Hardware Graphics card recomendation

[desertman]

Hello fellow Orbi-nauts, I am currently running an Nvidia GS 6800 and have been experiencing lockups lately. It happens most when complex graphics come into view but not all the time.

I am running XP on an AMD 64 3500, replaced the RAM last night (went from 1.5g to 2g matched memory) updated the drivers and its still locks up. I'm at the point where I think it must be the video card.

So I'm looking for a recomendation on a new card. I dont want to get into somthing expensive just want to enjoy orbiter.

Thanks all

TEd

 

[TSPenguin]

You should monitor the temps on the GPU and see if they spike.
In case you didn't do that already, clean the radiator of the card.

You should check the VGA charts on tomshardware.com to define to see what cards meet your goal.

If your lockups are more like hickups and only appear in orbiter, then I fear, there is little you can do about that.

 

[desertman]

TSpenguin, I get random lockups (full blown blue screen. MACHICE_CHECK_EXCEPTION errors) at different times but I can usually reproduce the error in Orbiter. At this point I dont see what else it could be.

I keep the inside of my system pretty clean but I think I will pull the card tonight just to make sure.

Thanks for the help

Ted

 

[TSPenguin]

Now that is pretty hardcore.
It might also be the board or the powersupply. Could be that the card is not getting enough power.

There is a great program called ATItool. You should check it out.

 

[Hielor]

A couple years back I was getting lockups under heavy loads rather often, a few times a night. Fully cleaning out my graphics card and processor (I don't even want to talk about how bad it was) solved the problem; I'd suggest making sure that that isn't the problem for you before buying a new card, as TS suggested.

 

[desertman]

Hielor, thank for the help. the card was dirtier than I thought. I had been cleaning the system but not blowing out the heat sink. When I took the card out and looked into the sink it was almost completely clogged.

Hope I didn't ruin the card. I have run Orbiter several times since the cleaning and no hiccups what so ever.

Thanks all

Ted