Graphics card or Psu dying?

[technosites]

Hi there,

Recently my computer has been restarting whenever it gets a bit too graphics intense for its liking, i.e. playing graphically demanding games while multi tasking The GPU temporature is running a bit too hot for my liking, but I'm not overclocking any of my components atall. The OS (vista) doesn't realise when it's restarted so its definately a hardware problem not a software stop error or anything (disabled auto restart on stop error, no error appears).

now, my graphics card, a nice nvidia 6600gt, is fairly old and i'm willing to upgrade it (i'm looking at the 7600gt arctic cooling edition) however I'm not convinced it is the graphics card thats a problem. It could be the PSU not providing enough power, which would cause the graphics to crash restarting the pc, and would also cause overheating.

However, I have no way of telling whether its a faulty psu or old dying graphics card. all I know is the psu shouldn't have a problem, its a fairly new (less than a year) 500w, and the graphics card is old and I wouldn't be surprised if i need to replace it (its apg anyway and i could do with a pci-e now)

So my question is, any way to tell for sure whether its the psu being naughty or the graphics card? And no, the only other psu's i have lying around and much smaller and wouldn't be able to power my pc I've got a few older graphics cards lying around too, but they are even older so I don't think testing them in my rig would help?

Thanks in advance,
Technosites

 

[V3NOM]

welcome to da forums!

umm i wouldnt recommend the 7600GT...only slightly out of date what games exactly do you play?

 

[technosites]

thanks

hmm ok, i was looking at benchmarks and reviews on the 8 series and it would seem that generally the 7600gt comes out better than most the 8 series. my price range is 50-60£

I started noticing problems when playing eve-online, which is very graphics intensive. and today when I tried counterstrike:s max settings at 1024res is crashed instantly, but its ok now i've dropped the settings down a bit.

Thanks for the help,
Tech

 

[Acethechosenone]

Well since you have been using the graphics card for some time, I think the graphics card may be the culprit. If its not getting enough amps aka bad PSU then it shouldn't be overheating and on the contrary should crash as soon as you start a game.
I think it may be time for an upgrade, head on over to the best graphics card for august article and pick something new.
And please don't buy the 7600gt