Cpl Steiner Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Hi guys, I replaced my graphics card not long ago (can't be more than a year) with a Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB. That card never seemed to work that well with CM:SF, although it was perfectly OK on every other game. Now it too has died. The fact that my machine seems to kill graphics cards with such regularity makes me think maybe the PC itself is the problem, however, I digress. Can anyone recommend a new graphics card for my PC that will work perfectly with CM:SF. My PC Spec: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual Core 2.01 GHz, 2 GB RAM Asus M2N4-SLI motherboard I'm basically looking for decent frames per second on max or close to max settings in scenarios like "Al Amarah" and the infamous "Obj Pooh" battle in the Marines campaign. I'm quite happy to try ATI if nVIDIA drivers are believed to be the course of my previous CM:SF problems. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoex Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Well, I'm no graphics card grog, all I can say is I use a Geforce 8800 GTS with 640 MB and I get min. 20 FPS on max settings, which is fine for me. I have an Intel Quad Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz though, don't know whether that makes any difference. 2 GB ram also 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lampshade111 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I got a Nvidia GTX 260 (216) for a good price. Works great in most games, Shock Force seems to hate it however, particularly when it comes to shadows. I don't know for sure but I am imagining that ATI cards work better when it comes to Shock Force. Judging from my rather lacking FPS on my new build rig, you will certainly need a hell of a machine to run large scenarios on max settings. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Eddie- Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I have two computers, one with an 8800GTX (around two years old) and an 8800GT (one year old) and both are fine. Running on Vista 32 for both machines. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 You need a new PSU dude. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acrashb Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 The fact that my machine seems to kill graphics cards with such regularity makes me think maybe the PC itself is the problem, Check your voltages (3,5,and 12 should be within a few percentage of the "correct" values) and then see about the temperature inside your case - maybe the fans aren't doing their jobs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandur Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 what the last two posters said, but mostly you have to pay close attention to the amperes(the A´s). after that you could check your PSU´s volatge output if it supplies the voltage without "jumps" up and down; sorry cant say it better but i guess you know what i meam. your graphic card manual will tell you how much amperes the card need minimum at the 12v 6(8) pin grapic card cable to function properly. if you play games wich make you card "work" and it wants the full amount of ampere it should get but does not get it for longer times you got a good chance it will get damaged sooner or later. so if you by chance buyed a the new card after haveing a Dx9 card and didnt looked at what it needs, and maybe even have a cheap PSU wich was intended to work withthe Dx9 card, it can well be that the lack of amperes damaged you newer(!) card. the old one could well have died a natural way, as Dx9 cards are relatively easy on a PSU compared to the new stuff. EDIT: PS.: no, theres no difference in Nvidia/ATI, i got both, dont see a difference other than my newer ATI card "sometimes" beeing unable to scale the trench LOD properly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 Thanks everyone. Can anyone recommend the best way to check my PSU. I read somewhere on line that you need to use a digital multimeter because software checks aren't reliable. The article I read also recommended NOT checking the amps and only checking voltages because a non-expert like myself is likely to fry his whole computer if not careful. God I hate computers sometimes! [EDIT] Here's what I read off the side of my PSU: “Advance” ATX 12V Switching Power Supply Max 550W Model EA-550WS Vac Input: Voltage 230V Current 4.5A Frequency 50Hz Vdc Max[tb] +3.3V, +5V, +12V -12V, -5V, +5VSB BLK, GRN, GRY DC Output 32A, 35A, 30A 0.8A, 0.5A, 2.5A COM, PS-ON, PG 260W, 360W, 550W 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 Damn edit timeout thing stopped me prettying up that "table" (I wish you could do proper tables in vBulletin - anyone know how?). Here it is again with tabs replaced by dots. “Advance” ATX 12V Switching Power Supply Max 550W Model EA-550WS Vac Input: .......... Voltage 230V ............. Current 4.5A .......... Frequency 50Hz Vdc Max ......... +3.3V, +5V, +12V ....... -12V, -5V, +5VSB ........ BLK, GRN, GRY DC Output .......... 32A, 35A, 30A .......... 0.8A, 0.5A, 2.5A ...... COM, PS-ON, PG ..................... 260W, 360W, 550W 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandur Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 so i see you got 30A at the +12V cable wich "should" work but i suspect the 8800 XX will nead something like 35 or a bit more. as said it should be written down in the 8800er manual somewhere. about checking the "real" output, youre right either you take the numbers wich the software suplies or you take the numbers written on the PSU itself or its description wich is mostly enough. i wouldnt use a multimeter on my PC, i would make something wrong for sure 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 I hope I can draw on everyone's advice once again. After a lot of messing around I've since discovered that I can play games if I reduce the screen resolution, and sometimes the colour depth (if this is an option). On higher screen resolutions, however, such as my desktop resolution (1280x1024) games crash pretty well immediately. It doesn't help that my monitor developed a fault several weeks before all this, such that if the screen resolution changes I get a black screen and it has to be turned off and on again before the image is displayed. Would the lowering of screen resolution to get the card to work indicate bad VRAM on the card, or the PSU not providing enough power? My money is on VRAM personally, but I would welcome a second opinion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 My guess is that the high resolution causes the GPU to overheat. By my knowledge changing screen resolution has no effect on VRAM, only texture quality would have such effect. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuomio Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I really wouldnt expect PSU to kill your GF cards. The most prominent feature of PSU failure is sudden boots/memory bluescreens getting increasingly frequent. If you want to check your PSU health, you have to open it and look at the capacitors. If they show any signs of internal pressure, you either have to replace the capacitors or buy better PSU. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapHappy Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Steiner, check your main memory modules for problems, too. Use a program like MemTest. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethaface Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 A better PSU is definately needed if you intend on buying a new Graphics card. My new Core i7, 4870x2 & 6 GB ddr3 ram surely gets you the FPS you mentioned One thing that bothers me though is that small foliage and grass polls still are only visible at a certain distance. I dont have that 2gb ddr5 for nothing ! On your problem; probably your graphics card has burned out partly already, but you could allways clean it thoroughly (dust, etc) and check if the fan still working good. If I had to put my money somewhere I would bet overheating. Did you thoroughly cleaned your pc, checked if all the fans still working? Ive never heard about a psu destroying a video card, but perhaps the power output is degraded and not enough when the system needs full output? Perhaps you know someone else or a shop where u can test your system with a working 650+ watt psu. That way at least you wont have to buy a new graphics card for nothing 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapHappy Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 The PSU may be faulty, but a 650 W supply is MORE THAN ADEQUATE for a 8800 GT card. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapHappy Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 A better PSU is definately needed if you intend on buying a new Graphics card. My new Core i7, 4870x2 & 6 GB ddr3 ram surely gets you the FPS you mentioned One thing that bothers me though is that small foliage and grass polls still are only visible at a certain distance. I dont have that 2gb ddr5 for nothing ! On your problem; probably your graphics card has burned out partly already, but you could allways clean it thoroughly (dust, etc) and check if the fan still working good. If I had to put my money somewhere I would bet overheating. Did you thoroughly cleaned your pc, checked if all the fans still working? Ive never heard about a psu destroying a video card, but perhaps the power output is degraded and not enough when the system needs full output? Perhaps you know someone else or a shop where u can test your system with a working 650+ watt psu. That way at least you wont have to buy a new graphics card for nothing Would you be willing to post some FPS examples from that rig for CMSF? That's a pretty hardcore setup! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 My PC Spec: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual Core 2.01 GHz, 2 GB RAM Asus M2N4-SLI motherboard IMO, it doesn't make much sense for you to purchase one of the modern high end graphic cards, since the rest of the system likely can't keep up with it's performance anyway. It's like a Ferrari with the engine of a 1960th' Beetle. If you just want to replace your damaged GC, look out for a lower budget card, but don't expect any wonders. If you want a real performance boost, you should buy a complete rig where the perfomance of the components match each other. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethaface Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Scipio is quite right there, anything like a 260 GTX / 4870 or higher would probably be too much for your cpu to handle. And slaphappy, using fraps I get anywhere between 17 and 140 fps on large scenarios. Average would be 30 - 40 when there is quite some action going on. (FSAA 4x AF 16x)However I dont trust fraps fully, it seems that when I disable it, cmsf runs smoother. The most noteworthy is perhaps that I could record a 15min movie in RT action @ 1920x1200 30fps and that the game didnt stutter a bit (ending up 4GB per 6min). One other thing, i think cmsf doesnt support crossfireX so probably only one of my gpu's is active. If I was only looking at CMSF I wouldn't have bought this system. Perhaps the most important thing for CMSF is a fast CPU and a lot of memory (64bit OS is necessary above 3GB). Any decent GPU with enough vram should be enough for CMSF. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 Well, despite all the advice, I went out today and bought a Geforce 9600GT 512MB (by "BFG Tech" - never heard of them). So far the card is performing well and I haven't had any problems. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have enough juice from the PSU it would have shown up by now somehow, and in any case a 550W power supply should be up to the task I would have thought. I am 99% sure the first card that died was killed by dust, as it was clogged with the stuff when I removed it. This time around it wasn't so obvious but the dead 8800GT card was pretty enclosed and it was hard to see inside all the vents/cooling fins etc. In any case, it was only half dead, so I suspect one or two memory chips had gone tits up which only showed a problem when a lot of texture memory was needed. I will see how long this new card lasts and if it dies too I'll probably get a new PC altogether! Thanks everyone for your help. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Ahhh the 8800GT runs very very hot. Mine now, just running a browser (with SF open but minimised) us 79 degrees - and that's with the fan at full speed. Probably that if it's so enclosed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 Ahhh the 8800GT runs very very hot. Mine now, just running a browser (with SF open but minimised) us 79 degrees - and that's with the fan at full speed. Probably that if it's so enclosed. My old 8800GT used to be about 60-65 degrees most of the time, rising to 80 odd in Call of Duty 4. I used RiverTuner to check the temp of my new 9600GT and it was only about 35. The blurb on the box said it had some sort of cooling enhancement to make it run on average 18 degrees cooler than other makes of the card. This is good news to me but I intend to instigate a cleaning regime from now on to blow all the dust out of the machine every few weeks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Hey Cpl Steiner - I've got a perfectly good Asus 450W PSU. Built for a quiet case so it's a good one. Come pick it up from Wavertree gardens (by The Rocket) and you're welcome to it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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