Help Choosing a new Graphics card

[Shagga]

Hi all,

I noticed tonight that there seemed to be a lot more fan noise coming from the graphics card when I turned the PC on tonight. Having removed the card to blow air through it to clean some of the dust off and try to help the air flow a little I noticed that there seems to be a problem developing on one of the components on the PCB itself. The card has been faultless since I bought it many moons ago but I get the feeling it's all about to go south. Image link below attached.

http://www.zen89393.zen.co.uk/Archive/Images/General/XFX_failing.jpg

I'm just starting to browse through AT's Benchmark results and wondered if you guys/gals can tell me which card provides the best performance given a budget of say £200. Sharp visuals are required as I'm spending more and more time on the desktop and in graphic design software rather than gaming nowadays. However I do pop my head up from time to time for a bit of 1st Person madness, L4D2 and Bad Company usually.

I'd prefer to stick with an nVidia based Card as opposed to going ATI.

Thanks again for your valuable advice.

Rich

 

[cusideabelincoln]

For a casual gamer, I'd say look into getting a GTX 460. It's a good fit for the rest of your system, and is a good value.

 

[und3rscor3]

Those are blown capacitors on your card. The same thing happened to an XFX card of mine when (or shortly before) it failed. Do you have XFX's lifetime warranty on your video card? You could save your money that way. Unless of course you are looking to upgrade.

 

[RaistlinZ]

460 1GB should fit the bill quite nicely.

 

[Shagga]

Those are blown capacitors on your card. The same thing happened to an XFX card of mine when (or shortly before) it failed. Do you have XFX's lifetime warranty on your video card? You could save your money that way. Unless of course you are looking to upgrade.

Just checked with XFX and they could not be bothered with the issue. Ah well XFX loss I suppose and it looks like it is possible XFX have had issues with this happening on their cards.

Anyway, I went for the EVGA GTX460 as suggested and got the FTW one because it has 3 uppercase letters in the title so it must be good. .

At the moment I'm not seeing a speed increase for some reason however, there seems to be a lot of DirectX goodies n stuff I've been missing out on.

As always, thanks for the advice guys. I can always count on AT.

 

[T101]

Since you have the values of those caps still visible, you could try replacing them, if you have a steady hand and can use a soldering iron. The card is heading for broke, it can not be anything more than broke. And well, if it is saved, good for you. IF it is not, then you can get a new card.

 

[TerabyteX]

GTX 460 or GTX 560 Non Ti

 

[pandemonium]

See sig.

I'm sorry to inform, but the FTW isn't all that it's cracked up to be from reviews I've seen compared to other cards out there.

Edit: After I said that I double-checked to make sure and it turns out I was mistaken. It appears the 460FTW performs on par with the HD5870 and is available for a little less initial cost. Good choice.

 

[Shagga]

See sig.

I'm sorry to inform, but the FTW isn't all that it's cracked up to be from reviews I've seen compared to other cards out there.

Edit: After I said that I double-checked to make sure and it turns out I was mistaken. It appears the 460FTW performs on par with the HD5870 and is available for a little less initial cost. Good choice.

Got me. You little kidder you.