My PC's New Year resolution: stuff up more

[davidn]

I'd appreciate any graphics card advice!

I'd been doing my best to ignore random occasional lockups on my PC for some time, but as I was shouting at iMovie on Whitney's computer I finally heard a dreaded POST error beep from the other side of the wall. Coming back to a pair of blank monitors, I had to reset and listen to it a couple more times because my internal speaker is quite indistinct - at first I was terrified that it was dash-dot, as that means that the main board has gone, but seeing as my computer appeared to be correctly going through the motions of hard drive activity despite the monitors remaining resolutely blank, I'm pretty certain I'm actually hearing dash-dot-dot, which means it's just the graphics card which has gone on strike. That was definitely the pattern I heard when I listened to it closely after taking the case off.

I ripped it out and ordered a new one online - I trusted my instincts and got the Geforce 9400 GT, but when I suddenly remembered that I had an unbroken record of ordering graphics cards that were completely awful, I immediately got on the phone to cancel it again and seek advice from other people.

I'm not after anything madly expensive or indeed capable - the above card is a budget one at $50 but I'd be prepared to go up to about $100. Around my computer, I generally try to keep the fact that it's the 21st century quiet - I think the most stressful thing I ever ran on it was Portal. I just need something that's PCI Express (I have a 1.x slot but 2.0s are backwards compatible), capable of running two monitors and likely to last.

Any recommendations?

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I'll tell you what I went with and what I tell everyone -- the 9800 GT is fairly cheap but pretty powerful. I've heard it roughly compared to the GPU of an Xbox 360, and that seems about right in my experience. Two DVI ports and one HD-capable component port, but you can only use (any) two of them at a time. Goes for about $100 these days, from what I've seen.

[davidn]

Oh yes, I remember you mentioning that not very long ago - specifically the detail about having only two ports active at a time. That's pretty much exactly my setup just now as well - two monitors and a link to the TV, and I have two modes set up for either dual monitors or one 1024x768 monitor cloned on the TV. I've had the 9800GT recommended on FA as well (this is what I love about everyone I know - advice for stuff like this comes very quickly) so that may well be what I end up going for - I'm prepared to pay more for something that'll last me longer.

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

Apparently the 9800GT must be the greatest card of all time because I was about to suggest it.

TF2 runs on all settings maxed and I never bothered to crank up the settings on L4D2 but that runs great on whatever Valve claims I should use.

I suppose graphics cards haven't had any major leaps lately since I got mine a year ago and even then it wasn't top of the line.

Yet another 9800GT recommendation from another friend who actually knows things about graphics cards. I just bought it because the only thing I ever heard about graphics cards that went into my brain was 8800 IS THE BEST THING EVER and then 9800 is just an 8800 streamlined a bit.

[davidn]

Excellent :) I don't even know what my old graphics card is, because it's three years old and I can't find the box - it was about $100 in 2006 if that's any indication of its ability. I'm definitely not planning on running anything more stressful than the level of TF2 on it and it looks like I can get it for around $80, so this is looking extremely likely - thanks to you both!

[davidn]

Actually, here's a question for you - what brand was your card from? I see two brands on Tiger Direct, BFG and ASUS, and the BFG one is slightly cheaper. The major difference is that the ASUS has a fan and the BFG a heatsink, which I'm suspicious equates to "blows up within two months", though apparently it comes with a lifetime warranty.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I don't even know... I kept the box, but now I can't find it... but, the guy (http://firebreathxiii.livejournal.com/) who recommended the 9800GT to *me* in the first place says that he's partial to BFG; "The 9800GT doesn't heat all that much, especially the second generation". But this is beyond my personal experience now!

[davidn]

Ah, I've seen him post on your journal - well, that's good to know as it's one of my immediately available options! Thanks a lot for your advice, it's been very helpful (and handy that the 9800GT recommendation was completely unanimous).

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's almost bizarre how universally favored it seems to be... when was the last time one random model wound up becoming the de facto standard like this? (Go figure that the only example I can think of is fictional (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/R2-series_astromech_droid)..)

[davidn]

You could count the IBM architecture of the PC itself! The Mac clung on to its share of the market, but I don't know anyone who has a 'PC' that's anything but IBM, and haven't since the start of the 90s. I'm not sure I can even name any apart from Amiga - which might even only have been a UK thing - Archimedes and Sparc.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Even then though, that was only one of... maybe five, six types of computer? And that has more to do with Bill Gates' shrewd and questionably-moral business dealings than with the viability of the system itself...

[kaedeko.livejournal.com]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130435

[davidn]

And another one for the 9800GT :) It makes it easy to decide - I ordered a BFG-branded one in the end last night, which seems to be the only one that doesn't use a fan, but as long as it comes with a lifetime replacement warranty I'm happy.

[starfishchris.livejournal.com]

I went for the other side - I considered the 9800GT, but over here you can get the Radeon HD 4770 for cheaper, and performance/power consumption is roughly the same. I'm very happy with it since I can now run Team Fortress 2 at full detail & antialiasing at 1600x1050. Hooray for that!

[davidn]

Actually being able to play games on the PC is going to be an unusual experience for me once again - I think that on the whole this card's going to be very frustrated at never having to use more than about 5% of its capacity... (and I'd say much the same about the 500GB hard drive I ordered, too, but I seem to be able to expand my needs beyond their capacity much faster.)