Failing GFX Card?

[Zootoxin]

Is there away to check if a Graphics card is failing or losing power or doing something that makes games go slow?

[T-Bag]

A sign that a graphics card is failing would be if you get artifacts on screen. Little areas of while pixels appearing when at load are a common sign the card is over worked. You can check the temperature of the cards using overclocking software. I assume ATi tool has a built in temperature, and similarly for Nvidia there will be an overclocking tool.
Check the temps and check on a overclocking forum what the thresholds are...generally hotter than CPUs (upto about 100C I think).

[Zootoxin]

hows this look?

[TeaLeaf]

93 is a bit toasty!

TL.

[Penfold]

That looks neat.

Can anyone point a lazy git in the right direction to get that for my Nvidia card please

[Zootoxin]

Its now at 118c whats the GPU anyway?

[R@ng3R]

Its now at 118c whats the GPU anyway?

gpu is your graphics card,and id say 118 is too high

[DuVeL]

That looks neat.
 
Can anyone point a lazy git in the right direction to get that for my Nvidia card please

I use SpeedFan on my computer at work, you can use it to check temps but also adjust your fans and such.
 
BTW, artifacts can also be because you still have F@H on during game, I know from experience.

[Jabbs]

Take the card out and give it a damn good clean!

[Penfold]

gpu is your graphics card,and id say 118 is too high

What should the temperature be? and also for CPU's.

Here's mine. It means nothing to me but here it is. It'd be interesting to see how much it increases when folding for 24 hours.



Are these temps ok?

Thanks

[Carr0t]

Well I know the 8800s run quite toasty, and my old 7800 had the temp alarm set to 115 degrees C before it'd go off (as in that was the stock setting in the nVidia drivers). As a comparison, my ATI 4800 generally idles at 20% fan speed and 78 degrees. It gets up to maybe 85-90 in games, and the fan sometimes ramps up a bit, but not very often. I woulda said past 90 degrees when idle is a bit much though, and certainly if you're seeing it frequently shift above 110 (probably even 100 to be honest) under load then you'd want to be looking at cleaning out the fan/heatsink, or improving airflow through your case (note that just adding more fans does not always do this).

SpeedFan doesn't seem to be picking up my GPU (prob doesn't do ATI), but it's reporting my quad core as 2 cores at 34 centigrade, and 2 at 38, which i'm quite happy with given it's very slightly OCed from 2.8 to 3.0 Ghz. These generally push up to about 40-41 when under normal load. I think one of them got up to 51 when I ran Prime95 across them for an hour. I don't think my BIOS is even capable of alarming on CPU temps below 60. The only thing that tends to worry me is my northbridge temp, which sits at around 65 normally, but even when really stressing the mem on a hot day that only gets up to 67 or so. I think the passive cooling heatpipe system on my northbridge was designed for a top down CPU fan to get airflow, whereas mine goes front to back.

[Doorman]

I had worries about my 8800GTX. Unnecessarily as it happens. 63 idling and 85-90 under load is apparently normal for them.

[kregoron]

90 - 100 degress isnt unormal for a 8xxx series card, tho is highly adviseable to get em below 80, as the shifting between low idle temp to high work temps can cause the material in a CPU/GPU to become britle and the core can crack at its attachment (worst case senario, takes a long time and a bit of bad luck) tho in any case isnt good for the GPU unit, cleaning it can help solve your issues a bit..

Tho what the measurement programs do not show, is the temp of the graphics card memory, memory temps getting to high on a graphics card will lead to corrupt or missing textures and chips dying...

There is a nice tool called ATItool (already been mentioned  me thinks) its normally used for oc, but has a built in artifact scanner, which is pretty good at showing when a cards is beginning to become unstable or dying.

[DannagE]

118'c! Ouch.

Really need to blow to dust out of your cooler, look at the airflow from the other fans in your case or change to an aftermarket cooler.

I put an aftermarket cooler on my 8800GTX and it idles around 50'c now which is much better, and quieter!

Also make sure your fan is actually spinning.

[delanvital]

you can check if the RAM is faulty with this app

Nvidia GPU memory tester