Hi guys, I have a major computer problem which I suspect may have started with an expiring graphics card. As things stand My screen is filled with little white squres and it is very difficult to even read this board. I tried a system restore but that just compounded my problem and now I cant turn on my antivirus, internet explorer wont work and I can no longer do a system restore as thats just keeps saying unable to restore no matter what point I choose.
Anyway my point in posting is that I need some good advice from someone knowledgable as I am completely out of the loop when it comes to current graphics cards. I currently have a saphire radeon4870 2gb vapourX card and I want to stay with an AMD card Can someone recomend a card that has at least 2gb and is equal to or better than the one I have. Can someone please reccomend a suitable card and a source in the UK?

Honestly I don't know a lot about AMD cards so I can't suggest much there, but I will suggest Scan.co.uk and Aria.co.uk for parts. Aria have always been great but I recently moved to Scan because of their amazing postage system. They email you every step of the order, Picking, Packing, dispatch and out for delivery, and text you to say what time it's going to arrive, within a 1 hour window, and so far it's been bang on every time.

Good luck getting it sorted though mate.

I have a sapphire card in my new system, a 6870 I believe. Seems to run everything fine.

i've got a Nvidia GTX260 has been a beast of a card for me. It definatly sounds like a graphics card dieing, exact same thing with the squares etc happened to me with my old graphics card!

Well I am obviously going to miss the next races. Thanks for the input so far guys but I have already decided I want to stick to AMD cards so please please if someone with a bit of knowledge acn look at my previous post on the subject can get back to me with a recomendation, that would be great. I dont know when I will be back fit to race as my problems seem to be growing. Directx09c seems to have gone missing from my system as well. I think that is probably down to the failure of the system restore I tried. I cant guarantee how long I will be able to acces the forum as I am having to log in via a link to hotmail on my MSN messenger! If that goes as well I am screwed lol so if I go missing its not that Ive got fed up with you guys lol
once more what I am looking for is an AMD card which is at least as good as the card I mentioned in my first post and it must at least be a 2GB card. sooner I can get some recomendations, sonner I can get back on track. Geez Im missing it like hell already!

Sorry I can't be of any more assistance with card suggestions With I could get a racing brother back on track!

As a meantime;

Does your processor/mobo have any inbuilt graphics capabilities? It might be worth removing your old card and trying to uninstall all of its drivers, and seeing it that helps the problem. You could then attempt to reinstall it if it all works. That way you can completely isolate the problem to the card, not to software.

Worst comes to worst you might be able to run rFactor on low settings using the onboard graphics (assuming you have it) in order to get online temporarily.

The 6870 is probably the card with the best value on the market today, but I am not aware of any versions with 2GB.
More expensive, but available with 2GB are the 6950, 7850 and 7870, all lightyears ahead of the 4870.

Two bits.


No testamoinials, just Googleized it, but...

http://www.ebuyer.com/

http://www.scan.co.uk/


Depending on budget...

Radeon HD69xx or Radeon HD7xxx series cards. Wouldn't suggest going back any further than that in versions.

ATM, the NVIDIA 580 is a good alternative (if you want to switch).

Heard it from multiple places the new NVIDIA 680 kicks the snot out of hot Radeon HD79xx... and I personally prefer AMD/ATI cards!

What he said

The fact you are looking for a 2GB card narrows your options quite a bit so be prepared to spend Ł150-200ish. There are a couple of 2GB 6850's around. Pretty good upgrade for the money.

http://www.ebuyer.com/322126-sapphire-hd...rd-11180-15-40g

If you want something with even more grunt then look at the 6950's - this would probably be my choice but it's more expensive. If you can find a good deal on one of these then don't think twice. You'll see people recommend these over and over with good reason.

http://www.ebuyer.com/320578-his-hd-6950...medium=products

The 6 series were a real sweet spot for AMD. Good compatibility with older titles and performance in new games too. The 7xxx series are faster but don't play nice with a lot of older DX9 stuff at the moment. At this precise moment in time, and knowing the stuff you play, you would be better served with a 68xx or 69xx series. This may change as the 7xxx drivers mature but their driver division don't know which way is up at the moment so i wouldn't hold your breath. I've had two 7 series and sent em both back but they are probably the most future proof. The 7850 is good bang for the buck.

http://www.ebuyer.com/352912-powercolor-...x7850-2gbd5-2dh

Of course if you want to spend more there's the 7950 and 7970 too.

3 Recommendations:

6850 - Best Value, decent performance
6950 - Great all round performance but more expensive
7850 - Best performer, but only in new titles. The most future proof if you can live with short term issues while driver support settles down.

Good retailers in the UK...

Ebuyer
SCAN
Aria
Overclockers UK

Track down your issues first. From what you describe, you've got a lot going on besides a graphics card issue, like some nasty malware. If I was getting all of those issues at once, even if I were going to buy a new card, I'd verify my backups are up to date and do a clean install with all up to date drivers.


My 2˘:
-try another cable from card to monitor, be sure it's all seated well
-try another card, or video from the mobo if you have that built in
-try another monitor if you see artifacts at all times, like during boot up
-clean the inside of the case, dust is oily and can do odd things.

no luck?
-download MS Security Essentials, disable your current AV(s), install MSE
-scan with MSE, if able to install it
-check your update history to see if there is an obvious point that it stopped updating certain updates repeatedly
-download malwarebytes and scan


still no luck?
-clean install...might be a bit of a PITA if you aren't prepared, but it's free to do.
-updated drivers


THEN I'd buy the card. Get your system running right short of the hardware upgrade.

That said, I'm very happy with my 6950 2 GB1.

Is this XP or 7? If XP and an old installation, I'd go straight to the clean install and consider an upgrade to W7.