Graphics card woes

[julianhj]

After 2.5 years sterling service my graphics card appears to be about to pack up. Every 15-20 mins the screen freezes then the monitor goes to sleep. After 10 seconds it wakes up and there's an error message from ATI saying the VPU has thrown a wobbly and do I want to send an error message. More recently the image on screen has been having a brief left-right wobble every so often, and at one point today the screen dropped into 16 colours and 640x480 without warning, forcing me to reboot. Likewise opening Google Earth causes it to panic and I get an error message saying hardware acceleration has stopped and it is resorting to software acceleration until I reboot.

The card is one of the first PCI-e things, an ASUS 128MB X600XT. Can anyone recommend a decent replacement? I don't play games much, so just need a straight replacement, though the idea of dual DVI appeals if I don't have to up my budget to get it. Any suggestions?

[momentofmadness]

Does sound goosed, but have you tried updating the driver?

Paul, optimist

[xiphias]

Budget? Check the heatsink fan as well, it might be overheating.

[julianhj]

I'll have a look at drivers. Heat might well be an issue but all the fans are working. I'd had the side off to check and when I put it back on it did get worse.

Budget? £100 give or take I suppose. What's the going rate for a half-decent card?

[sneakyneil]

You can spend as much as you like really, ATI 1650XT or nvidia 7600GT are ok at under the hundred notes point. Aggree about updating the drivers & checking the fan/heatsink first though. Also make sure the card is seated properly in the mobo and the edge connector is clean!

[Jinx]

www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=48QM&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=graphics+cards&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

Less than 40 notes

[julianhj]

Well, I took the PC apart last night and gave it a thorough clean with the vaccuum and some cotton buds. There was quite a bit of dust in various fans (been around a year since I last cleaned it). There have been no other hitches since it all went back together - so far, so good... touch wood!

[julianhj]

Bugger. Juat tried Google Earth as that's where it fell over totally before, and it fell over. New card it is, then.

[xiphias]

For just over a hundred notes you could get yourself a x1950 pro, which knocks most stuff into the middle of next week. Just make sure your psu is a decent rating (I guess 400w roughly).

[julianhj]

xiphias said:

For just over a hundred notes you could get yourself a x1950 pro, which knocks most stuff into the middle of next week. Just make sure your psu is a decent rating (I guess 400w roughly).

Would you recommend any particular manufacturer for the card? I've got a 500W PSU, so should be OK on that front.

[xiphias]

Err, I'm not sure how much difference it makes, sapphire are usually alright.