Radeon 4870X2 Dying(?), Need Replacement Help

[diggs747]

Hi, so I'm 90% certain my video card is dying. I'm getting driver crashes, blue screens, and artifacts after the card reaches a measely 63 degrees Celsius. I'm pretty sure it's the card because I've under-clocked it so my computer doesn't crash and I can still play some games like skyrim on high for an hour or so before the artifacts pop up again.

What I need is help picking a card that's similar or higher performance for around $80-$150. My systems about 3 years old now and I'm not sure where my bottleneck is going to be.

System Specs: core 2 duo 8500, OCZ 1066 DDR2 RAM 4GB, Rampage formula 2 mobo, Radeon 4870X2.

I was looking at the Radeon 6850, but I'm having a hard time finding benchmark comparisons to my card. What do you guys think?

 

[Rustyy117]

The HD6850 would be a downgrade in terms of performance, perhaps 25-40% slower

A few games now really like quadcore CPU's, your E8500 is an excellent dualcore but may struggle in games that rely heavily on CPU power, you may want to think about upgrading the subsystem (CPU, RAM, Motherboard) in the near future,

 

[diggs747]

The HD6850 would be a downgrade in terms of performance, perhaps 25-40% slower

A few games now really like quadcore CPU's, your E8500 is an excellent dualcore but may struggle in games that rely heavily on CPU power, you may want to think about upgrading the subsystem (CPU, RAM, Motherboard) in the near future,

Hmm. I wouldn't be able to completely upgrade my system for several months, what if I bought a 6950 instead, and carried it over to my new rig later? And what are your thoughts on buying off ebay, is it worth the risk of getting a faulty card?

 

[Rustyy117]

Yeah upgrading the rest of the system later would be fine.

I'd only buy hardware off ebay if the seller had a very good rating and accepted returns.

 

[Clyde Frog]

Have you tried replacing thermal paste on the GPU

 

[andywork78]

ATI 6950 sound really good~

 

[diggs747]

What is the 6950's performance(after unlocking) vs the 4870x2?

 

[Rustyy117]

What is the 6950's performance(after unlocking) vs the 4870x2?

Slightly faster than a 4870x2, perhaps 10-30%

 

[diggs747]

Have you tried replacing thermal paste on the GPU

No I haven't, but I've payed close attention to the cards temperature. I'm maxing my fan speed, the card stays in the 60 degree range and is still getting issues. Could there be a problem with the temperature sensor?

Edit* actually, I doubt it since the card isn't very hot to the touch, relative to what it use to run at.