My 9800GT failed yesterday... Looking at options

Dark4ng3l

Diamond Member
Sep 17, 2000
5,061
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Well about a year and half ago I bought a DELL XPS 420 desktop system to replace my really old Athlon XP rig. I used to be a pretty big PC gamer but I guess I stopped really feeling the need to upgrade as all I was playing was WoW ans CSS mostly.

So I got the DELL because for about 1000$ CAD it was a better deal than building my own rig. It's a Core 2 duo e8400 with 3 gigs of ram and a 9800GT.

The card failed about 2 days after I finished Mass Effect 2. The screen shifted to a greenish blue tint while I was using the computer. I think the red part of the image is not making it to the screen for some reason. I tested the screen, the cable and everything I could think of. Removed the card and blew out the dust with compressed air. Still the same problem. The card itself works fine. I can play 3d games and everything but the color is messed up in the same way.

Now I have an 8500GT from my sister's old computer that she does not use anymore. The thing has integrated video so I guess maybe I could use that and live with it since I don't really play all that much anymore. If it's too slow I can just use my xbox instead if I want to play something.

I looked at potential upgrades and I think a 5770 could be good enough to be worth it. The problem is that the thing has a 375 watt PSU so I would need to buy a new one and rewire half the case as well as buying a new video card.

I guess i'm asking for any suggestions right now. Since I have an xbox I can just use that to play any future games that would interest me since most of them are multiplatform anyways. Yeah xbox games are usually 10-15$ CDN more expensive but buying the equipment to upgrade my rig would cost over 200 anyways so I guess that's my dilemma.

Thanks for any responses guys.
 

MarcVenice

Moderator Emeritus <br>
Apr 2, 2007
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Your psu should have a single sixpin-pci-e-connector, right ? A HD 5770 wil run just fine in your system, total powerdraw shouldn't exceed 200W. So no need to buy a new psu. You can keep playing WoW and CSS, but also play all the newest games just fine.
 

HalfCrazy

Senior member
Oct 3, 2001
853
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If I recall correct the 5770 uses the following. You should be fine with the PSU you have now.

5770
idle: ~18w
Load: ~108w
 

sjong1

Senior member
Jan 2, 2010
522
0
71
If I recall correct the 5770 uses the following. You should be fine with the PSU you have now.

5770
idle: ~18w
Load: ~108w

+1

The 5770s are extremely efficient, and are still a significant (also DX11) upgrade to the 9800.
 
Dec 30, 2004
12,553
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I had the color issue, turned out it was a cable problem. Just had to fiddle with it so the red pin made contact.