I bit the bullet and ordered a new video card. The crashes/freezes are more on the annoying side now, and I want to actually PLAY a damn game without being paranoid about crashing or freezing with glitch confetti every five minutes, or the screen going acid trippy on me and forcing me to restart the client.
Like this.
I also got a specific recommendation from one of my gamer friends, so I did a bit of research and it seems the advice was pretty solid. So I went for an EVGA GTX 460 Fermi. It was in the price range I wanted, and the reviews are very good. I don’t need anything crazy for overclocking – I just want it to smoothly run the graphic-heavy games I play, on at least mid-level settings, without overheating and giving my machine a hernia.
If I wasn’t a gamer, my current card would be fine for daily use, as I have no problems when I’m not running anything graphic-intensive. It WAS made for gaming though, so it’s a bit depressing to see such a powerful card get demoted to base usage. (Leave it to a gamer girl to empathize with a computer part.) I think I’ll retire it to my dad’s collection of computer guts. Maybe it’ll end up being used again eventually. I hope so. I’d hate to not squeeze every possible use out of it until it’s an absolutely dead brick.
The new card should arrive next week. I look forward to being able to crank up my video settings again.