Upgrading from 7900GT.

[fuzzybabybunny]

EDIT: So I'm just going to upgrade. I figure it's high time considering I've been running this 7900GT for so long...

I've got the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R, which only has one PCI-e: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128050

700W PSU

I'm looking for best bang for the buck under $200. I've got a 1920x1200 monitor, but I'm ok with playing at lower res like 1440xwhatever. CPU is a Q6600 @ 3.4GHz.

So far I've looked at:

4780, 4750, GTX 260

I don't think I could afford any of the 4850x2/4870x2, unless I can find a good deal.

Any good deals? Used is fine. I just moved to San Jose and I've got a Fry's nearby. Wonder if they'd have good prices in the store...

-Original Post-

My 7900GT is acting screwy in all games. Games seem like they're playing on 16-bit color or something because of the obvious color gradients. It also seems to be running pretty slow in all games. I'm not sure what to do because there could be so many reasons for this:

1. 7900GT is pretty old and was voltmodded using conductive ink. Not sure if the voltmodding and overclocking have gotten to it over time.

2. My computer suffered a watercooling leak while turned off. There is no visible damage to the card, but that doesn't mean much.

3. I'm running Windows 7 and the latest build and the nVidia Windows 7 drivers. Not sure if this is causing the problem. I'll try a Vista x64 driver.

4. ATITool can't detect any artifacting, but it artifacts pretty heavily in games.

5. It's NOT overclocked.

 

[taltamir]

wow, that thing is not only pretty old, it also took an amazing beating and still you kept pushing it.
This is impressive. I have no idea what to advise you about the 16bit only problem though.

Its not like there is a lot of written experience about using a DX9 card in windows 7 which is heavily voltmodded and overclocked (in the past) and suffered water damage.

I would first try popping in another drive and doing a quick vista or xp install to check if its a win7 driver issue. (the other drive so you don't have to reinstall win7, just reattach its drive)

That or heavily underclocking and seeing if that changes anything.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Well, I switched over to Vista x64 drivers under Windows 7 and it seemed to fix all issues. Go nVidia for making Vista drivers that run better on Windows 7 than their Windows 7 drivers...

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Nevermind. The heavy artifacting is back. Sigh....