buying a new video card

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filodore

Geek Trainee
buying a new video card/game errors and crashes

i was just wondering if anyone could help me with what new video card to buy.

currently i have a 64mb geforce4 mx440se with tv-out but i think that is causing my games to crash, etc so that is why i'd like to buy a new one.

i don't have enough money to buy an extremely good card so i was looking in the area of AU$250 or less. i was thinking possibly a 256mb geforcefx 5600 128bit agp 8x for AU$200 or else a radeon 9600 or better.

i would like the video card to be completely compatible with LOTR: War Of The Ring; WarCraft3; and Counter-Strike as those are the main games i play.

thanks in advance.

my most common stop erros that im getting are 0x8e and 0x7f but most of the time i just get fatal errors from warcraft3 or unhandled exceptions from lotr: war of the ring. so if you believe that these errors aren't from my video card can you tell me what could cause it? but i would still like to buy a new video card anyway. btw, could my ac97 onboard audio be the cause? i'd like to buy a new soundcard as well.
 
The best way to see if the onboard sound causes the problems is to turn it off and see if it changes anything.
Some like the Hercules fortissimo but I took the Audigy 2 ZS because I can't get my hands on one of the hercules. It also came with Raven Shield which is a great game imo.

As for your video card, if you buy one, I'd go the ATI route because they have a better DX9 implementation and they have better image quality. Also, the performance suffers less from turning AA and AF on. Whatever you do, don't get any SE versions, they are slower and their speeds are unpredictable (they vary from brand to brand)

As for your problems, do you have another video card you can try your games with ? Even if it'll be slower ? That way you can see if the problems persist. One good place to look at is the event viewer (control pad/administrative tool). If it reports anything relevant, post it here and we'll take a look at it.
You can also go to www.memtest86.com and download a utility which tests your RAM. If it returns errors, then you gotta' change your ram and the problem is likely that.

Lastly, could you give us your system specs ? It'll be easier for us to look for a solution, thanks.
 
well i know the onboard audio has caused a few problems in the past and thats why im going to buy a new soundcard soon.

but i do also believe it is the video card causing me problems as well. i dont have another video card that will work on these games. the only other video card i got is an intel i740 or something from my old p2 300MHz computer.

there is nothing in event viewer about when the games crash because im not getting stop errors anymore. i occassionally look in there to see if i can fix the problems, but no, it aint in there.

i also know its not RAM because i have tried that test before, like ages ago, and it didnt come up with any problems.

my specs are:
p4 2.4GHz
512mb RAM
64mb geforce 4 mx440
gigabyte ga-8st667 mobo with ac97 onboard audio
winxp home

but thanks for the advice on going towards ATI. btw, im not getting stop errors anymore because i changed my nvidia drivers to 53.03 which i had previously used, but these drivers still cause the games to crash. when i got the stop errors i was using 29.xx or something.
 
Smart move on updating the graphics drivers. Of course, it's usually a good idea not to update drivers unless you're having problems like you were in your case.

Hercules is excellent, but Philips also makes some nice sound cards. My only gripe with Philips is that you had to shell out an extra $10 to have fully functional software, at least with the Dynamic Edge. However it is worth the money.
I've tried Creative sound cards, but they're overpriced and come with bloated software that takes forever to install. I'm not sure if they fixed it with the Audigy 2, but I know it was that way with the Audigy 1.
 
so you wouldn't recommend a soundcard from creative? or just the audigy series? because i was thinking of possibly getting a creative soundblaster live 5.1 soundcard becasue for me, it seems that nay soundcard is better than what i have now and as long as it doesnt casue problems with my computer i'll be happy.
 
Creative Labs themselves are one of the worst companies I've ever encountered. Their tech support is awful, their drivers are sloppy and underdeveloped, and the Audigy1 is just plain broken. To sum it all up, I hate Creative Labs.

This being said, Sound Blaster Live! Family cards (including Audigy) utilize a processor called an emu1k, which is a very powerful and sophisticated chip. Currently, Audigy 2 or better cards are hands down the best for EAX accelleration, which is very important for realistic audio in games. Also, you'll not find a more standard sound card on any platform or any OS. Recently Creative has open-sourced portions of their drivers, so you can find 3rd party Live and Audigy 1&2 drivers out there legally.

Even with gaming in mind though, if you want to do audio engineering with your PC (or any multitrack recording for that matter), steer clear of Creative and look to Delta for cards like the 1010 (10 in, 10 out) or the 2020.
 
Ok if you system crashes and you don't get stop errors it could either be the temps, so I suggest you monitor them.

Or it can also be the psu, which you can test by striping down your system to its bare minimum to see if it changes anything.
 
Listen to harrack52. Also, it could also be a hosed OS. What operating system are you running, anyway?
 
Why is it a bad idea to update drivers for video cards unless you are having problems? I thought they were supposed to make the cards run better and get more out of them?
 
Because other drivers can create problems which you didn't have before.

It's not meant to be, but it is reality.

It all depends on your system config and the software/games you use.

For instance, AA doesn't work in Raven Shield with the cat 3.10. It used to work before but now it doesn't anymore. It has something to do with the game manufacturer (ubisoft) not implementing AA the proper way. ATI fixed his side of the court but it created problems with this game. This is just an example.
 
Well, sometimes new drivers have some issues that they may not have caught. ATi's Catalyst 3.8 drivers are a good example of that, where these drivers apparently killed several people's monitors.

Sometimes newer drivers aren't as fast in certain as previous ones. I stuck with the 21.83 Detonator drivers for the longest time because of stability issues and that the newer drivers were optimized for the GeForce 4, rather than the GF3 I had at the time.

This isn't just for video card drivers either. To me, it's not worth trying to find the driver set that gives me the highest 3Dmark score. The only reason I got newer Dets above the 42.xx was because there were some display problems with Deus Ex: Invisible War on my GF4 Ti4600. They seem to be a little slower than the other ones I was using, but I could only tell with benchmarks.

My main box has been running the same set of drivers since the install early last year (basically about the same time as the GA7VAXP Ultra review).
 
anti-trend, you should've read my second post properly because i have posted that my os is winxp home.

harrack, i know it's not my system overheating because i have taken temp readings and asked a computer technician and he said that they are normal. but what do you mean by the psu? and how do i check it?
 
Any good PSU should be able to power a nice system. He was saying that to see if the PSU isn't the problem, unplug the power/remove devices that you don't need for the system to run. You can also use a multimeter to double check the voltages.
 
is there any way to check it without opening my computer? because i cbf doing that, lolz. is there a way to do it through windows or software?
 
hmmm....

i think it really is my soundcard because i updated my drivers on them and now counter-strike is crashing as well just after a lot of noise.

so tomorrow im going to go buy my new soundcard.

since most of you don't recommend a soundcard from creative, i was thinking a Hercules Game Surround Fortissimo II. do you guys reckon it's a good card, because i've been looking at reviews and it seems a way better card for an extra AU$20.

or would you all recommend i get the Fortissimo III? that's another extra $30 which is a little overbudget for me, but do you think that the improvements between II and III will be worth my extra money seeing as i only want a soundcard that won't crash my games and give me reasonable sound quality?

please reply asap since it's tomorrow im going to buy it. thnx.
 
Originally posted by filodore
is there any way to check it without opening my computer? because i cbf doing that, lolz. is there a way to do it through windows or software?
Click to expand...

You can use a software monitor, but that only reads what the mainboard is giving it. If the mobo isn't displaying the voltage correctly, you won't know. It's not a necessity, though.

I have the Fortissimo II, and it's still an awesome card. Early drivers had some issues, but the 1.50 drivers are excellent. If you're not sure what version the driver CD has, you can always download it off Hercules site.
 
i need sum info guys....

i couldn't find the hercules fortissimo 2 because its sold out everywhere and then i cant find a place on the net to buy it and i cant wait a whole week if i order it from the shops. i found hercules fortissimo 3, but is dat the same? or better? because i want it to be @ least the same as the fortissimo 2 but if it aint as good i wont get it.
 
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