Zotac Nvidia 8800GT

[thekau]

Hello, I recently got a Zotac Nvidia 8800GT to hopefully improve my gaming experience (aka > Assassin's Creed, haha).

Anyway, I'm having trouble getting the card to work correctly, and I know it's either my shoddy job at installing it, or some part of my computer.

So far I've plugged everything in in hopefully the correct places (I'm a little questionable about whether I connected the DC power cable to the card correctly or not :/). But I may be wrong because obviously it's still not working. And yes, I have downloaded the latest driver for the card.

Sometimes when I turn my computer on, it will work perfectly fine until I start up Assassin's Creed. The screen changes, where the colors will be off and everything will freeze. Also, the screen goes a little whacky and this pattern of white will appear all over. And then I'm forced to manually restart the computer. Other times that happens even before I start up the game.

Specs:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7400 @ 2.80GHz 1.73GHz

I looked around a bit to try and figure out what I did wrong, and one thing that I'm slightly worried about is my PCU. It's a OCZ StealthXStream OCZ400SXS 400W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341020). I've heard that a 400W doesn't cut it for a 8800GT, but at the same time, I've heard from some sites that it does. But I also read that it's not so much the watts that matter, but the amps... so now I'm confused and wondering what is actually correct (I'd like to know before I completely jump the gun and buy a new power supply).

I also thought at that it might be my motherboard, which is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359). But I researched this before buying the card and it SHOULD work with it...

Another thing I've considered:

Incompatibility with my monitor (Asus VW224U [http://usa.asus.com/Display/LCD_Monitors/VW224U/]). (Refresh rate?) I saw from somewhere that having the VGA plug AND the DVI plug connected to the monitor helps... so I tried that but it didn't really do anything to improve the situation.

Edit: I've read into the differences between VGA and DVI a little, and could using DVI over VGA possibly be a factor in all of this?

Right now I'm really frustrated and I have no idea what to do.

Please help!

 

[ewood]

Few questions: Did you buy the card new? Used? If used did the previous owner OC the card? download GPUz and look at the frequencies for the memory and core. How long after you start the game does it take for the artifacts to show up? Does the fan spin up when you start assassins creed

 

[thekau]

The card I bought was manufacturer refurbished, so it should be working fine.

Here's a screenshot of the frequencies:

And it really doesn't take very long for those artifacts to show up. Maybe 10, 15 seconds?

Edit: Oh and I've been trying to check if the fan starts when I play Assassin's Creed, but now my computer won't detect my monitor anymore and the resolution is stuck at a mere 600x800 and the game just stops working before it can even turn on.

 

[ewood]

The card I bought was manufacturer refurbished, so it should be working fine.

Here's a screenshot of the frequencies:

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/06/18/8k7.png

And it really doesn't take very long for those artifacts to show up. Maybe 10, 15 seconds?

Edit: Oh and I've been trying to check if the fan starts when I play Assassin's Creed, but now my computer won't detect my monitor anymore and the resolution is stuck at a mere 600x800 and the game just stops working before it can even turn on.

Sorry for waiting so long to reply again. Try re installing the driver. If that doesn't work is there any way you can try the card in a different PC? What PSU do you have? What does it claim for total wattage and amperage on the 12v rails? It sounds like you may have a defective/damaged card but lets see what else we can come up with before you decide that's the case.

 

[hang-the-9]

Refurbished = broke at some point.

8800GTs have a habit of cooking their chips, it's probably the video card.

Maybe the power supply, but I'd lean very strongly to the video card.

Get a new Radeon 7750, it's a good low end card that will match well with your CPU, and should run at least at the speed of the 8800gt

 

[thekau]

Yeah I reinstalled the driver, but it didn't make a difference.

I have a OCZ StealthXStream OCZ400SXS 400W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341020).

I don't really know how to read the amps and stuff, so this is what I got from the site:
Input: 5A @ 115V, 2.5A @ 230V
Output: +3.3V@24A,+5V@15A,+12V1@17A,+12V2@14A,-12V@0.3A,+5VSB@3.0A

I've been getting some help from other sites, and from what I can gather so far, it's because my card is overheating (I've been told the 8800GT has a reputation for that).

 

[Deemo13]

That should be a sufficient power supply for the card, and while the 8800GT is a beast of a graphics card, it does have a lengthy track record of overheating.

I used to have a similar issue with a 8800GT on my Phenom II X4. It would boot, and then artifact. I thought it was the heat issue, so my friends and I stuck it into the refridgerator for a few hours and booted up again, and it locked up. Eventually, before it locked up, I got the drivers in, and it worked fine for a bit.

Now that card is broken though. But I'm planning on cooking it.

 

[thekau]

Hey, so there's a very great possibility that I may be returning the card. I've already put the message through to the seller, and I'm waiting for a response now.

So at the risk of having this closed for being off topic, I'd like to ask about two new cards I'm considering. It's really come down to an ATI Radeon HD 4770 (512 MB), or an ATI Radeon HD 4850 (1 GB).

The thing is, the 4850 I found is an Acer Aspire card, which I'm very skeptical about because I don't hear a lot about Acer when it comes to graphic cards. The seller for the 4770 is Geeks, which I've mostly only heard praise for. And I really like the fact that the 4770 uses less power.

But I hear the 4850 is somewhat better, and the 1GB of memory is very appealing to me. They're both about the same price too:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-Radeon-HD-4770-512MB-GDDR5-PCIe-Dual-DVI-Video-Card-w-S-Video-Out-/400293842320?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item5d335f4d90#ht_2573wt_881

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acer-Aspire-ATI-HD4850-1GB-DDR3-Video-Card-VG-APC48-512-PCI-e-/130712913900?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item1e6f18c7ec#ht_2837wt_1396

Edit: With the PSU that I have, is it even possible for me to run the 4850 safely?

 

[hang-the-9]

That video card is not really made by Acer, don't worry about it. But you should go with a 6770 or a 7750 card. While those cards you linked are cheap they are out-dated.

The 4770 is a 3 yr old chip and the 4850 looks to have been released in 2008.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+4850

They are both decent cards though, I run a 9800GT, it runs newer games pretty well, and both of the cards you have are faster than that one. But I also had a Radeon 5770 for a while, and it benchmarked much higher. I just could not use it because it caused conflicts with my onboard sound card.

 

[panwala95]

i recommend that if the 8800gt isnt working you shouldnt risk getting the hd 4850 which consumes more power. get the hdd 4770 which although not high end can easily run assassins creed at highest settings

good luck!