help me polish a turd :)

[mr_starfire]

lol sorry about the title

anyway hi guys i have the gainward nvidia geoforce7900 gs bliss 256 ddr3 pci-e
graphics card and i have had nothing but trouble with it i was wondering if anybody hear has had any experiance with the following problems

huge artifacts on games (my psu is 750 watt)

the fan doesnt seem to know the differance between a demanding game and a word document and seems to change speed totaly at random

on full load the temp never go above 55

i have tried all the drivers nvidia have had on this card and the early ones work fine for a day or two then i start to see the same problems

anything above 1.7 and i get all sorts of problems

ive just used riuvatuner and undercloked the card to 200 mhz!!!!
memory and the core

and i still get the same framerate in burnout paradise but it looks like shite


surely it should look the same but be slower????

ime getting ready to throw this bloody thing away and use my dreaded intel graphics and just give up playing games

please guys answer these questions

what are the standard memory and clock speeds for this card

why can it play games like crysis but then 2 minutes after struggle to play farcry

ime using dx9

and the driver ime using at the moment is 6.14.11.7813

the rest of my rig is as follows

e2140 1.6x2
2gig crucial ddr2
1x 160 gb sata hdd (systemhdd)
1x 160 gb ide hdd(storagehdd)
nvidia7900gs pci-e
750 watt psu
foxconn mobo name escapes me

[ShyguyXPC]

just to be sure, you've cleaned off the card of any built up dust?

other than that, if its artifacting and you've tried underclocking it, different drivers, etc, almost sounds like its dying, or on its last legs.

I'm running Windows XP with My E2140, but using a 9800GTX with it and a 500W OCZ Modular PSU, 2GB DDR2 800, 80GB SATA Boot Drive, 60GB PATA data, and have another 80GB SATA for storage. using an ECS Intel G31 chipset motherboard.

so aside from storage and Video card probably similarly spec'd.


this should be the stock specs on a PCI Express Geforce 7900 GS nVidia GeForce 7900 GS PCI-E Video Card - Reviews, Specifications, and Pictures - GPUReview.com


the only thing I can think of and maybe suggest is to take the card out, take the cooler off, clean off old paste off of GPU and apply some new thermalpaste (possibly to RAM as well, not sure what to do if its using that putty like thermal adhesive though), reattach heatsink/fan.

plug in and hope its keeping it cooler and not artifacting.

but the fact you under clocked it by 200MHz, and its still artifacting, its possible the ram chips on it are going to. hard to say exactly though.

[Martoch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr_starfire

huge artifacts on games (my psu is 750 watt)

Quick question...what is the make/model of your PSU? Telling us that it's 750 watt is not enough info to be quite honest. I'm sure JPMiller would back me up on this statement.


Oh, JP???

Also...is this a complete new build or just an upgraded graphics card?

[JPMiller]

Amen!
Numbers mean Nuttin!

as already stated...Take out your card and inspect it carefully...
note any bulging or leaking capacitors...
make sure its truly clean and fully seated...
give us the specs from the PSU sticker

[mr_starfire]

thx for the replies guys i forgot to mention that i have applied thermal paste and it did cool down but i still had artifacts

also my psu was pretty cheap so i guess it could be the isuue after all

my psu is the SilverStone 750 watt Zeus ST75ZF 750

cost me 60 pound
i guess it sux

any suggestions on a better psu

[ShyguyXPC]

Silverstone is a good brand, you should be fine with that unit.

to answer their question for you, since you didn't list the specs on the power supply...

SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd - Designing Inspiration

+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, +12V4, all have 22A.

combined +12V is 60A, 720W total.

more than enough for you system, in fact its overkill.

but again their a good brand.

but that is indeed cheap to pay for that unit, comes out to just under $100 USD, normally Silverstones higher end units like this are much more higher in price.


was it bought used, or new?

[mr_starfire]

hi i boght it at a computer fare in the west midlands in a box of odds and ends it was still boxed i also had a 120 gb sata hdd from the same box hence the reason i assumed it was a cheap brand also the hdd died after 3 weeks

[ShyguyXPC]

if it was still boxed and sealed it should be ok, unless maybe it was banged around a lot, but overall Silverstones PSU's are usually pretty solid built.

in recent years the only problems I've heard of them having is cooling fans dying prematurely on some models.

[DoubleK]

And to mention I have had fans die on the graphics card and cause the same issues. Ensure the fan is spinning as I am sure you have since you applied new thermal paste and all.

[mr_starfire]

thx for the help guys but ive come to the conclusion that my card has died

i decided to install windows 7 yesterday through sheer boredom and it wouldnt install because althogh i kept forcing it into vga mode the setup kept
switching to a resolution more than what my monitor can handle and so i couldnt see the setup page

anyway i decided to reinstall xp and did so but after trying literally every driver (and yet again reaplying thermal paste )
the same issue arrises also the card fails the test in gainwards expert tool for safe mode and enhanced mode clock speeds

also had a very wierd problem (unrealated)whilst downloaing drivers
my download speed was 10 megabytes a second not 10 megabits
i have a 20 megabit connection and usualy get the normal 2.5 megabytes
anyway the drivers were at sizes like 128 mb were downloading in seconds
which i was pleased about untill i came to use said drivers that is
theye were all corupt and unusable

anyway back to my card (IT SUX) lol i was going to get another card for this board but i dont thinki will bother seen as cpu z reports that my mobo only runs at 4x

should i throw this card in the bin or is there anything else i can try ????