Cooling, video, and lcd

[ZeLL]

I got like 3 different questions to touch base on you guys with.

1st - After playing a couple hours of games the other night, my video card kinda randomly stopped working with one of those "Your video driver stopped responding to comands" messages. Thought that was kinda wierd. restarted and just for the hell of it, popped open the case to feel the 9700 pro. it was so hott i couldn't keep my hand on it, i've never felt it that hott before.
Is this normal and ok?

also i'm just using the stock fan for my new amd 64 3500+. what do yall think about that. not overclocking it or anything.

2nd - after looking at other peoples scores on the 3dmark and hearing they are so much higher than mine because they OC there video card, i kinda got pissed that it would make a 3000 point difference when the rest of my machine would be better. is a 9700 pro really that bad for todays new standards? i was kinda thinking about OCing it but after it getting so hot, i kinda thought that might not be a good idea. input please :D

3rd - I'm using a 17.4" AGneovo X-174 LCD for my set up. I use to have a 21 " sony but i got tired of it baking my eyes after games. i sold that and have this now. i heard it lowers your frame rate. how the hell could a frame rate be lowered though something that is only recieving a signal that the computer is giving out. i just thought the lcd might take a second longer to translate it or something, but it turns out the problem also has to do with inside the computer because my 3dmark2003 scores have been a couple thousand off when i use to use both my 21" crt that i sold and this 17.4" lcd. you guys getting what i'm saying? why are lcd's performance killers?

[Grimmy]

Hmmm I have a, ATI 9700 Pro, never felt it for temp though. I know I move a lot of air, my rig is way noisey with 8 fans running, 7 for the case, 1 for my proc.

As for OCing your vid card, well a little might be good, but as a great bud told me (I was thinking of OCin my proc, not my vid card) once, when you OC something, it reduces the life of it. At the time, I paid almost $400 for my proc and well I wanted it to last a long time, till I could upgrade again. I, and this is myself, tend to think the same for my 9700. IMO it's still a great card, not the best, but as new cards come out, it just makes the 9700 pro cheaper. So that's my opinion, I wouldn't OC it.

As for the frame rate, it depends on the monitor or in your case the LCD screens refresh rate. Can have the baddest vid card, but on a crappy monitor, it's still going to suck. What refresh rate are you running on your vid card? I use a crt and run 100Hz. LCD nice n crisp, but slow on the refresh, compared to a crt. My laptop glitches once in a blue mood, and I tend to think it's because of the screen it's self. I have a 9700 mobile in it, and my score on 3dMark is quite a bit lower then my desktop, and my laptop specs kill my desktop. Although I still can game with it pretty good, worked great at this years Outlaws LAN.

Stock fan on your 64 3500+, well IMO I'd spend a few extra bucks and get a better fan. Not sure what you have for a heatsink, but that wouldn't hurt either. Just think of the price of a new replacement proc compared to the price of a good hs and fan to keep it kewl.

Got a pic of your rig? I'd like to see it, :)

[ZeLL]

i'm confused, i thought lcds dont have refresh rates, the reason why they are so easy on your eyes. so how could they lower your video cards refresh rate.

heres a pic of my set up right now.

[JIMINATOR]

1) this is bad, maybe the fan is out on your card, or it is clogged with dust. get a can of compressed air and spray it out. if that doesn't help, you may need to get a replacement fan
2) to oc doesn't really hurt - if adequate cooling is provided. afterall different versions of the chips and cards are really essentially the same units, but with different cooling, features, and or pipelines enabled.
3) make sure you have vsync off because that can be a big killer. lcds do not refresh, but they can smear images if the response rate is too low. if that is not an issue, don't worry about it. i am guessing also that you have the latest dx 9.0b and also ati video drivers...

[ZeLL]

1) I'll clean out the card today and see how that works for me.
2) I'm using rage3d. my clocks are currently 324/310.5. I forgot how to oc these things, is it like a cpu where you clock it, then restart and see how it runs? increments of 5? help me here.
3) whats wierd is i use to get some ghosting. but once i got a new computer like a year and a half back it went away. I use to have my 21" crt and this 17.4" lcd side by side and i started not noticing that much of a difference, so i sold my crt. heres a pic of my old setup. now its just minus the crt. but i'm glad to hear that jim