Video Card Recommendations

[Guest]

I recently bought an MSI NX8600GT card for my new PC, and for the last
week had been enjoying its excellent performance. Then yesterday, my PC
suddenly refused to boot and just gave a series of beeps (meaning a hardware
failure). I immediately took the machine to a service center where they
diagnosed this brand-new video card as defective. They confirmed by
substituting with another one - the machine then booted fine and showed no
sign of other damage.
I'm very upset to think a brand new card could fail so quickly for no
apparent reason, and I'm wondering what kind of card I should replace it
with. Obviously I'll be filing a warranty claim for this card, but because I
need the machine ASAP and can't wait weeks or months to go through the
warranty process, I'll have to buy another card in the meantime. I was
considering buying an EVGA-branded card with the same chipset, or perhaps an
EVGA with the 8600GTS chipset instead. Is any one brand more reliable than
another, or are they basically all the same cheap Chinese junk?
One last question: what's the difference between the 8600GTS regular and
"superclocked" versions, besides the extra $30 on the price tag?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Yes Baby]

I recently bought an MSI NX8600GT card for my new PC, and for the last
week had been enjoying its excellent performance. Then yesterday, my PC
suddenly refused to boot and just gave a series of beeps (meaning a
hardware failure). I immediately took the machine to a service center
where they diagnosed this brand-new video card as defective. They
confirmed by substituting with another one - the machine then booted fine
and showed no sign of other damage.
I'm very upset to think a brand new card could fail so quickly for no
apparent reason, and I'm wondering what kind of card I should replace it
with. Obviously I'll be filing a warranty claim for this card, but because
I need the machine ASAP and can't wait weeks or months to go through the
warranty process, I'll have to buy another card in the meantime. I was
considering buying an EVGA-branded card with the same chipset, or perhaps
an EVGA with the 8600GTS chipset instead. Is any one brand more reliable
than another, or are they basically all the same cheap Chinese junk?
One last question: what's the difference between the 8600GTS regular and
"superclocked" versions, besides the extra $30 on the price tag?
Thanks for any advice.

take it back to reseller for exchange..............or am I missing things.

 

[Guest]

It was purchased on Ebay, the seller referred me to the manufacturers RMA
page where I have since filed for an RMA....

 

[kony]

I recently bought an MSI NX8600GT card for my new PC, and for the last
week had been enjoying its excellent performance. Then yesterday, my PC
suddenly refused to boot and just gave a series of beeps (meaning a hardware
failure). I immediately took the machine to a service center where they
diagnosed this brand-new video card as defective. They confirmed by
substituting with another one - the machine then booted fine and showed no
sign of other damage.
I'm very upset to think a brand new card could fail so quickly for no
apparent reason, and I'm wondering what kind of card I should replace it
with.

Get the same thing if that's what you want, having a random
sample of one card failing is not going to make it more
likely another of the same will.

Obviously I'll be filing a warranty claim for this card, but because I
need the machine ASAP and can't wait weeks or months to go through the
warranty process, I'll have to buy another card in the meantime.

OK but do you need to game with it during this period? If
not just pick up the cheapest thing you can find.

I was
considering buying an EVGA-branded card with the same chipset, or perhaps an
EVGA with the 8600GTS chipset instead. Is any one brand more reliable than
another, or are they basically all the same cheap Chinese junk?

They're all basically equivalent quality though some have
better fans or heatsinks but even these are often the same.

One last question: what's the difference between the 8600GTS regular and
"superclocked" versions, besides the extra $30 on the price tag?
Thanks for any advice.

The superclocked would seem to be clocked at a higher rate
for GPU and/or memory giving it a minor performance
increase. Typically it is not worth the extra $30 in this
class of card, you might even be able to overclock the
non-superclocked card to the same level, though it it
possible the superclocked version has some component changes
to allow for higher clockrates like different grade of
memory chips spec'd for higher speed.

The 8600GT supports newer feature sets but it's necessarily
any faster on average than the prior generation cards. A
7600GT is a little faster with aging games but slower with
future games (if all eyecandy were turned on), and a 7900
series is faster than any of these and now it's price has
dropped to the point where I'd suggest it as the first pick,
IF you need to game until the RMA replacement arrives. It
isn't a DX10 card but in the end can achieve higher FPS than
8600GT.

Hopefully your ebay seller acquired the card from a
legitimate source so you do have a warranty... IMO buying
some things off ebay are more of a risk than it's worth.


http://www.frys.com/product/4970851
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&N=2010380048+106790717+1305520548+1068509619
There are probably several other retail sellers with 7900GS
under $150 after a rebate or even without one.

 

[Guest]

The reason I chose a GeForce 8 series card in the first place, was to
avoid having to upgrade once DX10 games come on the market. Otherwise I
probably would have bought a 7900GT.
Chances are though, nomatter what I buy today, I'll have to replace it
within 2 to 3 years. Of course, I can eventually add a 2nd card (SLi
configuration) and that may further delay any major upgrades (motherboard or
PC itself).....

 

[kony]

The reason I chose a GeForce 8 series card in the first place, was to
avoid having to upgrade once DX10 games come on the market. Otherwise I
probably would have bought a 7900GT.

Ok, BUT you'll still have slower performance. Just because
a card does some features from DirectX version XYZ, it
doesn't mean it can do so and have good performance (unless
you pay enough for a higher end card). To get an acceptible
framerate that a game is playable is of course a primary
requirement and as for 8600GT, unless you are only playing
at low resolutions it will not be able to keep up with 7900
series. In a year or two (if not now) it might look good on
paper in some areas, and pass some artificial benchmarks
like 3DMark, but when it comes down to actual gaming
framerates, the 7900 is still going to retain playability
for a longer term. Even 7600GT does better on many games
today.

Chances are though, nomatter what I buy today, I'll have to replace it
within 2 to 3 years. Of course, I can eventually add a 2nd card (SLi
configuration) and that may further delay any major upgrades (motherboard or
PC itself).....

Of course, no gamer can go for very long with the same card
if they play modern games. That is, unless they pay a
premium on one and then just grudgingly refuse to upgrade it
again to keep the same average framerates they had
previously enjoyed. On the other hand, today it seems a lot
of people are finding one of the primary motivators for a
new card is when they buy a new LCD monitor with a higher
native resolution.

 

[GT]

I recently bought an MSI NX8600GT card for my new PC, and for the last
week had been enjoying its excellent performance. Then yesterday, my PC
suddenly refused to boot and just gave a series of beeps (meaning a
hardware failure). I immediately took the machine to a service center
where they diagnosed this brand-new video card as defective. They
confirmed by substituting with another one - the machine then booted fine
and showed no sign of other damage.
I'm very upset to think a brand new card could fail so quickly for no
apparent reason, and I'm wondering what kind of card I should replace it
with. Obviously I'll be filing a warranty claim for this card, but because
I need the machine ASAP and can't wait weeks or months to go through the
warranty process, I'll have to buy another card in the meantime. I was
considering buying an EVGA-branded card with the same chipset, or perhaps
an EVGA with the 8600GTS chipset instead. Is any one brand more reliable
than another, or are they basically all the same cheap Chinese junk?

How hot is your case getting - this card puts out a lot of heat, so if you
have insufficient case cooling, then perhaps you baked it and will do the
same to the next card!

 

[Guest]

Case cooling is excellent, and I always kept a close eye on the GPU
temperature (via the Nvidia control panel).

 

[Guest]

Of course, no gamer can go for very long with the same card
if they play modern games. That is, unless they pay a
premium on one and then just grudgingly refuse to upgrade it
again to keep the same average framerates they had
previously enjoyed. On the other hand, today it seems a lot
of people are finding one of the primary motivators for a
new card is when they buy a new LCD monitor with a higher
native resolution.

Not me.... I hate LCD monitors and refuse to follow the trend like every
other gullible consumer. For this new PC, I got a good deal on a used NEC
21" CRT monitor, and I prefer it to any LCD on the market. That's not to say
LCD's don't have advantages - lightweight/space-saving, energy-efficient,
and (slightly) sharper images, but for the most accurate color reproduction
and consistent image quality across multiple resolutions, you just can't
beat a CRT. Any serious gamer (or graphic artist) will tell you the same
thing.

 

[GT]

Case cooling is excellent, and I always kept a close eye on the GPU
temperature (via the Nvidia control panel).

Fair enough!