Do I need a new graphics card?

[ididntdoit]

Alright so recently I've been having some computer problems. Every time I try to play a game my monitors go blank and then I get a message saying "VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands." And when I'm just scrolling down a web page my CPU usage jumps to 100%.

Anybody know whats up? Would picking up a new graphics card fix all this? Or is there maybe something wrong with my mobo? I just don't want to go spend $150 on a new card then figure out it's something else.

Here's some basic specs

ATI Radeon x1600 XT Graphics Card
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.21 GHz Processor
2 GB of RAM
Windows XP Pro SP3
No idea on the mobo...

Thanks in advance!

 

[theAnimal]

Have you reinstalled the driver?

Also check if the fan is working on the card.

 

[ididntdoit]

Have you reinstalled the driver?

Also check if the fan is working on the card.

lol I've reinstalled the driver and the OS (twice). And yes the fan is working. Well, its spinning. I'm not sure how well its working if my card reaches 120 °C though.

 

[vouslavous]

Well your card would be old to run the new games out there now. It looks to me that your CPU or your GPU is overheating. I would remove the heat sink and fan off of both and re-apply some thermal grease on it like Arctic Silver.

 

[coozie7]

HOW hot?;(
Go directly to the Catalyst Control Centre. Click on `Overdrive`. Click on the little padlock icon in the top left corner and the `yes` to unlock the feature. Set the fan to at least 50% or as loud...sorry fast as you can stand. Click on `accept` to set the changes.

 

[ididntdoit]

Well everything seems to be fixed now. I switched my drivers to Omega Drivers and it runs perfectly. Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

HOW hot?;(
Go directly to the Catalyst Control Centre. Click on `Overdrive`. Click on the little padlock icon in the top left corner and the `yes` to unlock the feature. Set the fan to at least 50% or as loud...sorry fast as you can stand. Click on `accept` to set the changes.

I don't have that option. All I have is overclock stuff. And my graphics card got up to 120+ (°C) while gaming and around 80 while idle.

 

[Wrecks]

"And my graphics card got up to 120+ (°C) while gaming and around 80 while idle."

By a new card now. That thing will die soon.

 

[outlw6669]

Yeah, 120°C load and 80°C idle is WAY to hot for that GPU.
I would recommend looking into a newer card.

 

[fullmetall]

65c is the limit you need to be worried about when seeing things like that. Get a new card before you fry it literally.

 

[outlw6669]

Actually, for GPUs it is more like 90°C where you need to get worried.
Especially with the newer GPUs where both the GT 200 and R 700 chips top out at 105°C and can easily idle in the mid 60s.

At any rate, a three generation old mid-range card is well past it's upgrade date anyways.
Are you still stuck with AGP or does your motherboard have a PCIe 16x slot?

 

[fullmetall]

Well yea but, as you see he has a x1600.. gaming at 120c is not good that will kill the graphics card, my brothers graphics card was something just like that yesterday, it fried on him will multitasking, he checked his temperatures before since he was feeling heat, it was in the 90c's going up + the stock cooler was going bad. Make sure you have atleast a descent stock cooler on your cpu aswell.

 

[ididntdoit]

120+ was before I installed the new drivers. I was playing TES Oblivion all last night and the average temp was only around 95. I'm still not sure why the new drivers fixed this though.

At any rate, a three generation old mid-range card is well past it's upgrade date anyways.
Are you still stuck with AGP or does your motherboard have a PCIe 16x slot?

Its a PCI-e x16 card.

 

[fullmetall]

Mabye a little bit but, 95c is still way to high for a graphics card. If im running as low as 40c top - 50c then idk what your doing

 

[outlw6669]

...Its a PCI-e x16 card.

That is good, I was worried you might be stuck with an AGP system based on the rest of your system specs.
I would recommend looking into a new 4670 for as little as $50.
They are very power efficient cards that should give you roughly twice the performance of your current GPU.

I have no explanation for you as to why the new driver package lowered your temps.
It is possible that it raised your fan speed a bit or optimised your rendering paths as to reduce GPU strain but, being three generations old, that should have happened quite some time ago.
Even wih the lowered temps, however, you are still running into the red.

@ Fullmetall

What GPU/GPU cooling are you using?
Your temps are unusually low and GPUs are designed to run hot.
Temps in the 80s are perfectly acceptable and, with the newer cards, they can run just fine through the 90s.
Hell, even most CPUs can run in the 70s with out any issues.

 

[fullmetall]

I've got a simple 3870, huge heatsink/fan attachment. Sometimes i'll run it in xfire, then i have a 4870 aswell.

 

[mcbar]

hi everyone that faces with such a problem,

i was playing pes 2009 with no problems with my Sapphire Ati radeon x1600 pro graphic card. first, after 3-4 hour gaming computer started to reset itself or quit game with that error saying ".... No longer responding to graphic driver commands ...". by time my gaming time started to decrease up to 40seconds
i recognized the importance of problem when i saw the tempreture of the gpu is 95'c.

i tried most of the things that written on forums. Omega drivers, uptade gpu bios etc. finally i could solve the problem simply.

"I refreshed the heatsink on the gpu,"

step 1- remove your graphic card, remove the 2 screws at the bottom side of your card so you can relase the fan and fan case
step 2- apply new heat sink on gpu (gpu is the square part that has grey heatsink over it "simply" ))
step 3- do the reverse of the step 1 but be careful not to spread heatsink over any other materials on the card.

additional steps
4- run pes 2009 in window mode, at the same time run catalyst control center> ati override and see the tempreture as normal level

i'll be glad if i helped you...