Eh, need a little help.

[Lebzile]

Well, I just got this computer I'm currently on not 5 months ago and already my graphics card is starting to act really funny on little MMOs I play out of boredom.

See:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310 ... _31_23.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310 ... _28_46.jpg

The game is called Requiem, it just hit OB and it's a pretty low budget game. And this starts happening maybe afetr 30ish minutes of gameplay and it's starting to annoy me.

I can't tell if it's the crappy games fault or that my graphics card is over-heating. Also, I play WoW just fine, no distortion or anything. Set on normal settings and only a few decreases to decrease lag in some places.

Current graphics card is okay, I guess. I never was good when it came to computers, well, not 100% ignorant, just mainly the guts of the computer. I currently use a 128MB ATI Radeon X1300, which I heard is better for watching videos online, rather playing games.

Guess my main question is, "Does my graphics card suck for gaming and should I get one of these instead?(I'd like to stay within the 160-180$ range. I'm a cheap ass."

[Fallso]

My friend had a problem with graphics artifacing, it was due to his GPU fan breaking because of about a kilo of dust in it lol. Might wanna do some maintenance on your computer hardware.

[shinoniken]

That's your video card overheating/dying. Check to make sure the fan is still working. Check the temp it's running at. If they're normal, then it's probably on its way out. To answer your question, no, that is not a "gaming" video card, and you can get some decent cards for about 180$.

[Lebzile]

Hm. How do I check its temperature?

Like I said, I'm almost 100% ignorant when it comes to the guts of a comp. e_e

Also, I'll try taking the side panel off and dusting it off from the inside and see if that helps. Thanks for the help.

[Shuemue]

The 8800GT is a vastly superior GPU

[Lebzile]

I heard it was, like I said, my current card is pretty shitty for gaming but it's a good card for watching movies and such.

About the temperature thing, I got that SpeedFan program from the Utilities list and I still have no idea what it means. I fail at computers.

[edit]

This is what the temperatures section is showing if anyone wishes to interpret it for this simpleton.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...Random/wut.png

[Cephius]

That's your CPU temp. Speedfan doesn't always pick up on your GPU temps. Download HWMonitor, that should show you your GPU temperature.

[Lebzile]

Mm. The 2 cores are at 38 degrees C and the HDD says 43. That sure does not sound right. rofl

[Norellicus]

Eh, it's about normal. 38C means your CPU is pushing just over 100F; by contrast, I'm pretty sure my CPU does 105F no problems at all.

HDD 43C is a bit more shocking, though that may be par for the course; I don't know average HDD running temps these days.

[Lebzile]

Well, I guess all I have left to try is take the side panel off and blow out all the dust that might have accumulated in it. Hope that stalls the blowing up of my gfx card. e_e

[Lebzile]

So, today I got in my new graphics card, I was like "Yay, no more stretching enviroments."

Proceeded to pop off my side panel, take the old one out, install the new one. Set my computer back up, hit the on switch; everything popped up stretched out and back to the old 800x600 settings.

Set it to my normal 1400x1250 settings and: It didn't fix. At this point I'm boiling since I just wasted a whole 91$ on this thing because it's not working right. Did a google search for the driver, fully updated it; still didn't fix it.

Looked on google some more to come to find out..

"It's not compatible with Vista."

Fucking Dell. Morons. Last time I let someone else tell me what graphics card I should get if they don't know what they are talking about, especially from dell.

tl;dr

I got ripped off and got sent a fucking "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter." Yay me.

I'm going to sit in my fucking corner and cry now.

[edit]

Also I had to uninstall my old graphics driver for my ATI Radeon and now I can't figure out where to redownload it at, anyone got a link?

I found this site:

http://driverscollection.com/?H=Radeon%20X1300&By=ATI

But, have no clue what to download. :/

[Shuemue]

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Pick OS > model > happiness

[Lebzile]

Thanks.