Purchasing a new Video Card

[715]

I too thought the writedown was for notebook graphics chips only.

[eagl]

I believe the recall only involves notebook graphic systems and not the cards we all know and love.

That was last week's news.  This week's version is that it applies to pretty much everything they've made using that manufacturing process, including desktop chips.

[Chalenge]

Source please? The only thing I can find is vendors asking Nvidia to widen the recall of all desktop products and Nvidia insisting the problem is isolated to a minor group of laptop systems.

EDIT: This news seems to be the rantings of a lunatic labor union with a dispute against one vendor of Nvidia. I wonder where their jobs will go after they ruin the reputation of their employer?

[Masherbrum]

My issue is not a recall related issue.   MANY folks have discovered their "new 9800's" are in fact, "re-manufactured 8800's."   

[ebfd11]

I have the 8500 gt pro and tthe quality is awesome for that but i was thinking bout upgrading too... then this thopught came to mind... why fix it if it aint broke...LOL

[Fulmar]

might need a new keyboard though

[ZULU6]

I run a 8600GTS & it smokes the game no problems!

[Fencer51]

Well my PNY GEFORCE 6600 died yesterday finally.  I thought I could just upgrade but guess what.. I have an AGP only motherboard.. AUSU K8N.  So I am stuck with an AGP card, and now I find I need one with '1.5V' slots which seems to be a big limiter in the remaining cards for AGP.  It appears that the HIS Radeon 3850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161225

The current financial situation precludes a new motherboard and cpu at this time.  So I am sorta scrooged.  I am also concerned about the power supply now as well.

Anyone know of any good 1.5v AGP graphics cards that would tie me over?

[eagl]

AH still runs on my 6800GT pretty nicely.  You might be able to find one on ebay or craigslist for not very much money, and it should be a bit faster than your old 6600.  With some attention to the detail sliders, I'm able to run 2xQ or 4x antialiasing at 1280x1024, which makes the image quite a bit nicer.

I can't recommend anything newer since I don't have any current info on AGP standards...  You might be able to find a 7800 for not much more than the 6800 and it might be compatible with your mobo.  I tried a 7800 of some sort on my mobo though, and it was completely unstable.  I don't know if that was due to the mobo, a bad card, or maybe even a bad PSU, because I returned the video card instead of having it replaced under warranty.  The 6800GT is "good enough" and upgrading it isn't worth the hassle at this point.

Of course, my eventual plan is to do a complete system upgrade and buy a current-generation video card.  I know AH doesn't need all that power especially at 1280x1024, but I'll be able to turn up antialiasing to extreme levels to help get rid of the jaggies and shimmering that I find especially irritating in flightsims.

[Fulmar]

Well my PNY GEFORCE 6600 died yesterday finally.  I thought I could just upgrade but guess what.. I have an AGP only motherboard.. AUSU K8N.  So I am stuck with an AGP card, and now I find I need one with '1.5V' slots which seems to be a big limiter in the remaining cards for AGP.  It appears that the HIS Radeon 3850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161225

The current financial situation precludes a new motherboard and cpu at this time.  So I am sorta scrooged.  I am also concerned about the power supply now as well.

Anyone know of any good 1.5v AGP graphics cards that would tie me over?

Pending on your Power Supply, that linked newegg Radeon is notched for 1.5V and should work.

[Fulmar]

Also Fencer, what is your CPU?  That 3850 may be overkill for it and create a CPU bottleneck.  I.e. a less expensive card will do they same performance because your CPU may be too slow.

[eagl]

Also Fencer, what is your CPU?  That 3850 may be overkill for it and create a CPU bottleneck.  I.e. a less expensive card will do they same performance because your CPU may be too slow.

In those cases, you can still get better image quality by turning up antialiasing.  Once you have enough framerate at a given resolution, a faster vid card should let you crank up the antialiasing essentially for free until the vid card becomes the bottleneck once again.

[Fencer51]

Also Fencer, what is your CPU?  That 3850 may be overkill for it and create a CPU bottleneck.  I.e. a less expensive card will do they same performance because your CPU may be too slow.

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+ 2.41 GHz, 2GB Ram

[Fulmar]

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+ 2.41 GHz, 2GB Ram

Then the 3850 will do justice to that.

[Fencer51]

Yeah but I only got a 380 watt power supply.. I wonder if I can get by with that.  

As a 'what if' anyone got an opinion on the following CPU?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Brisbane 2.8GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core black edition Processor