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PC-GAF: My GPU is dying. Please help me choose a new one.

Wonko_C

Wonko_C

Member
So today I decided to finish Shovel Knight on Steam and the screen froze with the sound stuck making it sound like buzzing. I had to cold-boot my PC and now the post-BIOS screen has strange characters and there are dots all over the screen. I can only start windows in failsafe mode, normal windows just gets stuck in B(lack)SOD.

I let it cool down for a few minutes and the weird BIOS characters went away, but as soon as I tried to boot windows, BSOD again, which forces me into a manual restart and the dots and weird characters are back.

My GPU is quite old (GTX 285), and I periodically open up my PC and dust it. While not 100% sure I'm guessing it's the GPU that is dying.

I'm starting to consider buying a replacement GPU, but money is tight at the moment so want to buy a cheap GPU as a stopgap, since I'm planning on building a new PC next year.

So TL;DR: What's the cheapest GPU I can buy that can give me at least 720p/60-30 fps on medium-low settings with last-gen ports and 1080p-720p/60 with most indies and something not very taxing like Strider?

Edit: The rest of my PC is just as ancient: Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR2 RAM@800mhz, ASUS P5QL/EPU motherboard.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
What are the specs of your PC apart from the gtx 285?

Tempted to say off the top of my head, get a gtx460 or 480 from ebay..
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
The GTX 750 is supposed to have tremendous performance for the cost but I'm not sure if it would be compatible with your mobo.
 
s_mirage

s_mirage

Member
Wonko_C said:
My GPU is quite old (GTX 285), and I periodically open up my PC and dust it. While not 100% sure I'm guessing it's the GPU that is dying.
Click to expand...

Almost certainly. My first GTX 570 did pretty much the same thing except it died after only nine days.

What CPU and motherboard are you using?
 
Jessie.Bristol

Jessie.Bristol

Member
Bronetta said:
The GTX 750 is supposed to have tremendous performance for the cost but I'm not sure if it would be compatible with your mobo.
Click to expand...

That is what I am using, bought mine for $90 on Ebay and it is amazing for the price. I am not what you would call a "PC Gamer," this was my first card and is very good.

Edit: Mine is an EVGA GTX 750 Superclocked. I then overclocked using EVGA Precision X.
 
S

_SAKY_

Member
Do you have on-board video? If so, recommend you start by pulling the Nividia card and see if you can still boot into windows using the on-board video instead or (might be a stretch here) try using another, known to be working, video card. Still problem = some other issue. Weird screen issues are likely related to the video card IME.

As others mentioned, post the rest of your specs, no sense in spending big $$$ only to get a card that is hindered by the rest of your PC.

EDIT: Time to treat yourself to an upgrade or buy a cheap ass video card
 
B

Blitzhex

Member
Yeah your GPU is artifacting, but I wouldn't bother replacing it. Replace your whole system... your parts are hella old :p
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Definitely don't spend more than $150 or so unless you plan on using the card in a completely new build sometime soon. That Core 2 Duo is going to hold you back quite a bit.
 
D

darkhunger

Member
Naminator said:
From what I've seen, 750ti looks like a great card for a very low price, and thats new.
Click to expand...

I just upgraded my 6 year old Dell (with crappy power supply) to a 750ti and an SSD. Also did a hardware hack to my Core 2 Quad that overclocked it by 20%. Did this because I am not a huge PC gamer and don't want to spend on a new PC, but wanted to just keep this thing going for a few more years.

Feels like a new computer though, and I can play most 2+ year old games at max with great fps. Newer games I can handle by turning down the settings.

Either way I would recommend this option if you don't want to splurge on a new computer and you don't mind the hit on your performance.
 
S

_SAKY_

Member
if your card is borked....yeah a cheap replacement card is probably best unless you are ready to get a new rig together.
 
Boss Mog

Boss Mog

Member
You didn't really put an actual budget for the card but for ~$150 you can get a card that delivers good 1080p performance on medium to high settings. There's two choices the AMD R7 265 which performs about 15% better than the other card but consumes more power. The other card is the nVidia GTX 750 Ti while performing a little worse it's much more efficient and is actually using next-gen "maxwell" hardware.
 
F

fedexpeon

Banned
Zefah said:
Definitely don't spend more than $150 or so unless you plan on using the card in a completely new build sometime soon. That Core 2 Duo is going to hold you back quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the CPU will probably bottleneck you in the end.
Try to find a cheap 750TI somewhere, I think Bestbuy was selling it for like 120.00 when I went there last week.
Could be a promo sale, but it was dirt cheap for that kind of performance.
 
Wonko_C

Wonko_C

Member
I'm actually looking at something for less than $100. As cheap as I can. But not something as low as a GeForce GT 610 (which I tested and could barely play Strider at 800x600 lowest everything.)
 
M

meptrep

Member
Same as other people are saying, the 750Ti is a great choice if you want to go Nvidia and the Radeon 265 is about the same in terms of performance if you want to go AMD, but they're both actually about the same price now.
 
G

Green Card

Member
Do you only want NVidia? From Toms Hardware - While the Radeon R7 260X offers similar performance for considerably less money, gamers who want to upgrade an entry-level PC with a low-output power supply may consider the GeForce GTX 750 Ti.
 
1

10k

Banned
GTX 750Ti is $150 USD and can run most last gen games at high settings and 1080p30. Go for that.
 
Z

ZeroX03

Banned
Wonko_C said:
I'm actually looking at something for less than $100. As cheap as I can. But not something as low as a GeForce GT 610 (which I tested and could barely play Strider at 800x600 lowest everything.)
Click to expand...

Can't emphasize enough the difference spending that extra $50 will make. Your computer is jurassic as it is, slowly upgrading dead parts to crappier parts will end up costing you in the long run. Honestly your rig is going to struggle hard in the next few years regardless of GPU, a full replacement is on the horizon.
 
I

IAmRandom31

Banned
You don't need much of a GPU to play games at 720p and such. My radeon 6770 which is about 100$ now can play tomb raider at high with some ultra at 900p over 30.

Or what you are looking for the 6770 or now 7770 which is the same price I believe would be a solid 100$ range choice. Dont expect 1080p x 60 but you will be able to play things very nicely at 720p for awhile. I actually moved my PC back to my 1080p TV and it is still holding up well. Generally playing @ 30 now for most games but I'm still able to kick up the visuals and the AA fine.

I believe toms hardware does runs quite often of " best x price GPU for June 2014 " or whatever. They might so sub 100$ GPUs too but not sure
 
S

slapnuts

Junior Member
Larogue said:
Why only 4GB of ram? add more ram, its cheap as hell.
Click to expand...

His specs really wont benefit more than 4GGB of ram. You need to realize that in the PC realm that balance of spec's is essential, over-doing it really is a waste when we are talking spec's of this nature.
 
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