t wrote:
The current graphic card is AMD Firepro 4800
https://www.amd.com/Documents/ati-fi...-datasheet.pdf

It was working OK till now, but now we are seeing many lines on the
desktop and lot of things are like redacted text.

I updated the graphic card driver to the latest one from
https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-art...s-drivers.aspx
which fixed the issue for a day, then the lines started appearing again.

It had a couple of Blue Screen of Death crashes. I looked at the crash
dump files and the issue was Atikmdag.sys. I updated the driver for AMD
Firepro 4800, but the issue persists.

The user claims no new hardware/software was installed in last few
months. The operating system is Windows 7 64 bit and the graphic card is
supporting two Dell P2213 monitors and a NEC MultiSync V463 for past 2-3
years. The operating system has the required Windows patches and the
workstation is running 24 X 7. It is used as the front end to view
heating/cooling devices in nearby buildings. It has 8GB RAM and Resource
monitor did not have any unusual load.

I did a anti-virus scan, but did not find any malware. I checked for
device conflicts in Device manager, but did not find any.

1. What could be causing the issues?

2. Can upgrading the graphic card resolve it? If so, would Nvidia Quadro
K1200 Low Power, Low Profile or EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0,
8GB GDDR5 or GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 work for such a situation?


Any suggestions would be helpful.

Is the fan still spinning on the video card ?

Video card fans don't typically have tacho output, so there
is no means for hardware to monitor them that way.

Similarly, an overheated video card has no means to turn off the
computer. It's defenseless basically.

It's up to the user to inspect for blocked vents, or verify that
the fan actually spins. If you carry a telescoping inspection mirror, you
might be able to review the fan condition that way, with the side off
the PC.

You can also use utilities like GPUZ or Speedfan, and get a temperature
reading off the video card. And see if it is overheating even when
not switched to 3D mode (clock rate goes up when 3D is called for).

In terms of monitor support, you usually get lassoed into overpowered
cards, by the need for many outputs on the faceplate. For example, a
500 dollar card might have six outputs on the faceplate (two DVI, four
DisplayPort). Lower end cards tend to have a less useful mix of output
ports.

At the current time, new video cards have lost all their VGA capability.
The DVI-I connector has been changed to DVI-D, so you cannot get VGA
that way. You can use an "active" powered DisplayPort to VGA adapter as
a solution. But this adds to the expense of replacing the video card.

A 1030 would probably have sufficient graphics horsepower to drive
the three screens. But you could well be tricked into buying a more
expensive card, just to get a nice selection of ports, plus the
panorama mode to run with three monitors (Eyefinity or whatever
NVidia calls theirs).

*******

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa..._v7800 &num=1

The ATI FirePro V4800 is also capable of driving up to
three independent displays while its core is based upon
the Redwood XT.

The Redwood XT is the GPU found within the ATI Radeon HD 5670
graphics processor.

With the FirePro V4800 there are 400 stream processors, 57.6GB/s
of memory bandwidth, power consumption of less than 75 Watts,
1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 900MHz, and the Redwood XT core
is clocked at 775MHz.

The capabilities don't have to be the same, as the driver can restrict
anything they want it to restrict. An HD5670 won't necessarily work
exactly the same, but would certainly be cheaper. The connector choices
on these are defined by market segment more than anything. And then
you have to pay more (and get more Stream Processors when perhaps
you didn't need them).

https://www.amazon.com/POWERCOLOR-AX...eywords=HD5670

Doesn't list Eyefinity as supported...

https://www.comx-computers.co.za/AX5...y-p-108092.php

With modern enough cards, they don't really have to run hot when not
in 3D mode. So even if a card has a PCIE aux power input, it might
not actually be using all that electricity on a continuous basis.
Back in the 8800GTX era, the "idle" mode ran at 50% of "full power mode"
and the cards really wasted energy. Now, they're better than that.
Some cards could drop to 3W at idle. Some of the tech used, may not
allow hitting those targets on all cards, but at least they no longer
drop to just 50%, and should draw less than 50% at idle.

The next issue will be, AMD may switch to not offering x32 drivers
any more. So if you're buying a brand new card, that's something
else to watch for. And maybe no Win7 drivers ? Buying video cards
now is getting really dangerous. The customers are designed to
get a screwing now. And you have to contend with no stock
at the computer store. They *will* have stock of a $600 card :-)
That's what I discovered in my most recent scan of my
computer store here. Lots of missing SKUs. And then one
card was "stock 10+", which means they have a decent amount
of cards. Too bad the cards are the $600 ones. And these
aren't VEGA cards either, they're ~$250 class cards for ~$600.

And they do have 1030 cards - but too bad the connector mix on
the front isn't all that good. I wish they'd just drop the
pretense and put three DisplayPort on it and be done with it.
Then the user can go shopping for a pile of adapters...

Paul