My crappy PC just got fixed (graphic cards question)

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 24 Nov 2006, 14:24

Hi all...
I had been having some problems with my PC again over the last few weeks, and AGAIN it was the graphics card that was the culprit.

It was a ATI x700 or something, with 256mb memory.

So today the guy came and installed a new card. He told me they;ve been having lots pf problems with thos ATI's, so now he installed a new one, and this time it's an Nvidia.

So after he had gone, and I had just surfed around a bit, I thought I'd check out which card it was exactly that he installed. And I made a pleasant discovery!

Instead of a 256 mb graphic card, I now have 512 mb on my graphic card!

But my question is: It's a Geforce 7300 GS. I have no clue if that's a good card or not.
So is it OK? Is it better then the ATI x700 I had before?

Anyway, hope you guys can help me out, and thanks in advance.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 Nov 2006, 14:42

They're about same. ATI's main line in 2005 was the x800 series and nVidia's in 2005 was the Geforce 7 series. Both x700 and the 7300GS are the budget PCI versions of each respective series.

You should be able to play Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 smoothly; so just get the PC version of HL2 instead of the 360 version as it should be quite cheap now and would have better controls. (mouse+kb>>>gamepad for FPS. Far far better accuracy, reaction speed and range of movement. In Quake 3 you could swivel around in mid-jump and snipe someone with the railgun with pinpoint accuracy, that'd be impossible with any gamepad configuration).

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 24 Nov 2006, 15:01

EvaUnit02 wrote:They're about same. ATI's main line in 2005 was the x800 series and nVidia's in 2005 was the Geforce 7 series. Both x700 and the 7300GS are the budget PCI versions of each respective series.

You should be able to play Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 smoothly; so just get the PC version of HL2 instead of the 360 version as it should be quite cheap now and would have better controls. (mouse+kb>>>gamepad for FPS. Far far better accuracy, reaction speed and range of movement. In Quake 3 you could swivel around in mid-jump and snipe someone with the railgun with pinpoint accuracy, that'd be impossible with any gamepad configuration).

Thanks for the info, man.

The double memory is still good though, isnt it!? I had 256, and it's now 512

So should be better... I think.

Not gonna bother with Half-Life 2 for the PC. 1 reason: STEAM. I've tried it out for 2 games orso, 1 demo and something else (cant remember) and both times it didnt work. All the extra shit you have to put up with, it's not for me. I just wanna drop a game in and play.

I think HL2 on 360 will be very good, so I'd rather wait for that one so it will be my first experience with the game. It will also have lots of extra content, so it should be good value, plus there's talk that there will be a mouse and keyboard released for 360, so we'll see what will happen with that. But I dont mind playing FPS with a joypad. I'll mainly play it for the singleplayer anyway.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 24 Nov 2006, 16:51

You replaced an ATI with an NVidia ?
Nice knowing you. Goodbye...

In all my life I've never found an NVidia gfx card that actually works.

Yi wrote:some problems with my PC again over the last few weeks, and AGAIN it was the graphics card that was the culprit.

Can you elaborate a little bit ?
What sort of problems ?

Yi wrote:Not gonna bother with Half-Life 2 for the PC. 1 reason: STEAM

Just crack the damn thing. Steam is evil.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 Nov 2006, 16:54

Yi-Long wrote: The double memory is still good though, isnt it!? I had 256, and it's now 512 So should be better... I think.

You answered your own question. Ignore the Frenchman, it's just fanboyism.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 24 Nov 2006, 18:33

tom2681 wrote:You replaced an ATI with an NVidia ?
Nice knowing you. Goodbye...

In all my life I've never found an NVidia gfx card that actually works.

Yi wrote:some problems with my PC again over the last few weeks, and AGAIN it was the graphics card that was the culprit.
Can you elaborate a little bit ?
What sort of problems ?

Yi wrote:Not gonna bother with Half-Life 2 for the PC. 1 reason: STEAM
Just crack the damn thing. Steam is evil.

Hey Tom. Yeah replaced the Ati. It seemed like all the Ati's they had of this sort was causing them problems. The cooler didnt work, so it started overheating, making lots of noice in the proces. So they changed it to new Nvidea cards

And havent really found a cracked version of Half-Life 2 online yet, and really cant be bothered either, as I'll just buy it for the 360

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Nov 2006, 22:04

So the card was overheating causing it to be noisy, right?

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 25 Nov 2006, 00:18

Yeah, it just made a big noise, and at certain points it got even worse, and you could even smell something burning, at which point I obviously turned the PC off and did something else for a few hours orso...
Hopefully, I wont have the same problem with this new card. They guy said he hasnt had any problems with this new one they're now installing, so fingers crossed

Thanks for moving it btw.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 25 Nov 2006, 00:24

Some mid-range ATI cards are overclocked by default.
They tend to overheat and melt their fans.

Shouldn't be an issue if you use proper cooling, though.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 25 Nov 2006, 00:39

tom2681 wrote:Some mid-range ATI cards are overclocked by default.
They tend to overheat and melt their fans.

Shouldn't be an issue if you use proper cooling, though.

That's pretty stupid to overclock the ati cards by default, and then install a crappy cooler on it...
I have my PC open by default, so it shouldnt even get all that hot inside...

Anyway, havent really used this new card on any games or 3d programs or anything, so havent really 'tested' it yet... but should be OK.
I'm happy it's now 512 instead of 256, which I hope will reduce some of the rendering-times for the 3d stuff