Wanted : 9600GSO, 250GTX, or higher
Hi guys, this is a long story, and since it is my birthday, I am going to make it even longer…:D
Two months ago, my brother's graphics card was acting up. He would be getting artefacts and basically blue screen whenever he was trying to play some games. I plugged his GPU (9800GTX) into another pc, and the same problem occurs on the “new” PC. Ok, so obviously the card has had its days, but since it is a 9800GTX, it lasted him well. (yes, I checked heat, drivers, etc)
He does not have the financial means to get himself a new GPU, so I gave him my GPU that I had in Ursula’s PC (a 9600GSO). Ursula PC is backing up as my “LAN pc” but since she doesn’t play that many GPU intensive games, she was comfortable to play with “onboard” graphics until I replace her GPU (which I would do before RAGE). I appreciate the 9600GSO is not the best card, but remains a decent "LAN" card and actually well balanced on both their CPUs. Any event, the 9600GSO worked great in my brothers pc, until….
After about 3 weeks after moving the GPU into his pc, the same artefacts started to appear on the 9600GSO. Ok, this then told me that it is either his motherboard that is frying graphics cards, or his PSU that is doing something it should not. I somehow do not think it is software related, as the card doesn't work in another pc. But to be sure, I have asked another hardware guru to take the old card (9800GTX) and go and run some linux / MacOs tests on it to see if I can eliminate windows problems or not. I could also try and flash the GPU’s bios, but that is really clutching at straws.
The odd thing is he can use 2d graphics (Windows, Excel, Word etc) so he could actually work on the PC still, but unfortunately no games (telling me the 3d shaders or something is dead). Now for me to try to diagnose what is causing these cards to fry will be a nightmare in its own right, so if anybody have any suggestions, please let me know how I can diagnose the problem. Either way, until I can clearly identify what is frying it, I do not want to buy him another GPU and he doesn’t have the money to go and buy a new pc as yet. (And I have not planned on buying one for him either now)
However, normally, once every 2 years or so I “recycle” my PC’s, this normally happens right after RAGE. For instance, my own PC’s motherboard is passed on to Ursula’s, Ursula’s motherboard then either replaces the media pc or something. If I have no use for it, it is just passed on to somebody that needs it more than I do. My idea was that after RAGE this year, I would upgrade my 6 year old media pc with Ursula’s pc, but given that my brother really enjoys his games, I will now rather be donating Ursula’s pc to him instead and just hang on another year or so with media PC.
I will thus upgrade Ursula’s pc with my current LGA366 motherboard and i7-950 CPU, so ideally I need to buy her a graphics card that can be used respectfully on that motherboard / cpu. That card in my view will be the GTX660 and since I still have time before actually “needing it” I can wait. (especially as I don’t have a choice because the GTX660 does not yet exist.)
I will however need to get my brother a new graphics card which can be used after RAGE. Now, I figured before I go and buy a new graphics card for him (and one that Ursula will use till I replace hers), I would just like to find out if anybody in GRRR have an old “gaming” card that they no longer use or plan to upgrade shortly. It does not need to be a very powerful card, since the CPU is already 5 years old (QX6700 quad core extreme). So the perfect card for that CPU is something like an 8800, 9800, 250, 450 etc.
If nobody has one, then I will just need to go and buy a new one for them and then a new card for when Ursula’s pc is upgraded. (pairing a GTX250 with an i7-950 is a crime I do not want to commit!)
So, in summary, if you have an old graphics card you want to get rid off, please let me know I have a good home for it.
