Did my graphics card die?

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 6:50 pm

I have an nvidia gtx260.
I started getting graphical anomalies in SC2 (stretched graphics, big black blocks on the screen, wierd lighting).
At first I was only getting this with SC2, but not in my flight sims. I was using nHancer and all was well with everything but SC2.

So I upgraded the drivers to the current 258 set.
And started getting the same graphic issues in my flight sim as well as SC2. I disabled nHancer (which doesnt work with the new 258 drivers), tried restoring to an earlier time when everything was running well, tried reinstalling drivers, tried driver sweeper, and now have gotten to the point where I have the same problem in all my games, but no issues with win7, net surfing, etc.

I've been monitoring my heat, and the gfx card doesnt go above 76. No other heat issues.

Just wondering if my graphics card \"kinda\" died, since I still have visuals...

Thanks!

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:10 pm

After a system restore, uninstalling of drivers and nHancer, rebooting into safe mode, using driversweeper, then rebooting, installing latest drivers, I still have the problem in all games...but now it's worse: flashing green dots have joined the stretched graphics.

Can a graphics card go bad, while you still are getting a nice picture on your desktop? Never had that happen....

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:21 pm

Possibly, I'd say try running a few nvidia CUDA accelerated / powered applications and see if they throw any errors or lockups, its a good way of testing if the GPU is still processing stuff normally.

You could also have a look and see what happens when you are running furmark: http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/ or ATI-tool's stress/artifact test: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:39 pm

Tried the Furmark Stability and benchmarking tests...ran just fine.
am running the ATItool, which is showing no errors for ten minutes now.

Very odd. I have 3 games I play (SC2, Rise of Flight, and Alien Swarm) and they all have graphics issues as of today.
Nothing's changed as far as I know.
Tried a windows update, but that didnt affect anything.

flip · Post by **flip** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:44 pm

Check your temps and maybe reduce your OC a bit.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:45 pm

my cpu is OC'd to 3.0, but my graphics card isnt.
Is the cpu what you mean?

btw--if I have to get a new video card, which do you recommend: a nvidia 460, 465, 470, or 480? Not sure where the curve is, and dont want to just buy the most expensive (cant anyway).

flip · Post by **flip** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:49 pm

Yeah I'd go back to stock settings first and keep an eye on temps before I blamed the VC.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:15 pm

reset to stock settings on the cpu, and still have the same problems.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:48 pm

3mark06 runs fine with no graphical issues.
Seems that if the VC was bad, I'd see issues, right?

--edit--
scratch that, a couple of the graphics tests in 3dmark caused some graphical weirdness.

So I guess that concludes that this is a bad VC....

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:07 pm

Just got back from BestBuy (they only place that has VCs on the island) and got the best card they had:
a Nvidia 465 GTX (for $280

).
I wanted the 470, but they didnt have any. In fact, this PNY 465 was the ONLY name brand 465 they had.

My old card was an EVGA, so I'll try to rma it now..hopefully they honor it.
Wish I could have gotten an EVGA, but I might get one from Newegg, then just return the one I just installed (newegg has it for $80 cheaper with a rebate, and it's the EVGA one).

Any thoughts on the 465 vs. the 470 or 480?

Xamindar · Post by **Xamindar** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 3:05 am

Kinda funny that you post these issues after running SC2. There was a slashdot article a few days ago talking about Starcraft 2 \"killing\" graphics chips. Make sure you fix whatever cooling problem your case has or it might happen again. Or it could have just been that your old card was caked with dust and wasn't cooling properly anymore. Do you clean the dust out of your heat sinks often? I assume so sense you overclock.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:44 am

465, 470 and 480 are all pretty bad cards because they are big, hot and noisy. I just got a 460 1 GB myself which most outfits are calling the second coming of the 8800 GT. The 460 is a much cooler and virtually silent card because rather than being a cut down GF100 chip, its a brand new GF104 chip that is smaller. As for the 465 itself, pretty much nobody likes it which is why it managed to show up on Best Buy shelves so fast, it reviews very poorly.

The graphical glitches you spotted rather sound like memory errors on your video card instead of a problem with the GPU itself. If the memory chips on your video card are exposed in any location I'd try dusting them off and making sure there isn't any contact between pins on them. Generally ATItool or Furmark are going to show glitches or errors if there is a problem with the GPU, Furmark especially is designed as a torture test to generate maximum power draw and heat.

The other thing I would suggest is try out your card in an OpenGL game, Doom 3 or Quake 4 would be good choices in their highest detail settings. It could be a problem with DirectX on your system.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:08 pm

I was worried about the size of the card, since my 260 was 10.5\".
The specs on the EVGA 460/470 state they are 11.8, which would be a problem.

Interestingly, this PNY 465 is 9.5\"...a perfect fit....why would the EVGA 465 and 470 cards be 2\" longer? Seriously, 2 inches??

It's not noisy....at least as far as I can tell. I dont have a program that allows me to up the fan speed, so perhaps that is why it's so quiet...

I clean my system every couple of months, or try to. It had been a month since I last did it, and there was very little dust inside, but the outside fan covers were a bit dusty with a light layer on them.

The old 260 card didnt have that much dust in it, tho there was some....the guy at BestBuy said it was likely the 3D shaders or something like that.

Is there much speed difference between the 465 and the 470? How about the 460 compared to the 465?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:51 pm

Base system was an i7 920 @ 3.33 GHz with 6 GB of ram running Windows 7 x64 on a SSD, 258.80 nvidia drivers.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:58 pm

Wow....the 460 is BETTER than the 465. Very odd.

Amazon will ship me the lower end 470 model (Core Clock: 607MHz, Shader Clock: 1215MHz vs. the $29 more version: Core Clock: 625MHz, Shader Clock: 1250MHz) for $313 (about $25 more than my 465)...seems like a good deal... (the higher end 470 has a mail in rebate, making the cared $305 or so).

seems like I should take this card back and order from amazon (they ship free to hawaii, but newegg doesnt).

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 6:08 pm

For a more complete look, go to the source:

460 vs 465:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/180?vs=161

465 vs 470:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/161?vs=160

460 vs 470:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/180?vs=160

The 460 isn't *always* faster than the 465, but it happens often enough to take note. Also the 460 is majorly cooler and quieter than its bigger cousins. Just beware the 460 / 768 MB version, it gives up one quarter of its memory bandwidth too.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 6:16 pm

Thanks Krom!
That gives me everything I need to know to make the right decision:
Take back the 465 and get a 460 or 470 (leaning towards the 470).

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 1:02 am

actually, the 460 is the card...lower temps, and only 6 fewer fps than the 470.
wow...

This 465 is running at 85 to 90 ...and idles around 70.
very warm.
I hate the idea that it'll warm up my case and cause heat issues for my OC'd i920.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 12:31 pm

Anything wrong with this 460 VC (it's the superclocked EE model)? (I hate to pay $25 to ship it, but cant find it in stock anywhere but newegg):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130568

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 2:20 pm

Actually I haven't heard much in the way of good things about blower designs on 460s, the reference design is actually better at keeping the card cool without making much noise apparently.

The 460 that I have in my system is this one which also skips the reference cooler design though: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125333
It performs as advertised, I leave my PC on 24/7 and when I bump the mouse to turn the monitors on, if I leave speedfan running it reports the GPU temp at 32-34C which warms up into the mid 40s after a few minutes so the driver pretty aggressively power gates the chip while the displays are off. During games I don't think I've seen it go much over 70C and it has never made a sound.

I've actually had the GPU temp be lower than the CPU temp at times which is really impressive. Granted my CPU is lightly overclocked (2.4 GHz ---> 3 GHz) but it still idles at 2 GHz, is at stock voltage and its a 65 watt processor with a 92mm heatpipe tower cooler on it.

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 6:58 pm

ready, that is the card im waiting for the $$$ to get... eVGA is pretty much becoming the dominating Nvidia maker.

you do know what EE means right? External Exhaust

basically it pipes out the hot air out the back of the card and out of your case....

as far as eVGA goes? i have a older eVGA 7800GS AGP, its been running 24/7 for the last 4 years!! eVGA is making some kickass stuff and give you lots of options on upgrades and the Precision tool gives you TONS of control over the card

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:39 pm

Thanks AC and Krom!

Yeah, I'm going to order that card I linked above. Krom's with the 2 open fans is cheaper, but I like the idea of the exhaust being out of the case.
Seems like an amazing card.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:16 pm

pretty much all double bracket designs are exhaust externally...

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:11 am

Newegg delivered quickly, and the 460 is installed and running well! I actually got up to 80+ degrees in SC2, before I upped the fan speed to 60%. It's still quiet, and runs at about 70 degrees on full load, 39 degrees at the desktop.

Interestingly, my office is MUCH cooler with this card.
BTW, EVGA said they would honor the 260gtx card, even tho I didnt register it, and even tho it wasnt under warranty. They will send me a replacement as soon as they receive my old one. Wow!
EVGA is the card to buy...just for the extra mile they are willing to go.

Hope this thread helps someone....

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:30 am

yeah thats why my last 4 cards have been eVGA