Graphics Card fried... ?

newfoundglory

After turing on the PC this morning, xp froze. Turned off system, turned back on... screen got stuck on dell logo at boot, with some pretty weird effects.

After the initial "oh f**k, the hard drive has failed", i realised that the system was booting just fine - except i couldnt see it!

Opened up case, to find the fan had become slightly detached from graphics processor and was overheating. I'm pretty sure its damaged beyond repair and will need replacing.

So, not being completely up to date on graphics cards, what do i get? The card which failed was an 128mb ATi Radeon 9800 pro. But this machine is 2 years old... what would an equilivalent graphics card to this today?

Thanks!

tigermatt

Hi there,

eBuyer have a wide range of Graphics Cards. Here is just one - a Connect3d ATI Radeon 9550 AGP 256MB DDR 128 Bit VGA/DVI/TV-out for £45.78 inc VAT. (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=63693) That card is a 256Mb, so double the speed to your card that has broken.

eBuyer's homepage for graphics cards is here (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=14225307168&action=c2hvd3N1YmNhdGVnb3J5X3NlYXJjaA==&cat_uid=48&stid=2)- use the menu on the left to pick the type of chip you want, then browse the category.

I hope this helps you. Please post back with any questions... tigermatt

mr_fishbulb

tigermatt wrote:

eBuyer have a wide range of Graphics Cards. Here is just one - a Connect3d ATI Radeon 9550 AGP 256MB DDR 128 Bit VGA/DVI/TV-out for £45.78 inc VAT. (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=63693) That card is a 256Mb, so double the speed to your card that has broken.

It's got double the memory, but a 9550 is a lot slower than a 9800pro. Infact the 9550 probably wont benefit from 256 megs of memory over 128 as it's not fast enough to process all the textures that the ram would be storing.

newfoundglory - what do you use your PC for? Any 3D gaming? If not then a 9550 like tigermatt suggested would be fine. Or I'd go for a Nvidia 6200 (about the same spped) as I've had problems with ATi in the past.

newfoundglory

Thanks.

Yeah, i had suspected that given the cards are kinda cheap that it might not be as fast as the card I had. Although I am surprised, because the card is 2 years old.

After a bit of browsing around I decided to go for a 256MB Radeon 9600 for £50. There are people in the house who use it for gaming... but i'll see how this one goes...

pardal51

newfoundglory wrote:

Thanks.

Yeah, i had suspected that given the cards are kinda cheap that it might not be as fast as the card I had. Although I am surprised, because the card is 2 years old.

After a bit of browsing around I decided to go for a 256MB Radeon 9600 for £50. There are people in the house who use it for gaming... but i'll see how this one goes...

Hope you can still save some money...Go for a Radeon 9700 Pro, much faster than 9600 256Megs...See this link

Hope this helps...
PS: they also sell the 9800 Pro @ a really good price...

wolfman

mr_fishbulb wrote:

It's got double the memory, but a 9550 is a lot slower than a 9800pro. Infact the 9550 probably wont benefit from 256 megs of memory over 128 as it's not fast enough to process all the textures that the ram would be storing.

Yep, 256mb isn't really beneficial until you reach 9800 Pro at a minimum. Something like a GeForce 6800 (or GT) is where it helps. In fact I've read slower cards with that much memory actually run slightly slower than their 128mb equivalents.

A 9600 is generally a good choice. A refurbished 9800 Pro might be a better choice though. Or a GeForce 6600 if you can find an AGP version.

redux

Could I pick a few brains on this thread please?

My PC is a IGHz P3 with pretty basic on-board graphics, made in 2001. It's a low-profile desktop case, with an AGP and 3 PCI slots.

I'm looking for a reasonable graphics card, without going over the top on expense or spec that won't live down to the rest of the PC. I don't do online gaming (well you could guess that); I'm tempted by Google Earth and maybe some flight simulator games to start with; some 3D graphics I suppose.

So far I've done a couple of Google searches that find fairly small numbers of low-profile cards, and haven't actually asked in shops. I've looked at a couple of cards in PC World, and it seems that some have a socket fairly high up, and maybe a capacitor just behind on a short bit of taller board, so wouldn't tolerate me cutting down the rear bracket. And you can't see into most of the boxes ...

So would anyone recommend what type of card I might go for please? Most of your knowledge of the different numbers is going over my head. Presumably 8 x AGP speed on the card is retro-compatible with my likely 1 or 2.

I'm assuming a 9550 or 9600 128 MB would be fine for me, or what other equivalents might I consider? I notice a Celestica Radeon 9600 SE 128MB on the page that pardal51 posted that looks like I could vandalise the bracket ...

Thanks

pardal51

redux wrote:

Could I pick a few brains on this thread please?

My PC is a IGHz P3 with pretty basic on-board graphics, made in 2001. It's a low-profile desktop case, with an AGP and 3 PCI slots.

I'm looking for a reasonable graphics card, without going over the top on expense or spec that won't live down to the rest of the PC. I don't do online gaming (well you could guess that); I'm tempted by Google Earth and maybe some flight simulator games to start with; some 3D graphics I suppose.

So far I've done a couple of Google searches that find fairly small numbers of low-profile cards, and haven't actually asked in shops. I've looked at a couple of cards in PC World, and it seems that some have a socket fairly high up, and maybe a capacitor just behind on a short bit of taller board, so wouldn't tolerate me cutting down the rear bracket. And you can't see into most of the boxes ...

So would anyone recommend what type of card I might go for please? Most of your knowledge of the different numbers is going over my head. Presumably 8 x AGP speed on the card is retro-compatible with my likely 1 or 2.

I'm assuming a 9550 or 9600 128 MB would be fine for me, or what other equivalents might I consider? I notice a Celestica Radeon 9600 SE 128MB on the page that pardal51 posted that looks like I could vandalise the bracket ...

Thanks

I've been using ATI cards for some time, that's why I "tend" to go for Radeons rather than Geforce's. Again a 9700 Pro for that price is really a must-have. You can also check on ebay, for 9500 (non-pro) with an "L" shape memory so you can easily softmod it to 9700 (non-pro) speeds. Old geforce 3 may also meet your needs (check for TI 500) the highest on the G3 range. If you decide for 9600, try to find on ebay from Tyan Tachion, quite good manufacturer.

PS: If you go for 9700 or 9800 Pro make sure you have a PSU of at least 300Watts. Also you will need a floppy connector cable to attach a 9700 Pro (you can buy for a couple of quids a power-to-floppy splitter if required) or a normal power connector for 9800.

Hope this helps!!!

Mark_LJ

You will not get any low profile versions of the cards mentioned above - in any event I think you would find that your cpu would be a major bottleneck. I would go with the likes of the 9550 which will cost you about £40 - I can't see any point in spending any more than that with your system. It also has DVI in case you upgrade your monitor.

pardal51

agree with you mark LJ, cpu will be the bottleneck. However if you are paying c£40 for a 9550, why not pay the same for a 9700 Pro?

Mark_LJ

pardal51 wrote:

agree with you mark LJ, cpu will be the bottleneck. However if you are paying c£40 for a 9550, why not pay the same for a 9700 Pro?

It was in answer to Redux's post re half hight cards. I have to say that the 9700 pro is probably (for its time) the best card produced in the last 10 years, truly ground breaking stuff.