNLA, Folder sharing and P2P.

 

Every 5 or 6 months i have to do this procedure for the last 2 years:

 

 

But hey only ? I spend are maybe 5 or 6 ? a year on thermal paste.

 

 

Works perfectly fine everytime and YEP IT'S A NVIDIA UNIVERSAL PROBLEM ON THE 8***/9*** GENERATION.

 

 

It's up to you to try and see if it fixes the problem.

 

By the way everytime my girlfriend watches me put the card on the oven she screams "It's Pizza time with a smell of burn electronics" :laugh:

[Phouchg]

Can't go just by numbers alone. Several architectures have come since G80 and often for the better, GCN taking the lead in that aspect.

 

But, of course, 260X is quite a letdown. In fact, whole Volcanic series seems like a letdown to me. If you see 7790 for a decent price, go for it.

 

Now, R7 250 and GTX 650 do *not* have any power connectors. They have up to 65W TDP each and so can happily live off the mainboard's power alone.

 

Higher cards have the same 6-pin thing. It hasn't changed. In most pictures they're not visible - they used to be at the back of PCBs, but now are on the front side. If you ask me, often unwieldy and often ugly, too, but hey...

 

And yes, your PSU will have enough power. Your old G80 used to eat up to 150W. New midrange cards do not exceed it. See my edit - using Molex adapters you can even run 200W card on that thing and that's high-end already. Power supply calculators are evil.

[Denis W. Veteran]

To echo what others have said, priority number 1 is the PSU. Irregardless of its wattage rating, that PSU is probably at least 5 years old, if not more. Capacitors age and have less capacity than new. If not for supporting the rest of your system, plus your new GPU, do it for the safety of the rest of your perfectly working hardware.

2 GB is too minimal these days. I have a very similar mobo (and identical CPU, for that matter) and I think these things can take up to 8 GB which is plenty - 4 GB at minimum. Seeing the trend of computing these days, there's still plenty of life left in this setup so long as you aren't playing any super intensive games, or are penny pinching on your electricity bill ;)

As for the GPU. I replaced my 8800 GT with a 670 GTX in mid 2012 and things have been butter smooth. Moreso since I threw a SSD in there. I'm willing to bet your card, like mine, has micro cracks in the solder somewhere on the board that is causing these artifacts.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

I don't think the seasonic is going to have degraded to the point where a he'd need a replacement. Capacitor aging happens with high heat more than anything else (or just shotty caps). Corsair has a nice breakdown: http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/capacitor/

 

Also, I noticed his PSU has a MTBF of ~11 years if operated under full load in ambient conditions of 25C (room temperature). So, he should be fine based on those estimates.

[Praetor]

Get a cheap ass GFX and wait until you got more money to make a complete and better replacement; if you buy a high end card now by the time you have more money to invest on better CPU, SSD, RAM and such that card will be old; still capable, but not current gen.

 

Also October is not that far.

[Denis W. Veteran]

I don't think the seasonic is going to have degraded to the point where a he'd need a replacement. Capacitor aging happens with high heat more than anything else (or just shotty caps). Corsair has a nice breakdown: http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/capacitor/

 

Also, I noticed his PSU has a MTBF of ~11 years if operated under full load in ambient conditions of 25C (room temperature). So, he should be fine based on those estimates.

Interesting article. (Y) I replaced my 5-year-old Enermax 485W PSU at the 5.5 year mark in spring of 2011, believing the PSU to not be able to take in future upgrades without failing. Didn't realize until now that this particular PSU also has a ~11 year MTBF (100000 hours). Explains why it's powering a scaled down HTPC build just fine right now. :laugh:

[Draconian Guppy]

Ok, what I'm about to recommend is RISKY!!!!

 

I have a 9800GT on my Home file server, and yes before anyone start's screaming I know it's overkill for something that manly does DNLA, Folder sharing and P2P.

 

Every 5 or 6 months i have to do this procedure for the last 2 years:

 

 

But hey only ? I spend are maybe 5 or 6 ? a year on thermal paste.

 

 

Works perfectly fine everytime and YEP IT'S A NVIDIA UNIVERSAL PROBLEM ON THE 8***/9*** GENERATION.

 

 

It's up to you to try and see if it fixes the problem.

 

By the way everytime my girlfriend watches me put the card on the oven she screams "It's Pizza time with a smell of burn electronics" :laugh:

Yeah I need my current safemode card to last me until I get the replacement here. Afraid I might over cook it! might do it afterwards

 

Why Don't you just get a cheap GFX card for now to tied you over until you get a new PC in October When Windows 9 is ready...

 

I found this on Newegg.com SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6570 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.1x16 HDCP Ready Video Card for $64.99 which is a bargain of a price. and it will tied you over until October. I checked your MB to make sure it had PCIE and it does. For nearly $65.00 you can't go wrong.

Well I want to match the performance of the 8800 gtx as  I don't want to lose my mind not being able to play games at least decently.

 

 

Can't go just by numbers alone. Several architectures have come since G80 and often for the better, GCN taking the lead in that aspect.

 

But, of course, 260X is quite a letdown. In fact, whole Volcanic series seems like a letdown to me. If you see 7790 for a decent price, go for it.

 

Now, R7 250 and GTX 650 do *not* have any power connectors. They have up to 65W TDP each and so can happily live off the mainboard's power alone.

 

Higher cards have the same 6-pin thing. It hasn't changed. In most pictures they're not visible - they used to be at the back of PCBs, but now are on the front side. If you ask me, often unwieldy and often ugly, too, but hey...

 

And yes, your PSU will have enough power. Your old G80 used to eat up to 150W. New midrange cards do not exceed it. See my edit - using Molex adapters you can even run 200W card on that thing and that's high-end already. Power supply calculators are evil.

What had me thinking was that higher end these days have 8 pin + 6 pin connectors.. 

Also forgot to add my main issue with ram, was editing large photos in lightroom, it just eats up ram and hangs the system, but it's not something I do on a daily basis so I guess I can live with it, since ddr2 is not as cheap anymore

 

 

I don't think the seasonic is going to have degraded to the point where a he'd need a replacement. Capacitor aging happens with high heat more than anything else (or just shotty caps). Corsair has a nice breakdown: http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/capacitor/

 

Also, I noticed his PSU has a MTBF of ~11 years if operated under full load in ambient conditions of 25C (room temperature). So, he should be fine based on those estimates.

 

 

Get a cheap ass GFX and wait until you got more money to make a complete and better replacement; if you buy a high end card now by the time you have more money to invest on better CPU, SSD, RAM and such that card will be old; still capable, but not current gen.

 

Also October is not that far.

Not looking to buy high end just something that matches performance without breaking the bank.

[Draconian Guppy]

currently deciding between:

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-Graphics-Cards-VCGGTX650T1XPB/dp/B009L87GSG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1390358146&sr=1-1&keywords=650+ti+boost

PNY GeForce GTX 650 Ti Graphics Cards 

 

Or 

 

XFX Radeon R7 260X 1075MHz 1GB DDR5 DP HDMI 2 X DVI Graphics Card (R7260XZNJ4)

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-1075MHz-Graphics-R7260XZNJ4/dp/B00FSC5MMQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1390357995&sr=1-5&keywords=r7+260x

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-2GB-Graphics-Cards-R7260X-DC2OC-2GD5/dp/B00FW4LF4Y/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1390358586&sr=1-6&keywords=r7+260x

ASUS 2GB GDDR5 DIGI+ VRM technology Graphics Cards HD7770-2GD5

 

 

Thoughts neowin?

[Draconian Guppy]

Also, slightly off topic and kind of beating a dead horse. How come I see artifacts from POST, won't boot into normal mode (win7) but safe mode + networking works like a charm?

 

 

To echo what others have said, priority number 1 is the PSU. Irregardless of its wattage rating, that PSU is probably at least 5 years old, if not more. Capacitors age and have less capacity than new. If not for supporting the rest of your system, plus your new GPU, do it for the safety of the rest of your perfectly working hardware. 2 GB is too minimal these days. I have a very similar mobo (and identical CPU, for that matter) and I think these things can take up to 8 GB which is plenty - 4 GB at minimum. Seeing the trend of computing these days, there's still plenty of life left in this setup so long as you aren't playing any super intensive games, or are penny pinching on your electricity bill  ;) As for the GPU. I replaced my 8800 GT with a 670 GTX in mid 2012 and things have been butter smooth. Moreso since I threw a SSD in there. I'm willing to bet your card, like mine, has micro cracks in the solder somewhere on the board that is causing these artifacts.

Problem is DDR2 is about the same price of ddr3, eg. 8gb cost around $70. What would benefit me more the SSD or more RAM?

[Digitalfox]

 

Also, slightly off topic and kind of beating a dead horse. How come I see artifacts from POST, won't boot into normal mode (win7) but safe mode + networking works like a charm?

 

It will eventually happen, it just means you're half the way to almost unworkable.

 

On safe mode most things are turned off, and resolution is lower. (it will eventually look bad in safemode, some resolutions are less prone to show bad picture and the CPU is doing most of the work).

[Draconian Guppy]

currently deciding between:

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-Graphics-Cards-VCGGTX650T1XPB/dp/B009L87GSG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1390358146&sr=1-1&keywords=650+ti+boost

PNY GeForce GTX 650 Ti Graphics Cards 

 

Or 

 

XFX Radeon R7 260X 1075MHz 1GB DDR5 DP HDMI 2 X DVI Graphics Card (R7260XZNJ4)

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-1075MHz-Graphics-R7260XZNJ4/dp/B00FSC5MMQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1390357995&sr=1-5&keywords=r7+260x

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-2GB-Graphics-Cards-R7260X-DC2OC-2GD5/dp/B00FW4LF4Y/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1390358586&sr=1-6&keywords=r7+260x

ASUS 2GB GDDR5 DIGI+ VRM technology Graphics Cards HD7770-2GD5

 

 

Thoughts neowin?

Bumpage for the above?

[Draconian Guppy]

So decided to go with:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FW4LF4Y/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item

 

Non reference cooler as according to reviews r7 260X runs hotter than previous generation chips.

[Phouchg]

Alrighty then! Even if it does run not so cool, you're not going to feel it anyway as your old card was vastly more inefficient. I think Asus DirectCU version isn't using AMD reference design for PCB either, so they've just might have fixed layout of stuff or something.

 

Happy gaming (or whatever is that you'll be doing with it) :)

[Draconian Guppy]

Alrighty then! Even if it does run not so cool, you're not going to feel it anyway as your old card was vastly more inefficient. I think Asus DirectCU version isn't using AMD reference design for PCB either, so they've just might have fixed layout of stuff or something.

 

Happy gaming (or whatever is that you'll be doing with it) :)

Yeah, if I closed my room during the summer I could feel it warm up slightly :laugh:

Also, had not idea about the directCU stuff, cool beans!

DirectCU II is a dual-fan design - one standard, one using Asus' 'CoolTech' design - boasting a large heatsink connected to a single large 10mm heatpipe and numerous - although unspecified - smaller heatpipes. A VRM heatsink is also included, while the board itself enjoys non-reference power components including Digi+ voltage regulator modules using the company's Super Alloy Power (SAP) technology.

 

Card should be here by next week (friday or sat), since it is couriered to where I live :p I'll post as soon as I get it going.

 

 

Also:

 

This card works very nicely and has great cooling with the fans Asus placed on it. Don't forget to attach your 6 pin from your Power Supply.

 

 

It does use 6 pin connector! edit: nevermind you were talking about the  250  :wacko:

[Praetor]

 

Also, slightly off topic and kind of beating a dead horse. How come I see artifacts from POST, won't boot into normal mode (win7) but safe mode + networking works like a charm?

 

Because in safe mode the GFX isn't using most of it (low VESA resolution, doesn't get hot and so on) so it can work...until it dies for good. I've had a dying GFX that had those same symptoms: only worked in safe mode and even then for only a small amount of time until it gone ape ######.

[Draconian Guppy]

Because in safe mode the GFX isn't using most of it (low VESA resolution, doesn't get hot and so on) so it can work...until it dies for good. I've had a dying GFX that had those same symptoms: only worked in safe mode and even then for only a small amount of time until it gone ape ****.

That makes sense. As long as it lasts me to next friday, i'm good :P