Hardware & Technical Upgrade or new build?

Demascus

Demascus
Well my graphics card died early this morning, it was sudden and unexpected (may she rest in peace)
I have a gaming pc rig I put together late 2013's-early 2014's and now with the passing of my dearest I find myself back on the market.

Due to work and a lack of personal free time, I have gotten quite behind in my self education of the latest/greatest tech. I need advice and brainstorming

The question is: Do I start saving for a new build or can I go with an gpu upgrade for my aging rig that won't cause bottle necking and or other issues?

Specs below:
OS: Windows 7 64bit
MB: ASUS CrossHair Formula-Z
PSU: XFX Pro Series 850w Black Edition
CPU:AMD FX 9590 eight core 4.71 (water cooled)
RAM:16bg DDR3
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3G GDDR5


[h=2][/h]
 

Zieman

Zieman
Yes.

In the meantime, if you don't want to spend much money, I think you can get a couple of years good (at least E: D) life out of your system.
Something like Nvidia GTX 1060 / 1070 or AMD RX 570 / 580.
 
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Chris Simon

Chris Simon
For the processor and the MB, I really can't recommend Ryzen enough. The great thing about it when you're on a budget is that all ryzens have the same socket (and are promised to stay on that socket even with the next generation) so you can buy a decent motherboard and cheap out on the CPU, upgrading it much later.

As for the video card, I agree with Zieman. RX580 and GTX1060 seem to be at a really reasonable price right now. They are both amazing cards. at 1080p resolution, they handle all modern games on full details without a problem. Only if you want to go for 1440p or 4K gaming you'll need something stronger, but that, with an appropriate monitor, can't be really called a budget.
 

Demascus

Demascus
Patrick_68000 said:
The programmed obsolescence ?

3-4 years seems like a short life for a graphics card
Click to expand...

Not sure, tbh

Problems started a few weeks ago, started getting a white or reddish screen with grey lines followed by a computer lock up. This increased with frequency over time and included screen tearing, artifacting and graphical glitches. This would happen at random during gaming sessions. Sometimes I would go 4 or 5 hours with no issue. Thought it might have been a psu issue at first.

I have tried: thoroughly cleaning my computer, updating the graphic drivers, rolling back the drivers, clean uninstall/re-installing the drivers and removing my graphics card and re-seating it.

Lastly booting it up in safe mode still resulted in graphical errors/glitches and freezes. My MB has no onboard graphics device it has to rely on the installed card which in my mind means (along with the tell tale issues) my gpu has gone to a better place.
 
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Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Demascus said:
Not sure, tbh

Problems started a few weeks ago, started getting a white or reddish screen with grey lines followed by a computer lock up. This increased with frequency over time and included screen tearing, artifacting and graphical glitches. This would happen at random during gaming sessions. Sometimes I would go 4 or 5 hours with no issue. Thought it might have been a psu issue at first.

I have tried: thoroughly cleaning my computer, updating the graphic drivers, rolling back the drivers, clean uninstall/re-installing the drivers and removing my graphics card and re-seating it.

Lastly booting it up in safe mode still resulted in graphical errors/glitches and freezes. My MB has no onboard graphics device it has to rely on the installed card which in my mind means (along with the tell tale issues) my gpu has gone to a better place.
Click to expand...

This pretty much sounds like overheating issue. The artifacting and colour changes are good indicators of that.

If the card is four or more years old and have seen some extensive use, the thermal paste could be really dry. The problem with dry paste is that it still conducts heat but not ideally. So even if the GPU temp in something like MSI Afterburner tells you that the temperature is okay, the chip can be overheating locally. As in - there could be parts of the chip that are much higher temperature than the system is measuring, therefore the card won't shut down preventively.
You could try disassembling the heatsink and applying new paste.
 

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
A 4-year-old gaming rig? Start saving . . . in the meantime look for an inexpensive GPU on NewEgg or similar to keep you going until you can afford to replace your PC.
 

Demascus

Demascus
Chris Simon said:
This pretty much sounds like overheating issue. The artifacting and colour changes are good indicators of that.

If the card is four or more years old and have seen some extensive use, the thermal paste could be really dry. The problem with dry paste is that it still conducts heat but not ideally. So even if the GPU temp in something like MSI Afterburner tells you that the temperature is okay, the chip can be overheating locally. As in - there could be parts of the chip that are much higher temperature than the system is measuring, therefore the card won't shut down preventively.
You could try disassembling the heatsink and applying new paste.
Click to expand...

Temps was one of the first things I checked, nothing out of the ordinary, even after several hours of gaming. Also had graphical glitches and checkered screen on a cold boot after many hours of being shut down, didn't even make it past the windows loading screen.

Though you mentioning the thermal paste is a good reminder to check everything again. Thanks

Update:
After reading some pm and suggestions I decided to go with a new cheap gpu that would be an upgrade from my previous card. Ended up buying this
Along with a 4 year protection plan, I will hopefully be back up and running by Sunday night. Should keep me going while I save for a new rig. Here is to hoping that the issue is my gpu and not something else.


Safe Flying Cmdrs.
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Demascus said:
Not sure, tbh

Problems started a few weeks ago, started getting a white or reddish screen with grey lines followed by a computer lock up. This increased with frequency over time and included screen tearing, artifacting and graphical glitches. This would happen at random during gaming sessions. Sometimes I would go 4 or 5 hours with no issue. Thought it might have been a psu issue at first.

I have tried: thoroughly cleaning my computer, updating the graphic drivers, rolling back the drivers, clean uninstall/re-installing the drivers and removing my graphics card and re-seating it.

Lastly booting it up in safe mode still resulted in graphical errors/glitches and freezes. My MB has no onboard graphics device it has to rely on the installed card which in my mind means (along with the tell tale issues) my gpu has gone to a better place.
Click to expand...

There is clearly a problem with this card.

3-4 years of life is really unthinkable for a normal use
 

Demascus

Demascus
Gpu Card sitting at home, staring at the clock at work. Time....moving....so..... Slowly. 13 hours into my shift. Two more to go. Wish me luck
 
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