Graphics card help

[redfish]

I've been having issues with my graphics card recently, my computer will freeze and the screen will either turn black and refresh, saying the graphics drivers stopped working, or turn white and I will have to reboot. This is clearly a problem. I currently am running the onboard ATI Radeon HD 4250 chipset. Since I don't do any gaming, this has worked fine for me. My question is, should I go with NVidia or ATI? I initially planned to upgrade to an ATI HD 5000 series, maybe 5500-5750 as I have a low budget, but after reading about driver complaints I wonder if I should give nVidia a chance. Can you guys give me any recommendations? I have a very low budget, so I'd prefer something as cheap as possible. I don't do any gaming, at least nothing more graphics-intensive than a Tron game. Folding would be nice, but I'm not expecting it for under $100 (preferably well under). I'm hoping for something equivalent to, say, an HD 5000 series. Thanks.

 

[farinha]

Have you upgraded the drivers?

 

[redfish]

Yes. I downloaded the drivers provided by the ATI website and used those, didn't help, so I switched back to the driver suggested by Windows.

 

[redfish]

I did some looking around, and I think I have a general idea of where to go. What kind of performance difference should I expect between an HD 5670, an HD 5570, a GTS 450, and a 9800 GT? More importantly though, if I am having issues with the drivers for the HD4250 would an HD 5000 series give me the same problems or should they be resolved? thanks

 

[Trotter]

If you don't mind losing DX11 capabilities, there are some great deals on the 48xx.

Newegg.com - VisionTek 900329 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Newegg.com - XFX HD-487A-ZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

And this 5670:

Newegg.com - XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

As for driver issues, I don't see why you would have them. Uninstall them, boot to safe mode, use Driver Sweeper to remove any remnants of the GRAPHICS drivers (and those only), boot back into regular mode, and install the latest drivers for the 4250.

 

[redfish]

It sounds like my issues with the drivers are pretty uncommon... If you don't think that it's a result of this specific chipset I might as well save up for a nicer card, and try other means of eliminating the issues. As for the ones you suggested, Trotter, I had indeed been looking at a couple of them before. Two of them did not have the ports that I would like to have, but that's just me being picky.
Thank you for the suggestion, Trotter. I will try to do that when I have the time and patience, and hopefully it will help.

 

[Trotter]

I haven't found anything about anyone having any problems out of the HD4250. That's why I think it may be your driver's installation causing the problem. Even uninstalling the old drivers sometimes leaves behind remnants that can cause problems, hence the recommendation to use safe mode and Driver Sweeper.

What ports do you need?

 

[redfish]

My current monitor uses a D-sub connection (I think) and I would like to have HDMI capability when I get a newer monitor.

 

[Trotter]

Newegg.com - VisionTek 900268 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Newegg.com - XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Newegg.com - XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

 

[redfish]

Thank you very much for the recommendations. While the HD 5770 is well out of my price range, if I ever get the money it would be on my list. The 4850, however, is one that I had overlooked for some reason but is a great deal of the performance. Thanks for the advice.