Well, yesterday, my computer started putting random pixels all over the screen, and, several times, just giving up and blue-screening (blue screen process faster in new Windows 7--so fast I couldn't read the full screen of message before it rebooted).

I ran Dell Diagnostics, and it confirmed what I suspected--bytes stored in the graphics card memory didn't match what was then retrieved.

It's a dual card setup--two Geforce 8800s, needed to drive my 30in monitor at full resolution, and I bet just one is "busted". But, to buy just one card, I'd have to find an "ancient" 8800 somewhere (Dell didn't have it--but I didn't look hard because, I wanted to upgrade). and instead, Dell listed a recommended GeForce 260, one of the later, greater cards. Amazon.com had it for a tiny bit cheaper (like 5% or so) so I ordered a pair from Amazon (with laptop, of course, no need to suffer bluescreens while ordering from the busted computer).

Well, that's just under half a grand lost--but I guess I'll survive, and take consolation in getting, hopefully, having the latest and greatest.

Now--if it turns out to be the motherboard after all, I'll really be upset. But nothing but graphics seems to be a problem, so hopefully, if it is motherboard, it's just one particular slot.

And I guess the one good card, whichever it is, has its use....maybe I can use it for physX or CUDA or something, perhaps put it in the Linux box.

Of course, this is about 1 year after the Warrenty expired, so yeah, couldn't just get free service from Dell. this time.

Actually, I suspect the graphics card was flaky to begin with--for years, Duke Nukem would crash it from time to time, though the latest OpenGL seemed to make that extremely rare--perhaps a problem that requires flaky card and buggy driver in combo to be exercised. But, perhaps the problem just decided to expand a little now. After all, the same DN binary works fine on the laptop with it's nVidia card.

Now to wait till estimated shipping date of Nov 13. It's like living in the dark ages for the next ten days!

__________________
-----
Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Half a grand for a pair of GTX 260s?

What a waste - the ATI HD5850 is faster and supports DX11 for about the same price. It should still be a good bit better than your 8800s though.

__________________
WANTED:

Schroedinger's Cat

Dead And Alive

Yeah, I gave up on ATIs over a decade ago--too many incompatibility problems.

I did however cut back my resolution so only one card is needed, and disabled a card in the control panel (I chose randomly, 50/50--SO far, it looks like the right choice). So, now I get to view web pages where I only see a teeny portion of the page. E.g. now, I see the post I'm responding to and signature (but not the name and avatar--it's "over the top" so to speak, and one paragraph of my response, and that's it. I guess I could find the knob that reduces the font size and fix that, though.

__________________
-----
Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

ATI has changed significantly since a decade ago - their current cards are better than anything Nvidia has for the price. I have a pair of ATI 4870x2s, and I've had fewer problems with them than with my old Nvidia 7950.

The 260s are excellent cards, don't get me wrong. They just aren't worth the price now that the 5850 is out.

Why did you cut back on the resolution by the way? The 8800 series cards all support dual-link DVI, so a 30" shouldn't be a problem (in fact, each one should support 2 dual link DVIs, allowing each card individually to drive two 30" monitors).

__________________
WANTED:

Schroedinger's Cat

Dead And Alive