Graphics Is it time to get rid of my card?

I have an X1600 Pro in my PC but it seems to crash in most of the games I play, Americas Army, Battlefield 2... Both of which my card should take. However, playing AA today my computer crashed (not an unknown problem that I have with this game) but then it came back to life without being restarted saying it went into VPU recovery mode.

Does this mean that it is finally time to replace this card after its year and a bit of irregular faithful service? If so, I don't want to spend too much money and only want a card that will run AA happily until I upgrade my PC late summer/early autumn.

So:
1.cheap card <£80
2. improvement on an X1600
3. work well in my S939 X2 3800 Pc with 1GB RAM and nVidia Chipset
4. cheaper

Thanks for any advice...

 

The VPU recovery mode usually kicks in with heat issues. I doubt your card is dieing, the heatsink and fan are probably now full of dust/fluff. Take it out and give it a good clean out. I bet it fixes it.

If you have to replace it then to be honest theres not alot for under 80 quid but you may be able to get a 7600GT or X1650XT for that money, both better cards for sure but not a huge amount.

If you can stretch another 15 quid you may be able to pick up a 7900GS or for 20 quid a X1950Pro. Either will see you a MASSIVE improvement.

Good luck!

 

Well, thing is since I started playing Americas Army easter last year my computer has ended up freezing thanks to a blank screen which I can only presume to be my Graphics Card. Seeing as I only got my PC in January that year I can only presume that there is some other fault other than dust as it shouldnt have taken hold so quickly. But I will see if there is anything I can do to clean it out. Is it fine for me to just take it out clean and put back in again no problems? I have never installed graphics cards as the only PC I built was a really bad sempron thing for my dad for me to learn on and that used integrated graphics.

 

You'd be suprised how quickly dust can infect a PC. My case is a cheapish one without dust filters and i have to give it a good clean out once a month. It doesn't help thats om on the carpet mind you.

Yeah you can just take it out, clean it, then replace with no problems. I use a small 1/2 inch soft paintbrush to dust out my cards fan.

 

i have the silverstone tj07 which is £200 and "it" dosnt have dust filters....

 

^ You should have got a Lian-Li then

EDIT: Damn, £200 is a lot for a (very, very high quality) Lian-Li V2000 clone.

 

Well I opened my case up and took out my card which is the slightly worse Pro version which I thought. I couldn't find any large build up of dust on it, I blew away a tiny bit but apart from that... What does this mean?

 

Check to be sure the HSF on the card is seated properly?

Is it only America's Army that's giving you problems or does it happen with other games too?
Might just be some sort of software issue. Then again if it is crashing all the time, even soon after you bought it, you should have done an RMA I think.

Uninstall and reinstall the latest drivers too, just to be sure.

 

Well it was a system I bought from mesh computers as at the time I didnt want to ruin building a reasonable spec. computer, so it would have been very hastley (excuse its lack of being a word) to RMA it. No I have had problems with AA, Rome Total War and BF2, although fewer with BF2. I have tried doing a driver update twice before but to no avail.