new graphics card

Andy

Right guys, i've been playing Star Wars Galaxies the last couple of days and my computer is crashing.

Every time it crashes i get a blue screen and it tells me its graphics card related so i'm considering getting a new one but not sure what to get. I currently have a nvidia geforce 6200 LE 64mb but shares system memory to bump it upto 256mb (so i've been told)

I'm looking at spending around £100 mark so any suggestions?

dodger

Are you sure that it is Graphics Card related, I had this on one of my systems and it was one of the memory stick failing. At boot up it would state 512Mb but after a period of time one would fail giving 256Mb. Just a thought.

Matt

It does sound to be graphics card related, as it's crashing when you are playing a game. As the card is only 64mb with shared memory.

Andy

yeah its defo graphics card related. when the blue screen comes up its says its either the graphics card driver problem or hardware problem.

the game says its recommended 1gig of memory which i have but if the graphics card is useing some of the system memory then i suppose the game is struggling to run properly.

Matt

What spec graphics card does the game recommend?

Andy

64mb 3d graphics card with Vertex and pixel shader capability, what ever that means lol.

Andy

well i bought myself a new card yesterday, its a Geforce 7600 GT 256mb. i got it from pc world and my computer is running much better.

didn't realise how bad my old card was untill fitting the new one.

Matt

How much did you pay Andy? I'm going to need a new graphics card as well soon, as I'm still using the onboard one at the minute

Andy

it was £130 from pc world, didn't wanna get one online as i didn't want to wait lol.

i used the following site to help me choose one

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/charts.html

my old card was a geforce 6200 and was bottom of the table, the new one is much higher up.

Matt

Sweet, I'll have a look around that site this evening.

Andy

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/ ... &chart=196

thats a link to the same site but it shows a comparison between my old and new graphics card ( the ones highlighted in blue )

Matt

The on-board one I'm using at the minute is only 64mb, and I don't have the drivers for it since I re-installed XP, so it's running like a bag of shite

Andy

can't you get the drivers for it from the motherboards website??

Matt

Probably could, I'll have a look at what MoBo is in there tonight. I'm not really that clued up on Desktop PC's, as I've had laptops for the past 5 years :oops:

Andy

i don't know a great deal about computers but i know enough to get me by lol.

Matt

I know loads about PC's, as it's my job, but I've never looked at the hardware side, as I've never needed to, with not owning a desktop

Matt

Upgraded the Graphics card this morning, ended up getting this:

Nvidia GeForce6200 (256mb)

Only thing this is missing is a fan on the heat sink. I've got a spare 6cm one which I'm going to try attaching later on this evening, as it's sat @ 52dec C at the minute.

I've also installed a Belkin 802.11g+ Wireless LAN card, another 250gb Samsung Hard Drive, and a 12cm fan at the front of the case to push air out of the front vent.

The PC is running nice and fast now, having a seperate graphics card makes such a big difference. The screen colours are sooo much more vibrant, and runs a lot smoother.

Matt

This is how I've got my Harddrives laid out.

Got 620gb in total now on this PC.

Andy

620gb, bloody hell you'l never run out of space lol.

sounds like you been busy though.

Matt

Yeah, took me longer to do that it should, as I bought PCI Express rather than AGP, so had to go and exchange the graphics card :oops: