Graphics card death

[ghostwalker]

So I think my video card finally died. Had it for a while and it used to run pretty hot and whilst messing around a few games the other day, I was greeted to a lovely screen of red lines all over the place. So bad in fact that you could no longer see anything at all and I think the machine may also have crashed. I rebooted a few times and it would get in to windows ok but after a little while the screen would go mental again. I'm pretty sure that it must be the graphics card as nothing else would cause the red lines right? I know the most obviously thing would be to borrow another card of someone and try that but I can't find anyone who has one.

So, I just wanted to ask, considering I have a really old processor now (see my sig), if I were to buy a new cheap video card, what would you guys recommend? I know I should probably buy a whole new rig with the age of the componants but I can't afford it right now and just want a little bit more life out of it. Will probably replace it in the new year.

So yer, any suggestions?

 

[ghostwalker]

Hmm....didn't seem to want to post my sig so here it is:

Rig:-
Gigabyte GA-P35-S3 Motherboard
Core2Duo E6600
Enermax Liberty 500W PSU
Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR2 PC2-5300/667
WD 500G SATA2 WD5000AAKS HDD
EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Superclocked "Crysis Edition"

 

[DM186]

If you want to stay with Nvidia then a 9800GTX or a GTS450 but maybe you should try a HD 6750 or a 6770 for just a step up.

But if you are going to build another rig then maybe you should get a HD6950 for a GTX560 Ti so when you do build your new rig you will have a card to pun in your new rig, just a thought.

Your PSU would be able to handle any of the cards I suggested, Just don't push the bigger cards do to the cpu. Other than that you should be good to go and Good luck to ya.

 

[swifty_morgan]

a gts250 would be more than your system could handle and still be an upgrade. did you try swapping out cables ?

 

[DM186]

Hmm....didn't seem to want to post my sig so here it is:

Rig:-
Gigabyte GA-P35-S3 Motherboard
Core2Duo E6600
Enermax Liberty 500W PSU
Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR2 PC2-5300/667
WD 500G SATA2 WD5000AAKS HDD
EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Superclocked "Crysis Edition"

swifty is right I did not look up your MOBO I asumed is was ok. I did look up you Cpu and it was border line more to the bad but I was giving it the bennafit of the doubt. Your ram is no good. With the specs you have probley caused your 8800 to have a short life. Any Cards I suggested would have issues with your system. The only thing good is the PSU as it ranks on EggXpert chart as a Tier 2 and It will power the 9800, 450, 6850, and 6770 but not with this system. sorry

 

[ghostwalker]

Ok. Appreciate the input guys. What's wrong with the RAM by the way? Is it just too slow or bad quality that causes it to shorten the life of the video card?

I think a new build is in order really. And the only things salvagible to a new system would be the PSU and HDD right? Might even get an SSD and keep the HDD just for storage.