Good replacement for a dying 8800 GTX?

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CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
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Hi guys,

When I bought my GTX 285, I gave the 8800 GTX it replaced to my brother. A few months ago, the card starting artifacting even on the desktop. So, we tried the oven method, and it worked... until last night. Now there are occasional artifacts and the monitor seems to be losing signal every 30-45 minutes or so. Needless to say, it looks like the card is dying for real this time.

I'm going to try the oven method again, but my brother wants to buy a replacement anyway to be rid of any potential problems in the future. He's a gamer, but NOT a computer enthusiast, so Crossfire, overclocking and general tweaking are out as I won't have time to maintain it for him. He prefers Nvidia but is open to ATI. Unfortunately he doesn't want to wait until the end of the month to see what pans out.

The budget is $200 or less (prefer less), and the card needs to be at least as powerful as an 8800 GTX - the more power the better, of course. The most demanding game he plays at the moment is Dragon Age, though there may be other more demanding games in the future. He's generally not into shooters, so we're not worried about Crysis and whatnot. His monitor is 1920x1080, and the rest of his system is capable of at least complementing an 8800 GTX-level card (specs are similar to the SFF in my signature, the PSU is a 650w Toughpower).

Recommendations? I'm thinking of suggesting an HD 5770 but wasn't sure if there was a better option. We'd prefer to stay away from used cards.

Thanks guys.
 
B

blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
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In terms of price to performance the 5770, 4870, and 4890 rule the $125-$200 price segment. 250 is a good deal weaker than the 5770 though not much cheaper (115-145 v. 130-165). 260 core 216 is not much faster than a 5770, but is a lot more expensive (200+ from what I've seen).
4890 is the fastest if you can still get one for a decent price, but I wouldn't consider 4850 or 4870 unless it was a good deal cheaper than the 5770.

If you want to stick with nVidia I'd suggest going with their older cards which are cheaper but basically just as good as their rebadged new cards. So look at their 8800s or 9800s. Most are under $100.
 
chubbyfatazn

chubbyfatazn

Golden Member
Oct 14, 2006
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This 5770 for $130 after MIR. $117 after eBillMe and CB.

I chose the 5770 over the 4850/4870 a few weeks ago. You can't go wrong with the 4870, but if power savings or DX11 is anything of concern to you then the 5770 is the way to go.
 
Shmee

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Sep 13, 2008
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could you RMA the 8800 GTX for him? It is still a decent card, still comparable to the 9800 series in some cases. If not, then an upper end G92 card or a 4860 or 4890 might be good. If you want dx11, then ya, 5770 is also nice.
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
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+1 for 5770 @ $117-$130. Unfortunately, there's not a better option right now under $200 unless you can find a leftover 4890.
 
Shmee

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Sep 13, 2008
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I ask again, is the card still under warranty? If so, even if the oven method fails, you could get a new one, mb even an upgrade from the manufacturer.
 
C

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
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Shmee said:
I ask again, is the card still under warranty? If so, even if the oven method fails, you could get a new one, mb even an upgrade from the manufacturer.
Click to expand...

Nope, it was registered too late. :( I bought it in 2006, but for whatever reason forgot to register it until about 6 months ago. I could try talking to EVGA, but I don't know if there's much of a point.

The sticker with the S/N, etc. also fell off due to heat and dust. I believe I have it kicking around somewhere, but finding it may be a problem.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Edit:

For what it's worth, I sent a message to EVGA's tech support, and I'll see what they suggest. They've been very good to me in the past, so we'll see. I can't imagine them coming back and saying "Well, your card is dead, and that sucks.", but I do hope that they don't string me along with troubleshooting 101.

Hello,

I have an 8800 GTX that appears to be dying. The card has been occasionally giving me trouble for months (no signal on boot, BSOD and other crashes), and several weeks ago started artifacting even on POST and on the desktop. Running games was nearly impossible. I was able to revive the card, but after 2-3 weeks of running perfectly, it is starting to give no signal on boot and artifacts again.

The computer that it's running in has a sufficient power supply and sufficient air flow. When the card is swapped for a GTX 285 or 7900 GS (for testing purposes) the system runs flawlessly. The memory, motherboard, and power supply have all been tested on other systems and work without a problem. The graphics drivers are some of the latest from Nvidia (196.21 as far as I can remember), and the computer has been reformatted and reinstalled with a fresh copy of windows on two occasions since this problem started. In other words, it's not a software issue.

Unfortunately I did not register the card within 30 days of purchase, and thus it is now out of warranty. However, I would like any advise as to what I can do with this card in order to make it usable again. I would hate to think that I paid a premium price ($520+) for a premium product back in November, 2006 only to have it die roughly three years later.

Thank you for your time.
 
Last edited:
Shmee

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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well, GL with that! you may get lucky, knowing evga, and they may give you a new sidegrade, like a 9800GTX+/GTS250.
 
J

jvroig

Platinum Member
Nov 4, 2009
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If you prefer less than $200 and performance still the same, maybe you can just cheap out on a 4770? Close enough to a 4850, and through CCC you get an extra 8% OC, no hassle. These parts are supposedly EOL already, so you might have trouble. But in case you see one, I believe it is comparable to an 8800GTX or close enough at least, and the price won't break your heart or wallet.
 
C

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
5,401
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Well, they got back to me, and they basically said "you're shit out of luck." I can't really blame them - I AM out of warranty, and they're not required to provide any additional service. It is a bit disheartening, though.

Now I'm just toying with which card I want to get. He doesn't NEED a lot of power, as the most demanding game he plays regularly is Dragon Age, but I want it to have a little leeway for the future. Most of all, I want it to be reliable - I'm hearing far too many G80 cards dying after ~2-4 years, and I'm hoping the G92 cards won't follow suit.
 
C

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
5,401
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thilanliyan said:
Does putting it in the oven void the warranty?? :p
Click to expand...

Probably. The point is moot anyway, since I didn't register the card within 30 days, and thus it only had 1 year warranty.

Now I'm just trying to decide between an HD 4770, 4850, 5750, 5770, or GTS 250. The 5750 and 5770 are in the upper end of the price bracket, and the rest can all be had for $100-120. I'm probably over-thinking the situation like I do with my own hardware purchases, since my brother doesn't care that much about the horsepower or price, so long as it plays his games and stays under $200. Decisions, decisions.
 
C

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
5,401
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GodisanAtheist said:
Since you're still asking, I'm guessing re-baking the card didn't really work out?
Click to expand...

I haven't bothered yet. He can still get it to run after enough tries, but since the first baking didn't work for long, neither of us have much faith in round two. We'll try it, but he's dead set on a replacement anyway - he just doesn't want the hassle.

If it ends up working in the end, we have a spare card. :)
 
Sylvanas

Sylvanas

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2004
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5770. Cheap, future proof, much better performer than the old GTX. Problem solved.
 
J

jvroig

Platinum Member
Nov 4, 2009
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CurseTheSky said:
Now I'm just trying to decide between an HD 4770, 4850, 5750, 5770, or GTS 250. The 5750 and 5770 are in the upper end of the price bracket, and the rest can all be had for $100-120
Click to expand...

Two good options:
1.) 4770 or GTS 250, whichever you can get cheaper. Save most of your money and get only exactly what you need. When you need to upgrade 1 year later or so, there are more cards out (Fermi, Fermi refresh maybe, Cypress refresh, Northern Islands maybe) and perhaps we can hope there are no more price gouging in effect, so you should have more choices.

2.) Spend most of the budget now on a 5770.

Either is fine, I prefer #1 but you probably can't go wrong either way for your brother.
 
Shmee

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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would it be possible to get a 4890 or GTX 275? If you can, for the budget, go for it. Look around for some deals.
 
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