New Video Card

A day before the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines, my video card decided to go to hardware heaven. The downside of this unilateral decision was that I had no means to write about the Papal visit. The upside was that I was free of any distractions and could focus all my time on this once-in-a-lifetime event.

This resulted in my staying glued to the television for when the sun was up for those five days. And when the moon rose, my activity consisted of trying to revive my computer.

I initially thought that a virus hit me at the most inopportune moment. So I spent all of those hours formatting and scanning my computer. By Sunday, I was 99 percent certain the problem was hardware related.

The reason why I didn’t commit 100 percent was I still hoped I was wrong; that it was a software problem I overlooked. On one hand, a software issue would simply entail my reinstalling a couple of programs and configuring a few more. On the other hand, a hardware problem would mean an outflow of cash at the worst possible moment as I recently purchased a new smart phone.

One option was to wait for three months until I fully paid for my smart phone. Apart from being in a better financial situation, a new video card, the nVidia 960 GTX would be out. With a new card out, there was a chance that prices of current cards could go South.

The downside of that decision would mean three months of not being able to write or post articles on our websites. In addition to this, I would be unable to edit photos and videos. Worst of all, it would mean that I couldn’t play any games!

[Arrg!]

Searching for a New Card

So with a heavy heart and a light wallet, I tapped the browser icon on my smart phone and combed the internet for reviews on models to replace my factory overclocked nVidia 460 GTX.

I had planned on purchasing something strong for article writing but weak for games. Apart from the absence of First-Person-Shooter games, a slower one would mean it would take longer to edit photographs and videos. With these limitations in mind, I considered the nVidia 730 GT, which was in the area of PhP 2,600.

When my wife heard about my thoughts on downgrading the video card, she pointed out that this purchase may be more expensive in the long term because I would inevitably buy a better one in frustration.

[Yup, she knows me very well.]

Going back to the internet, I expanded my search to include the nVidia 760 GTX, which is supposed to be the immediate successor to my old nVidia 460 GTX. However, at nearly PhP 14,000 and using older technology that chews up a lot of electricity, I thumbed it down.

Finding a New Card

Instead of the faster nVidia 760 GTX, I settled for the slower nVidia 750 Ti. This model sits between my old nVidia 460 GTX and the current nVidia 760 GTX in terms of performance but uses a lot less power than my defective hardware.

So after wrangling with my conscience, I finally headed on to Virra Mall as soon as Pope Francis took off. The saleslady I spoke to showed me two versions:

• Palit 750 Ti with 1MB of DDR5 memory, running at stock speeds, and sporting two fans for PhP 7,000.
• Palit 750 Ti StormX with 2MB of DDR5 memory, running at factory-set overclocked speeds, and coming with one fan for PhP 6,600.

Since reviews for the stock nVidia 750 Ti indicate that heat isn’t going to be a problem, even when it is run hard, I opted for the overclocked version. More memory, faster processing, and a single fan meant it could perform better and still be much quieter than my old card.

And as soon as I plugged in this new puppy, my computer speeded up. Given that I didn’t even install the drivers, I was now 100 percent sure the problem was the video card.

[Thank goodness it was just the video card!]

I was actually more worried the problem lay with my motherboard. Since companies don’t manufacture ones compatible with my old generation of processor and memory, I would have had to buy new ones. And that would have cost a bundle.

[Whew!]

Final Thoughts

Looking back, my old video card didn’t give up just like that; there were actually signs it was about to kick the bucket. The first was that my applications and games seemed to slow down. Then when I ran a few diagnostic programs, they surprisingly reported that my card did not have CUDA or PhysX capabilities, two of which the nVidia 460 GTX had.

[It turns out parts of my video card were already shutting down.]

I’ve been running the nVidia 750 Ti for 48 hours straight and it looks fine so far. Editing photos feels just as quick as before and watching videos does not interfere with other tasks. I haven’t tried playing any of my video intensive games yet, but I don’t expect the experience to be any worse than my old nVida 460 GTX. Not bad for something costing PhP 6,600 cash.

That’s not to say that I had to give up a few things. Firstly, the nVidia 750 Ti lacks is a second monitor port and SLI capabilities.

The former isn’t much of an issue because I don’t use a second monitor. However, the latter may be an issue down the road because one of the cheapest ways to improve game performance is to link a second video card to the first.

Well, it’s time for me to wrap this article up and edit the accompanying pictures. I haven’t encountered any problems so far and I’m crossing my fingers for my computer to stay that way.