Vista or hardware problem?

[XJnine]

I RMA'd my 8800gtx because it was constantly giving me display driver lockups and resets in Vista both on the desktop and in games. At first I thought it was my power supply so I replaced that, no improvement. After that I went with RMA'ing the card. To continue to have a running system I bought a 7600GS 512mb card while my 8800GTX was in the shop. At first things seemed fine but now I'm starting to get the same problems as I had with my 8800GTX.

Do you guys think it's just a display driver issue under Vista with the nvidia cards? Could my 680i motherboard be killing my cards? I could try going back to XP to see if I still have the problems. I didn't want to have to go that route but I may end up doing that unless you have any other suggestions.

Suggestions?

[Bio-Hazard]

I'd ventur to say driver issues, either with your MoBo or more likely video card. I'd give XP a shot first just to make double sure, install it on a old smaller drive if you have one for testing............;)

[sushrukh]

Vista or graphics driver is for sure.I'm experiencing lockups & restarts too in Vista but XP is workin' fine.

[SonicWRX]

I'd ventur to say driver issues, either with your MoBo or more likely video card. I'd give XP a shot first just to make double sure, install it on a old smaller drive if you have one for testing............;)

I'm with Bio on this with how new Vista is and who new the drivers for every part of your computer to test hardware in this situation you have to step back to an older more mature OS. I'd deff. try to use another drive too. that way you don't lose your Vista install. just disconnect the drives totally and plug in the other drive.

[XJnine]

I'll give XP a shot. I'm just concerned because my wifes machine doesn't have any problems and she's running my old 6800GT. Different mobo drivers but similar video drivers. Hmm...

[Pat123]

i get this problem in games mainly with vista.. freezes and alike. 7950gt. hmm..

[Kougar]

I'd say nVidia's drivers. They've been rife with problems, and nVidia bit off more than they could chew with drivers so quickly fixing all of them may be awhile.

I am even having problems with an 8800GTS on Windows XP, which probably says it all right there. It will be interesting once AMD finally launches DX10 cards themselves just to be able to compare notes on if ATI cards exhibit the same issues.

[PP Mguire]

Im willing to bet 8800 drivers for sure.

[Kougar]

Just a passing thought, but are you forcing AA or AF settings through the drivers, or leaving it on "Application Controlled"?

[XJnine]

I had AA and AF turned on in the control panel on my 8800 but with the molasses slow 7600gs I have in here now I left it set to application controlled.

I also get numerous display resets just while using windows. The AA and AF settings don't apply there do they? Just wondering if it turns out that's a contributing factor. I know Vista uses some DirectX features of the cards on the desktop now, not sure how AA and AF affect that.

[Kougar]

I know that some games have issues with forced AA, Anandtech just did a good brief on this. I don't think it could affect the desktop, but then again since the desktop in Vista is run in D3D mode on the GPU instead of the CPU who knows.

You could try manually forcing AA/AF on your wife's machine, and seeing if that wrecks it... :lol: