8800GT with defective ram asa PPU possible?

E

ecktt

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 22, 2004
Messages
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A co-worker's 8800GT has some bad RAM. Was thinking about taking it off his hands for a cheap price if it could be used as a PPU. Can the card still be used as a PPU?
 
I don't think it could be, as PPU's use the onboard RAM, you could try it, however.
 
You mean it reports less RAM than it should? If it can use the remaining RAM without errors, it should be fine.
 
Can you fix the problem by lowering the memory clock speed? There's also cache on the GPU that could also look like bad memory, depending on the symptoms.
 
specifically...how do you know the ram is bad?
 
Talk about digging up an old thread.

I Think the ram is bad because of the checkered display during POST. Also, when the GUI component of Windows XP loads, the screen is fine until anything is moved. It leaves a trail of corrupted artefacts behind. I know it's the card because I also have a 8800GT (different brand) that does not do this in the same machine.

Anyway. My question is going to expand a bit. I recently upgraded my system to a MSI P55-GD65 + i7. The board supports SLi. I was wondering if i could get away with SLI as well?
 
Depending on brand, it may or may not be under warranty. Otherwise, sorry but it's pretty much useless.
 
By sheer luck it may work.
If the bad area of ram is never used for PhysX and the card can initialise OK, then it will be fine.
Its worth a shot, try it.

Of course as drivers change, so might the cards ability to keep running.
 
ecktt said:
Talk about digging up an old thread.

I Think the ram is bad because of the checkered display during POST. Also, when the GUI component of Windows XP loads, the screen is fine until anything is moved. It leaves a trail of corrupted artefacts behind. I know it's the card because I also have a 8800GT (different brand) that does not do this in the same machine.

Anyway. My question is going to expand a bit. I recently upgraded my system to a MSI P55-GD65 + i7. The board supports SLi. I was wondering if i could get away with SLI as well?
Click to expand...

I've had this happen because of bad drivers, where the card was perfectly fine. Worth looking into, FWIW.
 
>_<
Niether worked. Assembled everything last night and installed Win 7 RTM with my known working card as the primary card. Windows could not start the defective card and 190.62 drivers don't see it to ustilise for SLi or PhysX. I guess there was no harm in trying. When i get home from work, I try to run the card alone to see if it will even POST anymore.
 
I had a 9600gt that was very unstable as a render gpu, always crashing to black screen in games. However, it ran fine as a dedicated ppu. Anyway, I've removed it as I don't really see the benefit of physx tbh.
 
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