Posts by William Parker6

Alright, let's finally settle this—this has been dragging on way too long...

I’m planning to try and fix my GeForce GTS 250 this Thursday, but honestly, the odds aren't great. I've been doing some serious digging through various links and online reviews regarding card quality. To be blunt, that specific card is kind of a disaster—the TDP is sitting at 145W... FFS, it's basically a space heater...

And looking at the NVIDIA lineup? No way. There just isn't anything out there that offers decent value when you look at the price per GFLOPS.

So, it looks like it's AMD it is (there, I said it! For the first time ever, even though I always swore I'd be a die-hard NVIDIA guy forever). And I think I found the perfect one: the 6570.
I can't really afford to go even a few bucks over my budget because money is pretty tight right now, and everything weaker (like the 6450, for example) just doesn't have enough GFLOPS.

So, I'm looking for advice, opinions, or any experiences you guys have with the 6570? Is it prone to dying easily? Like, will it trip a circuit breaker the moment I plug it in? Also, should I stick with Sapphire or go for an XFX?

Andrew Fox74 said:It wouldn't be a bad move to look for something with similar specs... I think you could probably snag a 4850 for around $30 or so, which would be right in line with what you had before.

http://www.craigslist.com/search/image?query=4850

Maybe try looking for the ones with DDR5.

Man, thanks so much for the recommendation, but honestly—if I have to say it—so many people have warned me against picking up ATI (now AMD) and told me to stick with NVIDIA instead. Some people even gave me the advice right when I was buying my whole rig! Nuff said. I don't really know my way around Radeon cards, so maybe I'll just grab a temporary fix for now... probably a 630, I guess? As soon as I have a bit more cash, I'll put this one up on Craigslist under "lightly used, professionally serviced and warrantied" (which will definitely be the case; I'll clean it out, apply fresh thermal paste, and everything), and then swap it out for something that costs at least $150...

It's kind of frustrating, though—why is it so hard to find older generation high-end cards? Like, where on earth am I supposed to find a 260 or something similar these days???

Thanks for all the suggestions—I'll see what I can track down. This might be a bit of a headache, honestly. I’ve been messing around with computers since the early 90s, but hey, I guess that's what happens when you don't actually study hardware professionally. A GeForce X50 or maybe an X60 would probably be just fine (heh, look at me learning something new... turns out that middle digit is clearly the one that matters, not the first one!), and if it hits around 700 GFLOPS, I think I'll be all set.

Benjamin King2 said:The GT 640 is actually pretty close to what you're looking for—honestly, most of those other options you listed are just pathetic by comparison. You might want to hunt around for something used, because for $150, you aren't going to find anything remotely decent if you're buying brand new.

Yeah, I actually went and looked up the processing power in GFLOPS, and man, you weren't kidding—the 640 really does blow that 250 out of the water. The others I mentioned are basically useless... honestly, I'm kind of broke right now, so I'll probably just have to take the path of least resistance and grab whatever cheapest, weakest little thing I can find for $67. Once I actually have some cash on hand, though, I'll head straight to a place like Micro Center and pick up something absolutely beastly...

I mean, I'll still look into the used market, but it's a bit of a long shot since my technician is coming over in maybe 7 or 8 days to get everything installed and tested—so I really need to have everything bought & ready to go by then.

Also, I don't quite get the logic behind why it's getting harder and harder to find a GPU that doesn't just overheat instantly. It feels like there's zero point in having a closed case anymore, unless you're obsessed with keeping the warranty valid. On this museum piece of a computer I'm typing on, I opened up the case about 9 years ago and it still cools down just fine (even though almost all the fans died except for the CPU one)—I can clean it out and it's totally chill.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Zero points for that GPU—it's definitely dying...
what else is in your build, and what kind of power supply are you running?

It's a Core 2 Duo at 3.33 GHz, 4GB of DDR3, and an AsRock LGA 1156 motherboard (the old board actually kicked the bucket at the exact same time as the card, so I just swapped this one in yesterday—only then did we realize the GPU was shot too). I totally forgot to check the power supply. Let me look... okay, I checked the case, and it says it's "split" into three sections (not really sure what that means, honestly), but the total comes out to 520W.

I live in an area where Best Buy is pretty much my only option, so forget about shipping—it's gotta be from there. It's just how it is, I don't have much of a choice.

Since I have some downtime, I can—and really should—do some actual digging. So, let's get down to business:

- Gainward's GT 430, 520, 610, or 620, all with 1 GB GDDR3

Can any of those actually hold their own, or are they weaker than an XFX GTS 250 with 1 GB GDDR3? Anything more expensive than $150... there's just no way, I won't buy it, so please don't bother suggesting anything pricier.

I don't know much about GPU performance, so if there's an expert here who could (maybe?) weigh in...

Hey everyone.

So, my GTS250 with 1GB of VRAM finally kicked the bucket. Now I'm on the hunt for something new that can actually match its performance levels.

I’ve been looking through this link and—honestly—there’s so much stuff listed that I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm a bit out of the loop, so I'm struggling to figure out what I actually need. I tend to prioritize cards with higher VRAM rather than raw processing power—I have a few specific reasons for that, I guess—but I'm definitely not looking to break the bank. When I picked up my current card, it cost me about $300, and there's just no way I'm dropping that kind of cash on a GPU again. At most, maybe half that amount? So, I wanted to see what you guys think. Thanks in advance!

Megan Bennett2 said:Honestly, I think you should probably go see an infectious disease specialist. Take care!

Actually, now that I think about it... I'm usually pretty healthy—like, really resilient—so how did this even happen to me???

Hey everyone.

I’ve been dealing with this massive health issue lately, and honestly, I’m at a bit of a loss for what to do next.

Here’s the rundown: I haven’t had mouth ulcers in years, but suddenly, within just one week, I’ve developed THREE of them. My tonsils are hurting, swallowing is getting difficult, and sometimes food actually goes down the wrong pipe—into my windpipe—which creates this total chaos in my throat that feels scratchy and painful. My eyes are constantly red, too (like, the capillaries are always dilated, seriously). My lips are perpetually dry and cracking, and no lip balm seems to touch it. Even my nails are sensitive—the tips hurt, and the skin there has turned white, almost like they might peel off. Basically, any part of my body where the skin is thinner or involves mucous membranes is developing sores that bleed and—here’s the kicker—just won't heal. Dammit, even the skin on my... well, let's just say my private parts is cracked and isn't healing either.

On top of all that, I have this pain in my abdomen, right under my ribs on the right side—so, near the liver—but I have no idea what could be affecting my liver. It’s incredibly frustrating, especially when I lie down and shift positions without being careful. And the weirdest part? The headaches. I never get headaches unless I have a damn good reason for them (like a sinus infection, for instance), but these just come out of nowhere. This has never happened to me before.

So now I’m sitting here wondering what changed. But really, nothing. Stress? No, it's the same as always, just the usual stuff. Poor diet? It's the same as when I wasn't having these issues... if I were lacking anything, maybe some B vitamins, but I doubt that's it. I'm not dehydrated... and I’m normally pretty healthy—I haven't even caught a cold this winter. Everything is exactly the same as usual, yet lately... it's just awful. I truly don't know what the cause could be since everything else remains constant.

Now, here’s the thing. I don't live near a major hospital, and I'm really not looking forward to trekking to a doctor if this can be sorted out without an endless battery of exhausting tests. I just don't love the idea of it. So, since we have experts here, maybe you could weigh in or point me toward exactly which type of specialist I should see?

(To be honest... I’m generally a healthy guy, but this sudden wave of symptoms, especially over the last two weeks, has me scared half to death :| )