Radeon 9250 over heating!

[mod_on]

hi ya, i recently purchased a radeon 9250 256mb graphics card, and about 15 minutes into a game e.g. star wars battlefront the computer will just crash and the graphics card is red hot! i have 2 120mm fans blowing on to it. Could this be a faulty card or is drawing to much power etc? im not that knowledgeable when it comes to graphics cards, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

When using the computer normally, i.e. not playing games, there are no problems at all, it will keep running for hours and hours.

Also when i try to play oblivion the menus and everything are normal colours but when i start the game up the screen is white, as if it is very bright? any ideas?

Sped:
3.4 Ghz Pentium D
1GB PC4200 DDR2 RAM
Foxconn P4M800P7MB-RS2H motherboard
200GB Maxtor SATA2

Thankx in advance,

Matt

[Gregoroth]

You say you have the fans blowing ONTO the card? If you mean they are in the side panel of your case, then that is ok, but if they are at the back, blowing air in, then that's bad. You will need to make sure they are blowing warm air OUT of the back of you case.

If that doesn't apply, then it sounds like the heatsink is slightly loose, maybe? I wouldn't really know, but I though I'd try and help, at least.

A Radeon 9250 will not play Oblivion. It doesn't have the shader support, nor the horsepower to run such a game. Currently, it's about the lowest spec current ATI graphics card you can get which is only really suitable for general computer use, not gaming, especially today, though it should run most games from 3-4 years ago at good settings.

I suggest you purchase a mid range ATI card, especially if you're trying to play Oblivion. A Radeon X1600Pro (roughly £80?) and above would be adequate. A Radeon X1800GTO (£130) would be very nice for the money..

ATI

AGP: Radeon 9250<9550<9600<9800<X800<X850
PCI-E: X300<X550<X700<X800<X850<X1600<X1650<X1800<X1900<X1950

(SE<Pro<XT)

Bold = you should aim for at least these cards. Ssearch the net with the term 'Oblivion' and 'card name' for performance.

Some may suggest an Nvidia card, but anything mid range from Nvidia will suffer in Oblivion because of the different memory controller they have.

Someone else should reply to help you with the heat problem.

[Belso]

Try playing Star Wars Battlefront on lower settings.

This shouldn't cause the card to use full power and it shouldn't run as hot.

That would be a good place to start.

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[nft99]

What resolution are you running the games at?

Try dropping down a setting and see if that helps :D

[mod_on]

Not overclocked.

and

Highest settings - will drop the settings and see what we get.

Thank you so much for your help. I am useless when it comes to graphics cards, im not much of a gamer and am helping a mate out as a favour.

Regards
Matt

[Belso]

Any Luck then mate?

[djrinsa]

[quote:11e53a365f=\"Gregoroth\"]
ATI

AGP: Radeon 9250<9550<9600<9800<X800<X850
PCI-E: X300<X550<X700<X800<X850<X1600<X1650<X1800<X1900<X1950

(SE<Pro<XT)

Bold = you should aim for at least these cards. Ssearch the net with the term 'Oblivion' and 'card name' for performance.

[/quote:11e53a365f]

I was deciding whether or not to get a new graphics card so thanks for that - very helpful

I have a X700 pro, and was kinda at a loss as to how 'good' it was. Paid £132.56 for it in July 2005 from Aria, so im guessing it needs an upgrade.

Really want a card to play Medieval II: Total War at full spec, which is no mean feat. Would overclocking my current card do it - or should I splash out on a new card?

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[djrinsa]

[quote:5de60cb319=\"PrivatePyle@Work\"][quote:5de60cb319=\"djrinsa\"]Really want a card to play Medieval II: Total War at full spec, which is no mean feat. Would overclocking my current card do it - or should I splash out on a new card?[/quote:5de60cb319]

Yes! Someone else on here who has seen the light! I've got worries too mate, Ive got a 7800GT and I dunno how much justice its going to do Medieval II... Apparently there is a demo up on the total war site, why not download that and see how you get on? You might not be able to tweak the settings quite as much as when the game is fully released, but it should help you make a decision.[/quote:5de60cb319]

Ive played the demo - looking superb but mine was kinda jerky with just medium-ish settings - dont know how much better overclocking would make it or if I should just go for a new card - I see there are some x1650s on Aria for around £80-£90, dunno if these would be any good tho!?

Did you know that when the full game is out, the specs say it needs 11gb of hard drive space for the install!? How crazy is that!

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[djrinsa]

Not really tied to anything graphics wise - One of the few things I never really keep up with because I dont play many (or any) graphics intensive games, so only upgrade when I need to.

If only Medieval 2 needed the graphics processing power of Football Manager I would be fine ;)

Ive just upgraded my cpu to a Athlon x2 4800, so im thinking that should be enough!

You have a link for the card you mentioned? couldnt find it on the main site

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[djrinsa]

I guess it wouldnt really compare to something like this tho? http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=24927