Need advice on inexpensive replacement PCIe video card

[techwanabe]

I have a Radeon X800SE in my Dell and it has served well. But it looks like its dying or dead. I need an inexpensive replacement... something perhaps a little better but low cost until I get working again.

Idea's? Thanks!

 

[happy medium]

If I'm not mistaken thats a pci-e slot and a 4650 for 55$ shipped would be perfect for your pent4 @3.2.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102829

 

[TemjinGold]

If you don't play any games, this would be a lot cheaper.

 

[techwanabe]

I do play games or I would want something as good or better than the Radeon 800SE. Honestly I mostly play an obscure MMO game which doesn't need a super video card but its always good to have something that will handle the option of something now and then.

So my only requirement is a low cost card that will best the Radeon X800. Af a $50 card will do that, I'm in. I have several older spare AGP cards on my older platform which would even fill in on older MMO's but even my 2nd rig has quit working - can't even format the hard drive so maybe the 6 month old motherboard went bad.

I'll see what the concensus is here on a replacement card for the old X800 and put in an order soon.

Thx!

 

[crisium]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121320

Even though it's not the fastest 9600GSO model made, it'll be faster than a DDR2 4650. Only $5 more without rebate, and much cheaper if you go through with the rebate.

edit: If you are fine with this site, then this is a faster card:

http://www.ascendtech.us/itemd...asp?ic=VC768PNY96GS0WB

$57 free ship is awesome. No rebate, but it is faster than the newegg 9600GSO - and much faster than DDR2 4650. I openly prefer ATi to Nvidia but the 9600GSO is the best card for that price.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: techwanabe
I do play games or I would want something as good or better than the Radeon 800SE. Honestly I mostly play an obscure MMO game which doesn't need a super video card but its always good to have something that will handle the option of something now and then.

So my only requirement is a low cost card that will best the Radeon X800. Af a $50 card will do that, I'm in. I have several older spare AGP cards on my older platform which would even fill in on older MMO's but even my 2nd rig has quit working - can't even format the hard drive so maybe the 6 month old motherboard went bad.

I'll see what the concensus is here on a replacement card for the old X800 and put in an order soon.

Thx!

The 4650 will more then double your old cards performance.
For 55$.... I say go for it.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Crisium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121320

Even though it's not the fastest 9600GSO model made, it'll be faster than a DDR2 4650. Only $5 more without rebate, and much cheaper if you go through with the rebate.

Crisium he's gaming with a 19" crt,and older mmo games. Remember also It's a Dell with probrobly a
250 watt psu and only a pentium4 @3.2. I don't think he would see a difference with that cpu. Do you?

I think a 9600gso is a little overkill?

Edit : but it is a good price on that 9600gso don't get me wrong.

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Crisium he's gaming with a 19" crt,and older mmo games. Remember also It's a Dell with probrobly a
<250 watt psu and only a pentium4 @3.2. I don't think he would see a difference with that cpu. Do you?

I think a 9600gso is a little overkill?

Edit : but it is a good price on that 9600gso don't get me wrong.

I used to have that Dell, it has a 400w PSU that handled a 7900GT just fine.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Crisium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121320

Even though it's not the fastest 9600GSO model made, it'll be faster than a DDR2 4650. Only $5 more without rebate, and much cheaper if you go through with the rebate.

edit: If you are fine with this site, then this is a faster card:

http://www.ascendtech.us/itemd...asp?ic=VC768PNY96GS0WB

$57 free ship is awesome. No rebate, but it is faster than the newegg 9600GSO - and much faster than DDR2 4650. I openly prefer ATi to Nvidia but the 9600GSO is the best card for that price.

sorry but with a single core P4 he will already limit the crap out of a 4650. he would see no benefit from anything faster. personally I would just go with a 9500gt if I had that slow and outdated of a cpu.

 

[techwanabe]

I can see the CPU limited situation.

Well, my Dell (I'm on it for the moment) is blue screening every 5-10 minutes. I am guessing it is related to the video card. I haven't changed the drivers but I know wrong/bad drivers can cause BOSD too.

Sounds like the 4650 will be a good inexpensive card. I'll have to get it ordered, and installed. I'm saving all my files to an external drive preparing once again for a clean wipe, since BSOD is usually best cured by a reformat and fresh install.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Blue screens can be caused by so many different things. I wouldn't necessarily associate it with a bad video card. It could just as easily be bad RAM, bad motherboard, overheating processor, overheating motherboard, or just software/driver conflicts.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Blue screens can be caused by so many different things. I wouldn't necessarily associate it with a bad video card. It could just as easily be bad RAM, bad motherboard, overheating processor, overheating motherboard, or just software/driver conflicts.

Oh the joy of diagnosing BSOD. I used to encounter them on WIN NT when I worked in a bank. The only way we usually solved them was a fresh install of windows. I've not in the past cured them by replacing hardware but who knows. Here is what happened:

First I took the computer out of the car and set it up. Upon power up, the screen was black and a single line of something displayed. I figured, ok, the video card is loose or not seated properly. I opened up the computer, pulled it out and reseated it. Computer boots fine, I use it all evening and play an MMO for several hours. This morning I was killing time and playing the MMO again and suddenly the screen turns blue but no message. Just blue. That seemed to me the 3D circuit was to blame cause after I rebooted, I could still browse with IE. I tried running the MMO but got a message that Windows Encountered an Error. I pull out the card again, reseat it and now the game will run. But ever since then, I get the BSOD every 10 minutes approx. Even if I'm doing no more than IE or just copying files to an external drive - to save everything incase I need to re-install windows.

One thing I don't want to do is get into a buy this buy that scenario trying to replace parts one by one until the machine is stable. I can try pulling RAM chips and replacing the video card tho. The fan on the video card has been noisy for 6 months so it may be getting hot and becoming marginal. That is why I suspect the card. Oh, I did pull out all the RAM sticks and put them back in too when the computer wouldn't first boot after transporting it. Prior to transport, it was solid.

update:

just downloaded and installed latest Radeon drivers to the ol Dell. Then tried running the MMO. It ran for a few minutes and went to a blank blue screen. Not the typical BSOD that shows the memory dump screen. I just pulled out all the memory cards and swapped them in the sockets and reseated the video card again, blowing the dust out of the PCIe slot. It just seems weird this seems to have repeating video problems.

Unless anyone has any revelations, I'll order a new card and see how it goes. I do have all the files I need saved off to an external drive if I need to install on a new computer or reformate this ol Dell, which has been reliable up to now.

Update 2:

Rebooted after solid blue screen. This time traditional BSOD after only a couple minutes. Something is hosed. Being unemployed I don't want to just spend willy nilly but this old old lappy isn't up to every day chores (667 mhz Pentium III) =P

 

[techwanabe]

update. Tried taking out memory sticks and running PC etc. Pulled half the memory, still got BSOD. Swapped for other memory, but then got only black screen, which to me tells me the video card isn't displaying anything more than a one line code eith P/N and a series of numbers etc.

All I can do now is order a new card and install drivers. That will tell me if the card is bad or not.

 

[SolMiester]

BSOD is 99% either hardware drivers (are you letting windows update drivers?) or RAM......period..

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
BSOD is 99% either hardware drivers (are you letting windows update drivers?) or RAM......period..

I have a new video card coming. I can also swap out my 3 memory sticks to see if one of them is to blame, one at a time. Will try it when I get home on Tues. I already tried manually down loading video driver and that didn't resolve. So by last poster, whats left is memory?

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: happy medium
If I'm not mistaken thats a pci-e slot and a 4650 for 55$ shipped would be perfect for your pent4 @3.2.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102829

That card arrived yesterday - it was quite small! I installed it and there was no picture to my monitor at power-up so I'm assuming its DOA. I put the old X800SE back in and got a picture and up and running. RMAing the Saphire HD 4650 and wondering if I should try again or get something different.

One thing about a better card is if I build a newer platform PC in the next 6 months, a better card would yes, be limited by my current CPU, but would run faster than my X800SE and could run even better in a newer platform.

 

[0roo0roo]

was it fully seated? try again.

in any case free fsaa and 16x aniscopic is always nice on older games.

its very strange of you to blame the new video card first when your system is bsod every 10 minutes.

a stable system should run memtest overnight. that doesn't stress the video card. i have doubts you'd pass that. run other stress tests in a loop as well. i'm guessing your psu is also probably dodgy. the "3d circuit" isn't "dodgy" as you said. it simply is the only situation where your psu load is maxed out probably with cpu and gpu both under strain. any psu degrade in performance will lead to issues at that point. if you cant get your system to run stable with clean os and minimal setup u can't diagnose something like a new video card. its simply nuts go jump to conclusions like that and abuse newegg. stop all your nonsense. run memtest on each ram stick alone, overnight. if it fails on any or all, you know either your system or all your ram is bad. if you pass with one or any of the sticks, then clean install windows. and stress test from there. stick the new card in a friends pc and see if it works.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
was it fully seated? try again.

in any case free fsaa and 16x aniscopic is always nice on older games.

its very strange of you to blame the new video card first when your system is bsod every 10 minutes.

Strange? No picture? Black screen with new video card. Yes it was fully seated. I've built enough computers and installed enough parts to know how to seat a video card. I did it twice to make sure. Same result. Put old card back in and viola, picture again. I think your going way overboard to accuse me of abusing Newegg. I got a part, it didn't work, I RMA'd it and will try again. I'll check the memory too.