Temporary/cheap replacement for a Nvidia 7900GT?

My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well
as the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the
9xxxx series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

"Pickled" wrote in message
...
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well as
the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the 9xxxx
series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

Waiting for the 9000 cards will be at least 4-6 months. Then your going to
play the 6-12 months of driver updates before they get it right. Soon after
that it's going to be the 10 series.

Try eBay.

I'd guess that the cheapest card that is comparable in performance to a
7900GT is one based on the Radeon X1950XT chipset. www.newegg.com lists a
model of that for $125 (there's an additional $15 rebate at the moment). I
believe that NewEgg does not serve the UK, but there is a lot of information
there and I find it convenient to sort through it using their Power Search
tool.

The only ATI card that I've had was a 9700 Pro, but I liked it well enough.
(Didn't overclock worth a damn, though.)

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Pickled" wrote in message
...
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well as
the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the 9xxxx
series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

may be worth just underclocking your card by 5 -10%, might fix all
problems...free!

"Bob Knowlden" wrote in message
. ..
I'd guess that the cheapest card that is comparable in performance to a
7900GT is one based on the Radeon X1950XT chipset. www.newegg.com lists a
model of that for $125 (there's an additional $15 rebate at the moment). I
believe that NewEgg does not serve the UK, but there is a lot of
information there and I find it convenient to sort through it using their
Power Search tool.

The only ATI card that I've had was a 9700 Pro, but I liked it well
enough. (Didn't overclock worth a damn, though.)

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Pickled" wrote in message
...
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well
as the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the
9xxxx series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

Ref: de "Bob Knowlden"

I'd guess that the cheapest card that is comparable in performance to a
7900GT is one based on the Radeon X1950XT chipset.

Same problem, same choice :
My 7900GT began to show graphics artifacts, indicating it was slowly dying. (the
infamous vrm problem on those series of cards, as described he
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=58485)

Replaced with a generic ATI 1950 pro (noname)

Only problem so far: cooling fan *much* more noisy than 7900gt.

If you choose this option look at the noise level in the cards specs. Some 1950
models have their fan speed thermo regulated, maybe a better choice
--
Gilles "Cool Raoul" - http://coolraoul.cvp-net.com/

Pickled wrote:
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well
as the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the
9xxxx series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

8600GT. It's roughly as fast as a 7900GS. Cost is under 200.

I've tried underclocking it and still I get the problems, also I've
tried cleaning the fan, removing the heatsink and applying arctic
silver with zero difference.

Unless 53C (temperature while idle at stock) is a now a problem then its
not heat related as far as I can tell.



tony h wrote:
may be worth just underclocking your card by 5 -10%, might fix all
problems...free!

"Bob Knowlden" wrote in message
. ..
I'd guess that the cheapest card that is comparable in performance to a
7900GT is one based on the Radeon X1950XT chipset. www.newegg.com lists a
model of that for $125 (there's an additional $15 rebate at the moment). I
believe that NewEgg does not serve the UK, but there is a lot of
information there and I find it convenient to sort through it using their
Power Search tool.

The only ATI card that I've had was a 9700 Pro, but I liked it well
enough. (Didn't overclock worth a damn, though.)

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Pickled" wrote in message
...
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well
as the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the
9xxxx series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

Pickled wrote:
I've tried underclocking it and still I get the problems, also I've
tried cleaning the fan, removing the heatsink and applying arctic
silver with zero difference.

Unless 53C (temperature while idle at stock) is a now a problem then its
not heat related as far as I can tell.

Heat is often blamed for a card failure. Sometimes - cutting edge
graphics card are just broken.

I've had two faulty on arrival in my time, and it's not like I buy
graphics cards every month.

For a cheap, performance graphics card I recommend the Nv 7600GS. Your
requirement "Perform like a 7900GT but cheaper" is probably not obtainable.

"deimos" deimos@localhost wrote in message
...
Pickled wrote:
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I can
use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as well
as the 7900GT it replaces.

As this is an unplanned purchase it needs to be cheap as its eating into
funds I was saving for something in the midrange of the Nvidia 9xxxx
series or high end Nvidia 8xxx series (when it drops in price as the
9xxxx series is launched).

Any suggestions on what or where to look (im in the UK if that makes a
difference) for such a card?

8600GT. It's roughly as fast as a 7900GS. Cost is under 200.

not a response to which card to get, but I had a similar problem with a
6800, the cause of mine was a case fan was drawing air straight past the
video card and depositing that very fine dust on everything (caked aver the
legs of numerous chips) After whipping it out and giving it a nice bath in
contact cleaner and using a fine brush to dislodge the dirt, it was a goer
again. and hasn't missed a beat for the last few months. It's also
overclocked a fair way too!

"deimos" deimos@localhost wrote in message

Pickled wrote:
My current 7900GT seems to be failing (causing intermittant
lockups/corrupt textures/blue screens, etc). So I need something I
can use as a stopgap until the 9 series appears.

I dont mind what make the GPU is but its got to perform atleast as
well as the 7900GT it replaces.

[...]

8600GT. It's roughly as fast as a 7900GS. Cost is under 200.

The 8600GTS is roughly equivalent to a 7900GS, not the 8600GT.