Nvidia Go Boom (Graphics card crap)
Hegelian:
Well, usefulness is in the eyes of the beholder; but see my modified post above. :P
Some current shooters stress even the most advanced gaming boards when set to high resolutions (1900x1200 or whatever) with full anti-aliasing and other eye candy (or so I've read).
Count Four:
Thanks, Hegelian. All that info will help a lot.
Meantime, I've tracked down the specs for the motherboard. That says, yes, the chipset is GeForce 6150, but that the motherboard "supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards".
The computer is a Presario, vintage 2006. (One of the little stickers on the case says "Designed for Windows XP, Windows Vista Compatible", though of course it was built to minimum specs needed for either. :-\) It's still got a little elbow-room for some upgrades, if I can be bothered.
Another question, while I'm thinking of it. Could a problem with the driver (became corrupted, maybe) be causing these crashes, or would that cause even worse problems than the ones I'm having? The random crashes tend to happen only when doing graphics intensive stuff, such as using IrfanView, or starting a game like Sims 2 or Fable. As of now, I've been surfing and reading stuffs for several hours with no crashes.
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: Hegelian on 2009 December 10, 19:16:50
Some current shooters stress even the most advanced gaming boards when set to high resolutions (1900x1200 or whatever) with full anti-aliasing and other eye candy (or so I've read).
So, in other words, a purely masturbatory exercise, as no one can actually PLAY under those conditions, because everything looks like a flashbang went off in your face from all the blurring and bloom.
Hegelian:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2009 December 10, 19:51:30
Quote from: Hegelian on 2009 December 10, 19:16:50
Some current shooters stress even the most advanced gaming boards when set to high resolutions (1900x1200 or whatever) with full anti-aliasing and other eye candy (or so I've read).
So, in other words, a purely masturbatory exercise, as no one can actually PLAY under those conditions, because everything looks like a flashbang went off in your face from all the blurring and bloom.
Lol! Well, who knows what 18-year-old eyes can see these days? Perhaps they're better "trained". In any case, it appears the game against which all graphics boards are measured is Crysis. Here are some benchmark results for the PowerColor Radeon HD 5870 LCS; at these extreme settings, note the minimum frame rate of 3 fps. (I've seen some suggestions on the interwebs that the high hardware demands of Crysis are the result of inefficient coding, but have no way to verify the claim).
Even at more reasonable settings (no AA, for example), performance from this high-end board is mediocre at best with this title:
Note also that under full load this board draws 330W in stock configuration, and 500W+ when overclocked. Better have a beefy power supply for this guy. MSRP is US$515. Click here for the full test.
Oh, and its water-cooled out of the box. ::)
Here are the specs:
Model LCS HD5870
Core Speed 875MHz
Memory Speed 1250MHz (5.0Gbps)
Memory 1GB GDDR5
Memory Bandwidtd 256bit
DirectX® 11
Quote from: Count Four on 2009 December 10, 19:23:50
Meantime, I've tracked down the specs for the motherboard. That says, yes, the chipset is GeForce 6150, but that the motherboard "supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards".
Then you're good to go for less than US$100, as long as your power supply can support the board you buy. The PSUs in prebuilt machines from the big vendors are often uber-cheap and barely adequate to run the default parts, so you may be looking at a graphics/PSU double switch. Make sure the motherboard can accept aftermarket PSUs; Dell, for example, is notorious for using non-standard PSU connectors that cause the motherboard to burn out if you install an aftermarket unit. This is probably less likely with a PC from HP/Compaq.
Quote
Another question, while I'm thinking of it. Could a problem with the driver (became corrupted, maybe) be causing these crashes, or would that cause even worse problems than the ones I'm having? The random crashes tend to happen only when doing graphics intensive stuff, such as using IrfanView, or starting a game like Sims 2 or Fable. As of now, I've been surfing and reading stuffs for several hours with no crashes.
Given the symptoms you describe, it is most likely a problem with the graphics hardware rather than the driver. A driver problem is not impossible, but I would think it would be more consistent than what you report. The crashes appear to occur when you place the graphics controller under stress, which suggests hardware rather than drivers. But there's no harm in deleting the installed drivers and trying updated ones. I'm afraid I can't give you any guidance about which versions of the nVidia drivers are good and which to avoid, however.
J. M. Pescado:
Yes, but note also that the resolution being drawn is COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE. Who the hell HAS a monitor like that?
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