Strange GPU issue (death throes?)

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Had a strange issue / failure of my GPU - 3 year old nVidia 8800GTX - and I'm hoping it sounds familiar to someone here.

A few weeks ago, while playing Civ5 I noticed some strange flickering on the screen. Not flashing, but little blips in the graphics, like pieces of confetti. It was odd, but I thought it was just my machine running a little hot from being on too long. So I shut down, but it happened again a few days later. The problem kept getting worse, until I started seeing tearing in the graphics, where the sound was still intact but the graphics would get all jumbled and erratic. I restarted the machine and attempted to download the drivers to update, but the graphics on the screen would become unmanagable and the machine would lock up. I restarted in safe mode, downloaded the latest nVidia driver and restarted. The screen still remained in what appeared to be safe mode (16 colors, tiny resolution) and at some point I remember getting an error that said something like "windows kernel error in display driver." I've tried disabling and re-enabling the gpu driver, nothing. I even tried backing up my files and reinstalling Windows 7. Same problem, screen still displays in safe mode.

I'm fearing the worst - that my GPU just died - but I thought I'd run it by you guys first. Thanks in advance for any ideas, and please ask more questions if it'll help you make a more informed judgement.

Oh - I should probably note that my version of Civ 5 is through STEAM, and I recently re-installed Icewind Dale for a nostalgia run (first time I've done this on Windows 7) and installed a few mods: G3's IWD tweakpack, IWD fixpack, Dalekeeper, and G3's widescreen resultion mod, which did NOT appear to install properly. All these GPU issues seem to have happened after I installed all of those, but it may be just a coincidence.

 

It is probably dying. I also had a NVIDIA 8800GTX die a while back (two years or so) ago with similar symptoms (graphics artefacts appeared and the screen locked up, a few days later the same thing until it had them constantly and refused to boot to Windows). I got a new one as it was still under warranty back then.

 

The symptoms you have described is called "artifacts", which is known to occur when "over-clocking" the GPU, or with overheating. You graphics card is independently cooled from the rest of your computer. I would look into it and make sure the fan hasn't failed, or anything.

 

@ BTA - that's what I did, unfortunately. Reinstalling Windows 7 was my last resort, and it still didn't work.

I think Camel may be right. May be time to start GPU shopping.

 

Just sayin' here that Camel's right. The symptoms are overheating, and at that point you need to cease use and check the cooling. Or face a burned out GPU.

 

Artefacts. Try to get the card out and remove dirt and dust. Might help a bit, but most likely the card is running on its last legs so to speak.
a sound shooping advice for a new GPU: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...rce-gtx-560-ti-gaming-graphics-card,2857.html

 

Thank you for the link, Merlinni. The nVidia 560 Ti will likely be its replacement (next paycheck, of course ).

 

A very good choice, Death Rabbit. Might I suggest this; Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti SO. This card is as powerful as a 570 card because its "super-overclocked", and modified by Gigabyte to work reliably at these speeds (better design/components).

 

That's the one I was looking at, incidentally. Gigabyte makes great products, I've been happy with every one of their components I've bought. Excepting, of course, my current GPU - but then, it is over 4 years old and I bought it used. Pretty good run, all things considered.

 

Gigabyte is my favourite motherboard brand. As for GPU's it is Sapphire.

 

Actually, now I'm not so sure about that gigabyte card. Look here.
Gigabyte is the best performer, but seems very noisy. I would probably look into the Asus GTX560 Ti DirectCU II TOP 1GB GDDR5. Its not that fast, but cheaper and runs silent compared to gigabyte.

 

This one?

 

Yes that seems to be the one. I see the price difference isn't that great, but asus also has free games, could be nice. Anyways, I'm kind of a "no noise guy", I like my compute as noise free as possible.
Its up to you, but the small performance gain of gigabyte seems negligible considering the lower price and noise, + free games of asus

Aaah, my mistake there. The one you linked is the standard, not overclocked version. Although the OC version should cost the same, but its not listed on newegg. The one tested by toms is: ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5, yours is without the TOP.

 

Took me a few more months, but this is the one I ended up going with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610

Just purchased today, should arrive Monday. EVGA has one of the best reputations, and had much better NewEgg reviews than the ASUS card. A little more pricy too, but it comes with a $30 rebate so it will end up being cheaper.

This, paired with the hard drive, processor and RAM upgrade I did half a year back, will probably be the last major hardware upgrade I ever do (at least for a very long time). Between all the extra-curricular activities I do and the wife and I starting a family next year, I'm finding I have less and less time for gaming. So I'm OK with spending a little more than I normally would to get a badass upgrade.

 

I'd have preferred the Asus card, 'cuz it's quieter. Yours is a bit faster though.

Congrats. That card oughta stand the test of time.

 

That's the idea. EVGA's lifetime warranty was particularly sweet.

 

EVGA is Nvidia's own brand.

 

Oh wow - I didn't know that. Even better.