I think my video card is broken?

[theattrox]

As I was just browsing the internet my computer crashed to a black screen then rebooted with "! ! ! ! !" all over the place. When it finally loads into Windows everything is zoomed in 1000% and pix-elated like an old Atari game. I unplugged my video card cord that goes into the monitor and enabled the onboard and now everything seems to be fine. How can I be 100% sure it's only my Video card having problems? I'm not sure what to do, I don't really know what I'm doing. If my video card is indeed broken what card would you recommend to replace it that compliments my current setup?

My Spec:

Gigabyte GTX 570
i5-2500k
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68
Crucial M4 128gb SSD
GSKILL 8 GB DDR1333
Noctua NH-D14
Corsair TX650

 

[Burpo]

First thing I would try is moving your video card to the other PCI-E slot and see if problem persists.

You didn't say what your budget was for a new Card, but an R9 270x is good value.

I may be interested in your GTX 570

 

[theattrox]

First thing I would try is moving your video card to the other PCI-E slot and see if problem persists.

You didn't say what your budget was for a new Card, but an R9 270x is good value.

I may be interested in your GTX 570

I will try moving my card tomorrow morning, as for a budget on the video card I guess $250 is the max I'm willing to spend but anything less would be great. I only play Dota 2 and a couple other games from time to time, but mostly I'm using Adobe Light room 5 and Photoshop for photos and some video editing on Premier. Are there any other parts you think I need to upgrade as well?

 

[Charlie98]

Uninstall/reinstall your video driver while you are at it. Check and make sure your power cables are securely locked in, make sure the card is securely locked in the mobo slot.

Is your GPU OC'ed?

A reasonable replacement to your 570 in your price range would be a GTX760.

 

[Burpo]

Yes with the software you're using, Nvidia is the best choice..

 

[theattrox]

Uninstall/reinstall your video driver while you are at it. Check and make sure your power cables are securely locked in, make sure the card is securely locked in the mobo slot.

Is your GPU OC'ed?

A reasonable replacement to your 570 in your price range would be a GTX760.

I unplugged everything and uninstalled/re-installed the drivers and I was able to get the card to work for like 20 minutes until I ran a game (dota 2) in which crashed and my screen appeared to have a bunch of transparent pixels, I was able to see my background and my browser but I couldn't open the game up again. (Also I did no Overclocking at all)

What card should I get in the $150 range? Not sure if I want to spend $200+ on a new card since I will probably upgrade my whole rig as soon as I have the funds.

 

[mfenn]

I unplugged everything and uninstalled/re-installed the drivers and I was able to get the card to work for like 20 minutes until I ran a game (dota 2) in which crashed and my screen appeared to have a bunch of transparent pixels, I was able to see my background and my browser but I couldn't open the game up again. (Also I did no Overclocking at all)

What card should I get in the $150 range? Not sure if I want to spend $200+ on a new card since I will probably upgrade my whole rig as soon as I have the funds.

For an Nvidia card in that price range, I'd look at the GTX 750 Ti like this EVGA for $120 AR.

 

[theattrox]

For an Nvidia card in that price range, I'd look at the GTX 750 Ti like this EVGA for $120 AR.

If I were to choose AMD Radeon this time what would you recommend?

 

[Topweasel]

If I were to choose AMD Radeon this time what would you recommend?

I just got a Radeon R9 270 2GB for 179. It's a little more but it's probably the lowest card that will run pretty much everything at 1080p with most features on. At $150 the R7 265 pretty close, 265, 270, and 270x all use the same chip, just with more stream processors. Again the 270 I felt was the bang for the buck winner at 1080 gaming, but the 265 isn't too far behind.

 

[riversend]

Also, this R9 270X is at $170AR, and if you order today it has another 10% off with a promo code. One reviewer said the 6 pin power connectors might be tough in a smaller space/case, but you have experience with your system so I doubt that would be an issue.

 

[theattrox]

Also, this R9 270X is at $170AR, and if you order today it has another 10% off with a promo code. One reviewer said the 6 pin power connectors might be tough in a smaller space/case, but you have experience with your system so I doubt that would be an issue.

I have no experience with Radeon, how is reliable is a company like Powercolor? I was looking at this Asus card here

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

is there any difference?

 

[riversend]

I can't give you reliability info, but Powercolor has been selling cards in the states for a while now. On the flip side, I cannot give you reliability info on Asus either. The Asus card core clock is higher than the Powercolor, and comes with a 3 vx. 2 year warranty. Warranty does not much concern me, in my limited experience it either works for years, or is DOA.

If it was me, I'd go for the cheaper Powercolor, but it's your money and no matter what anyone says, emotion is always involved! If buying the Asus is going to involve less second guessing, for whatever reason, then buy that.

You could always ask in the video card forums, but you might get more info there than you can handle.

 

[mfenn]

Also, this R9 270X is at $170AR, and if you order today it has another 10% off with a promo code. One reviewer said the 6 pin power connectors might be tough in a smaller space/case, but you have experience with your system so I doubt that would be an issue.

:thumbsup: Good pick.

This card is quite a bit more powerful than the GTX 750 Ti, but costs about $150 AR AP versus $120 AR. The ~$120 AMD would be the R9 270 for $130 AR. The R9 270 is the same thing as the R9 270X but clocked lower.

The AMD will miss out on some acceleration in Photoshop unless you're using the latest version, which supports OpenCL instead of Nvidia's proprietary CUDA.

 

[theattrox]

So I missed out on the deal yesterday didn't realize it was ending so fast. I'm kind of worried that I will lose out on the features that Nvidia provides so I'm kind of leaning on a GTX 760 if my Corsair TX650 can handle it without sweat. I think I read somewhere that the 760 uses a 8pin rather than 6pin connector, not sure what my PSU uses if I remember correctly I think it was 6. But if not I'm probably going to go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-050-_-Product because I haven't heard of PowerColor before.

Edit: I ended up with the Sapphire R9 270x since I mainly play Dota 2 and I don't really care about maxing out graphics on games, just as long as they don't lag on medium/high. Hopefully I won't regret my purchase after seeing everyone recommend the 280 now. Anyhow, I'll be building a new PC sometime around next year so this should be fine for now I guess.

 

[Charlie98]

The TX650 can handle either of those cards without a sweat...

 

[riversend]

GPU power consumption has been going down, or at worst case, leveling off. No issues running the cards you are looking at.

 

[theattrox]

The TX650 can handle either of those cards without a sweat...

I can't find exactly where I read it but a couple reviews on Newegg gave a warning about using an 8 pin adapter on the GTX 760. My PSU has 2 x 6+2 pins, should I ignore that?

 

[Charlie98]

I can't find exactly where I read it but a couple reviews on Newegg gave a warning about using an 8 pin adapter on the GTX 760. My PSU has 2 x 6+2 pins, should I ignore that?

Yes, your PSU is perfectly capable. What you may have read was someone using a Molex to 6- or 8-pin adapter or something like that on a less powerful PSU. I'm actually doing that with my secondary desktop... a CX430 powering a GTX560Ti 448. I had to get an adapter for it... :|

 

[mfenn]

Edit: I ended up with the Sapphire R9 270x since I mainly play Dota 2 and I don't really care about maxing out graphics on games, just as long as they don't lag on medium/high. Hopefully I won't regret my purchase after seeing everyone recommend the 280 now. Anyhow, I'll be building a new PC sometime around next year so this should be fine for now I guess.

You'll be fine with the R9 270X. The R9 280 is obviously better, but it also costs ~$30 more. Dota 2 won't care about the difference though, either one is sufficient to max it out.