8800 GTX user needs new graphic card advice

[Deeply]

<p>Yes unfortunately I'm one of the many many way too many people suffering from numerous issues with the 8800GTX card.</p><p>I was lucky in that September my partner bought me a brand new pc choosing options that were almost the best available at the time.</p><p>However I have only just had the courage today to finally tell him about the issues I've been having ever since, after he caught me cussing a blue streak at my screen after my 3rd memory crash of the day!</p><p>He's happy (tho thats perhaps not the true description LOL) to buy me an alternative mid range card that will run EQ2 nicely, until they fix the issues with the 8800.</p><p>I've got about £100 to play with (so roughly $200) - any suggestions would be welcome.</p><p>My current details:nVidia nForce 680i SLI SPPIntel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6850  @ 3.00GHz3x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM PC2-6400 (399 MHz)  -  [DDR2-800] m/board- Asus P5N32-E SLI</p><p>Any advice on an alternative card would be great - thanks!</p>

[Miladi]

Try pulling one of the memory sticks and see if it works any better. Considering you're probably using dual channel memory, having 3 of them turns off dual channel and you're switched down to single channel, so it is running slower than if you had only 2 GB's anyways. Dual channel memory REQUIRES 2 chips per channel and with 3, that's not happening. Plus, its probably a waste of money unless you're running a 64 bit OS anyways because most of your memory over 2GB is being eaten up by the operating system.

[TSR-TrevorG]

If you are SET on getting a new video card, my ATI x1950 is pretty sweet.

[Vodr]

<p>3x ram chips is not supported on that motherboard at all.  As the previous poster assured you,  remove 1 stick of ram.</p><p>Here is the link to suported ram configurations,  it's dependant on memory type however only supported for (1 stick single channel)(2 sticks dual channel)(4 sticks dual channel) not 3x sticks. </p><p><a href="http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5N32-E%20SLI/P5N32-E_SLI_QVL.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb...2-E_SLI_QVL.pdf</a></p><p>Your motherboard manual recommends running channel A which is the 2 closest ram slots to your CPU.  So make sure those 2 are the ones with ram in it and the other 2 empty.</p><p><a href="http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5N32-E%20SLI/e2929_P5N32-E_SLI.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb...P5N32-E_SLI.pdf</a></p><p>Above is the link to your motherboard manual.  Please let us know how it goes.</p>

[TSR-TrevorG]

Vodroc and  Mildian FTW!Thanks guys!

[Deeply]

<p>Just posting an update.</p><p>Did as suggested and removed 1 of the sticks of ram.</p><p>Really hasn't made any difference at all.</p><p>If I play on anything more than balanced (ensuring shadows, bloom, fauna etc is off) as soon as I try exping in Kunark (any of the zones) or spend too much time in Neriak, I get memory errors and EQ2 crashes.  If I play on lower quality settings than balanced, I can exp in Kunark but suffer spikes, glitches etc, and on balanced or lower I get same spikes and glitches in Neriak.</p><p>I do get glitches and spikes in other EQ2 zones, but Kunark and Neriak are where it is extremely noticable.</p><p>And considering my pc setup, there is no way I should have to play on less than balanced, and my pc set up prior I was playing on extreme quality (with shadows and fauna only turned off) and could raid on very high quality (again with only shadows and fauna turned off).</p><p>So it looks like a new graphics card for me, so its still any suggestions on graphics cards for £50-100 ($100-200) - the cheaper the better tbh as its going to cut into this year's birthday pressies! </p><p>I did try to look up the ATI x1950 at some of the tech suppliers in the UK and couldn't find it, found the x1650 but not the 1950.</p>

[Karlen]

A place to start would be:<a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards/3dmark06-v1-0-2-hdr-sm3-0-score,538.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...-score,538.html</a>I have an x1950 and am quite happy with it.  If you are going ATI, try to get models where the second digit is 8 or 9.  These represent the higher end cards.