Dead video card?

First off, that is a very slow low ended video card.  You may wish to try the games again, but this time, turn off or lower many of the game settings, specially AA or AF if on, turn off wallpaper, screen savor and most all the windows eye candy to free up some resources first and see if the games suffer again.  I can almost bet you got the game settings too high and all that other stuff in the background is not helping either.

Also, if you have a anti virus software such as Nortons Symantec or McAfee running during the game, this to is a resource hog and not good so turn that off while playing games and back on afterwards.

Hope you have at least 1 GB if not 2 GB of main memory as well

If you are just playing games, not on the internet, turn off the anti virus and no this will not open you up to a virus. Turn the anti virus back on afterwards. If on the internet to play games then yes leave the anti virus on.

Anti Aliasing attempts to make curves look smoother by lessening the 'Jaggies' or lines found in the make up of curved images. It's one of those things you don't usually notice in a game until you actually try out AF/AA, and you realize then the difference it makes.

Anisotropic filtering attempts to smooth out or enhances the sharpness/quality of a texture when it's viewed from an angle. When you look at a texture in a game head on, it’s a perfect image. If however you move to one side of the image but still look at the same spot, the image becomes sort of drawn out. Anisotropic Filtering removes the blurring we see from an angle.

Over time, dust builds up and just because the system worked well one day, it may not days later with this heat build up.

If you download or uninstall programs over time, the registry may become corrupted that messes things up.

Spyware may do the same so its always a good idea to have two of them to run to get the spyware off the system.

Open programs at boot up is another no, no if you want to free up memory.

Or the card is going bad, but must check the other stuff first, which is turn down the game settings right now to a lower level and try the game again to see if this glitch is gone or still present. And I mean many of the game settings. Do not set them max or very high and turn down the game resolutions as well and see what happens.

That card is just plain low ended. Your system can take a very good card if you play games if interested.

I'll try dusting the card and see what happens tonight.  If no dice, I guess I'll shop for a new card.  I never thought I would play online games with my PC, but I found a good deal on City of Heroes ($10.00) and thought I would give it a spin.  Now I'm hooked.  I ordered with the graphics card to have the option.  In the end I guess I could have saved some cash buying without and getting a better card later.  Live and learn I guess. . .

What do you think of the XFX 8600 GT XXX or the EVGA GeForce 8600GTS?

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@SR45 wrote:

turn off or lower many of the game settings, specially AA or AF if on, I can almost bet you got the game settings too high and all that other stuff in the background is not helping either.

 

Also, if you have a anti virus software such as Nortons Symantec or McAfee running during the game, this to is a resource hog and not good so turn that off while playing games and back on afterwards.

 

Hope you have at least 1 GB if not 2 GB of main memory as well

 

Edit:  Forgot to add that you have any start up programs other then your anti virus software boot up at start up those will take some resources as well.  You do not need them on so disable them as well.

If the card gets too hot by way of dust build up, this will mess up the works as well and the game will stop.  Must use a can of compressed air on the inside from time to time or you will have issues. If the system is in a cabinet, no air flow or very little of it, this will cause heat build up, not good.  Do not have a system next to a heat source and turn on the air during summer.

Message Edited by SR45 on 07-07-2008 03:56 PM

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Also, what is AA and AF?

I have 2G of RAM.

As far as turning off the antivirus (I have Norton), does that not leave you open to threats while playing?

I'm going to try and open the box and blow off the cards to see if that helps things tonight.  I may also relocate the computer, which I am sure will annoy my wife, but oh well. . .

Give those a try that I mentioned to see if things work out, but try them all not just the dusting since you should free up resources as well and lower the settings in the game just to see if that is the issue and not the card itself.  Not doing so will put you right back in the same question as to if its the new card you get.  We all have to lower the game settings depending on the game or hardware.

If I had a choice I would get the 8600 GTS card over the GT version.  Many more happy with it and many more game complaints with the GT card.

Also, your system may not come with enough 4 pin power cables coming from the power supply and the GTS card needs two 4 pin power cables to get it to work.  The GTS card needs a 6 pin power cable connected to the back of the card and the other two ends are 4 pin connectors.  Some cards come with the Molex Y power cable and some do not, but in your case it will not work since you will be lacking one 4 pin connector on your 531 system.  There is a work around linked below if you go with the 8600 GTS card....

Below link takes you to a site that sells a Molex power cable that will work for your system. Its a 6 pin to 4 pin connectore that eleminates the need for two 4 pin connections, only need one. The 6 pin end goes into the video card, and the other end ( 4 pin side ) goes into a free available 4 pin power input that comes from the power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201004

Or…..

A SATA to 4 pin adaptor to convert those unused SATA connectors on your PSU to the 4-pin Molex connector instead.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20580

Newegg has them as well for the SATA converters

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812263002