What video card would you recommend?

[ironkross]

I have an 8800GT on the way. I read on the Newegg customer reviews of some running hotter than their old cards but to me running a little hotter is not the same as overheating. So I'm not worried about it. I can't wait to see how ROW looks.
BTW this GT was the superclocked edition from EVGA but still carries the GT designation and is a different card from the GTS.

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by ironkross

I have an 8800GT on the way. I read on the Newegg customer reviews of some running hotter than their old cards but to me running a little hotter is not the same as overheating. So I'm not worried about it. I can't wait to see how ROW looks.
BTW this GT was the superclocked edition from EVGA but still carries the GT designation and is a different card from the GTS.

I have the EVGA superclocked 8800 GT. You will not be disappointed.

[Rockin Robbins]

Good news: My power supply arrived on schedule and I am now back online with my own computer!

Bad news:

Take your hat off in the presence of a dead hero! This is the remains of a once proud EVGA 7600GT graphics card with the strangest failure I have ever seen. My computer would not boot and in fact behaved the same with the new power supply as the old: a quick flash of LED fans and deadness. OK, the power supply is protecting itself but from what?

I disconnected one item from the power at a time, looking for the culprit. Nothing worked. Time to start unplugging peripheral cards. Lets start with.......GRAPHIC CARDS! My very first symptom of a problem was scrambled graphics, Windows couldn't find the top graphics card. When I disconnected SLi and plugged into the bottom card I worked for five minutes before the big pfffffffffft!

I removed the top graphics card and the machine happily booted, asking what my problem was! I reassembled everything and set it up, rebooted and wondered about an 8 month old graphics card. You see the results of my survey above. It's not a pretty sight. Don't know what EVGA is going to say about it.

In the meantime, my machine works. I haven't tried SH4 yet, but I'll get good info on what SLi is worth and report back. That should be very interesting.

Sure is good to have life in the old computer again. Onward, into the fog!

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Sure is good to have life in the old computer again. Onward, into the fog!

Holy smokes ! Now thats a catastrophic failure !

The only thing that can blow electrolytics (those little can things) open like that is a severe overvoltage... as in a lightning strike. Or a bolted fault (severe short circuit). You dident drop a paper clip in there did you ?

Problem is why dident it trash your entire machine ?

Im guessing that your power supply took the major brunt of the surge.

You sir are one lucky sob. Your going to have a rough time getting a warranty claim on that one.

Good luck.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Holy smokes ! Now thats a catastrophic failure !

The only thing that can blow electrolytics (those little can things) open like that is a severe overvoltage... as in a lightning strike. Or a bolted fault (severe short circuit). You dident drop a paper clip in there did you ?

Problem is why dident it trash your entire machine ?

Im guessing that your power supply took the major brunt of the surge.

You sir are one lucky sob. Your going to have a rough time getting a warranty claim on that one.

Good luck.

Thought someone would appreciate the picture! It sure opens up more questions than I can consider without a headache. Why in an SLi system is one card blown up and the other working perfectly right now? Like you said, why is the motherboard in great shape? If it was a power surge, why are not more items in my house affected? No paperclips were harmed in the filming of this disaster. I wrote EVGA a sob story too, to see what they will say.

Hey, any crash you can walk away from is a good one.

@SubSuck: You're dead on with your minimum graphics cards. My dual 7600GT SLi was pretty good. I'll let you know what I think of a single one, but adequate is probably the best description. Anything less would be an insult to the silent service.

[Neptune#1]

While I am not the sharpest crayon in the box when it comes to computers and the knowledge many of you have far surpasses mine I can tell you from experience I am able to play SH4 with a 6200 Nvida 256mb card, 500g hard drive, 2.25gb of ram, 2.66ghz processor, while not the ideal setup it works reasonably well,sata helps also,so I still have much upgrading left to do, my son has a friend who has a new 36" LCD flat screen tv he told my son I could have it for $600.00, which I do not think is bad considering he paid double that for it,I would think the LCD would help improve the frame rates somewhat.

[SteamWake]

There are plenty of folks that are runnng the game quite successfuly with 'modest' systems.

It really boils down to resource management.

Of course if you want to see the full majestry that is available with this game your going to have to dig into that 'disposable income'.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Holy smokes ! Now thats a catastrophic failure !

The only thing that can blow electrolytics (those little can things) open like that is a severe overvoltage... as in a lightning strike. Or a bolted fault (severe short circuit). You dident drop a paper clip in there did you ?

Problem is why dident it trash your entire machine ?

Im guessing that your power supply took the major brunt of the surge.

You sir are one lucky sob. Your going to have a rough time getting a warranty claim on that one.

Good luck.

That was my feeling, too. But I figured I'd give it a try to see how EVGA reacts to such calamity. Sent them an e-mail yesterday. I sent them the same pic I posted here earlier, so it was crystal clear what the situation is. However, today, Saturday(!), I received an e-mail from EVGA customer service saying they would replace the card and setting up the RMA process.

Why would I even consider an ATI card or another nVidia card manufacturer? When EVGA says lifetime warranty, believe it! I'm their customer for life!They care about their customers.My 8800GT card will come straight from EVGA and I won't waste time shopping around.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

That was my feeling, too. But I figured I'd give it a try to see how EVGA reacts to such calamity. Sent them an e-mail yesterday. I sent them the same pic I posted here earlier, so it was crystal clear what the situation is. However, today, Saturday(!), I received an e-mail from EVGA customer service saying they would replace the card and setting up the RMA process.

Why would I even consider an ATI card or another nVidia card manufacturer? When EVGA says lifetime warranty, believe it! I'm their customer for life!They care about their customers.My 8800GT card will come straight from EVGA and I won't waste time shopping around.

Thats pretty amazing. Alot of manufactures would take one look at that and say... "oh my gosh our video cards dont run in a microwave".

It it is in there best interest to fullfill there 'warranty' glad your a happy camper.

Oh by the way.. have you got rid of the smell yet ?

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

[

Oh by the way.. have you got rid of the smell yet ?

That's the crazy thing about the whole episode. There is no smell, no potting compound splattered around, no singed connectors or contacts. The whole thing defies explanation. Oh, and the computer is connected to a UPS, as is my router and cable modem. And the card which failed was on top, with the most cooling airflow around it. My case has 2 100mm fans and an 80mm fan, so there's plenty of airflow and everything has always run very cool.