Problems with XFX GeForce FX5600?

[DrZeus]

About 6mo ago, I was searching for a new video card to upgrade my GeForce2 card. I found this great sale on tigerdirect for a 50 or 100 mail-in rebate for the XFX GeForce FX5600 256Mb card. I thought HEY! What a great deal! 256mb for my video memory! Well, since that time, I've had multiple crashes and guess what? yep, all were due to my video card. I have had trouble especially when playing Madden 04. Has anyone else had any problems with this card OR what are your opinions of this card in general?

I also wanted to add that the cooling fan that came with it actually went bad. One of the bearings in the fan or something fell out and it was making all kinds of mad noises. I was tired of the awful sound and finally just took the whole fan off of it. It does have a heat sink on the processor, but it's one of those that is sort of beveled so the fan drops down in the middle of it. Maybe I should get a new fan for it?

[iceblue]

Maybe you should RMA it?

Or if you would rather have an aftermarket cooler, a Crystal Orb would cool it down quite nicely.

[DrZeus]

But do you think that necessarily not having that fan on it is the cause of my problems? I haven't experienced any other problems with some of my other games... Just seems to be Madden 04.
Also, I want to appologize for being a noob, but what do you mean exactly by RMAing it? I know, I could look it up, but I suspect someone here could probly fill me in with all the nitty gritty details as well.

[Midknyte]

they put a fan on the card for a reason. :rolleyes: maybe your other games aren't as graphically intensive as madden.

RMA = return merchandise authorization

see if you can return the card to the manufacturer for a new one.

[DrZeus]

ohh ok, right. Well, if it wasn't for the fact that I bought the card over a year ago and it wasn't but 6 mo. ago that the fan stopped working, I could try that. I have looked up those fans on TigerDirect and they sell for under $5, so I might just have to buy one and slap it in there.

Thanks for the possible solutions tho.

[Midknyte]

if it's over a year, there's a good chance that it's out of warranty. if you ran the card that long without a fan, you could have damaged it by now. try a new heatsink/fan, but don't be too surprised if you end up getting a new video card. next time, don't want so long to fix the problem. :rolleyes:

[DrZeus]

I don't know though... I'm still not convinced that with the absence of the fan on the heat sink is the cause of my game to crash. I have the game updated and my card updated 61.77 I think it is. It just doesn't make sense because I have played Unreal Tournament 2K4, Tribes: Vengence, Warcraft3, Madden 03, The Sims, The Sims Online, just to name a few and I have had absolutely no problems with these other games... I'm still wondering if there was just a problem from the start with Madden 04 and the FX5600 card...