I Think My Graphics Card Is Dying

[Shem]

Hey guys. I've never made a thread like this before, but the problem I have at the moment is too severe to ignore. I need your help in identifying it and discovering a solution. I've had this graphics card for about four or five years now, but only recently has it been producing some strange images on my screen that I've never experienced before. The weird thing is, the problem only occurs when I'm playing a Source engine game. This includes Half-Life 2, its episodes, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Source. I meet the minimum system requirements, but nonetheless, the issue still occurs. Please, I need your assistance. I'll lay this out in a three-step organization of information.

1. Evidence (screenshots created on May 7, 2011, show images from Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2):

http://steamcommunity.com/id/XShem/screenshots

2. Specs:

Vista
Intel Dual Core 2.0 Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz
2.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
30 GB of free space

3. The Verdict:

So, have any of you guys heard about or seen something like this before? I'm completely puzzled. Is my graphics card dying, or is it just me? Should I buy a new one? If anyone is out there and can spend a few minutes reading this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
That Shem Guy

P.S. I'm not tech-savvy. I want everything translated in layman's terms for me, you hear? Again, thanks.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Yeah, when that happened to me (when I had some old card before the GTX) when my card was on the fritz. You might want a new one, and your fans might be clogged...

 

[Damic]

Jup card is dieing, to hot. Clean your GPU heatsink + fan and the problem might be a little less worse.

Get yourself a AMD 5770 or 6870 and you good to go for a few year ;D

 

[Dinnesch]

Everyone's Geforce 8xxx cards are dying, they are known to stop working after about 2 years.

 

[arch5]

Update your video card's drivers.
But Dinnesch may be correct.

 

[Kadayi]

A good case clean out every few months is a good idea. I recently did a full on clean up of mine and reduced the overall internal temperature by quite a few degrees Celsius. I'm not just talking about opening up the case and dusting off a few parts, but actually taking out all the elements (including the motherboard) and dusting them off individually and getting rid of all the dust bunnies accumulated in the fans, heat sinks etc, etc. It can take a while to do, but it is worth the effort imho.

To get an idea of your present system temperatures use speccy: -

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

You can also use GPU Z to tell you your GPUs running temperature: -

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Presently I'm running my GPU (GTX 460) doing some folding and it's at about 66c atm which is a ok temperature (GPUs tend to run hotter than CPUs generally). If your GPU is running above 80c under load I'd say there are issues.

If you are going to dust things off I recommend you get yourself a dust mask and buy an aerosol can of compressed air, and do it in a well ventilated room. Expect to vacuum up afterwards as well as there will be loads of dust bunnies.

Also as other have said ensure your system drivers are up to date.

 

[Naph]

A good thing to do is check if you have something blocking the exhaust, like a wall or an enclosed space. I can get my GPU 12 degrees cooler if I just sit in the middle of my carpet rather than inside my desk.

 

[Shem]

Thanks for the advice, guys. My computer must be choking from all the dust it's inhaled over the years. I think I'm going to clean the inside of it before I consider buying myself a new graphics card. I'll even update the drivers if need be.

****.

By the way, I swore so I could gain recognition. I hope you guys at least slightly understand that logic.

P.S. Oh man, I went on the GeForce website and on their background they have an image of the two robots from Portal 2 standing next to each other. I'm glad they're doing that, but anyways, I found this chart comparing their graphics cards from years past, and it was somewhat surprising to see my 8800 GTX appear so small in respect to the other cards. Wow, there are so many to choose from. What do you guys think? Should I go with the GeForce 400 Series or the GeForce 500? This is all assuming my problem isn't fixed whenever I try out the other solutions I've been offered.

 

[Kadayi]

Any kind of modern day GPU you put in your machine would probably suffer from bottlenecking in terms of performance due to your CPU. My advice would be to save up for a a new motherboard/CPU/4GB of ram before hand or alternatively look for an off the shelf option if you aren't down with upgrading yourself.

 

[Destructo-Bot]

Upgrade to a 3.3GHz C2D if you plan on getting a modern GFX card, or just build an i5 2500K Sandybridge machine. I would have sold you my 3.33Ghz C2D but I've already sold it. Still have an 2.4Ghz C2D I haven't been able to sell yet, though that doesn't help you out any.

 

[Shem]

I hate digging up old threads like this (I've been doing it a lot lately) but I'd like to thank everyone who helped me out with my problem by offering their own solution. Ultimately, I dusted out the interior of my computer and all of the individual parts found therein, updated my drivers to the latest version, and bought a new hard drive. Everything seems to be working fine right now. I guess my 8800 GTX still has some life left in her, eh? Great advice, everyone.

Thanks,
TSG (That Shem Guy)