Graphics Card Flaking

ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
edited January 2010 in Hardware
Hey all. Continuing my streak of exceptionally bad luck with hardware, the past couple nights when I've come home from work I found all sorts of graphics fragmentation all over my desktop (Win 7, 64-bit, interestingly enough though, the welcome screen displayed correctly). This was after leaving my GPU folding all day at work. The garbage would then go away after a reboot. Im suspicious that my 8600GTS is giving up the ghost. This did start happening right after I upgraded to the latest nvidia drivers though so I have rolled them back and will be testing it again today however I don't hold out much hope.

My questions to you all are:
1) would you concur that it sounds like my card is dying or do you have alternate ideas.
2) If you concur, can I get some recommendations for an inexpensive (preferably under or around 100 dollars) nvidia card that will tide me over for a couple of months until I can get a 5850 or 5870.
I say nvidia card because I plan on putting it into the new Linux workstation I'm building after I upgrade my windows desktop. I will then be folding on it via Wine. Currently only nvidia cards can fold using wine.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    Bake your GPU: http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/dead-8800-gtx-scienced-to-undeath-by-oven-mad-owner/

    The entire 8000 series suffers from inevitable solder microfractures that eventually causes graphical anomalies. Reflow the solder, fix the card.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    Ah yes... the GPU baking... how could I have ever forgotten?



    ... do I have to wear the pink wig though?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    Pink wig optional, but +5 rep.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2010
    Well... baking the GPU worked. For about 4 weeks. Card started flaking out again last night while folding. I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new card until then no GPU folding for me :(
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2010
    Well while the 8600GTS was a great card for its time. The newer 200 series and ATI 5xxx series are great upgrades.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2010
    Yeah... I was going to hold off a bit and get a 5850 but now that my hand is being forced I think I may have to go for the 5770 just to get something stable back into my system. There's also a bundle with an Athlon2 X4 and a 5770 for 250$ on newegg that caught my eye.
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