Bad video card?

[joyous_gard]

Just today, whenever I get into loaded save game (turn 113 on standard), within a few seconds of clicking around on the interface, the screen turns Gray, or the game crashes, or the video craps out. I have been running in DX 11 and was trying to run in DX 11 today. Nothing changed in my gameplay. I never had crashes like this before.

Later, while streaming netflix, the video cut out and I had to reboot. It's like the video just drops and audio continues, computer continues.

Are these symptoms of my video card going bad? I was really hoping to get into the summer before I upgraded my computer. I guess I could put in an older card I have. Does heavy use of a video card result in its early failure? It's 2 year old or so. 1 year 8 months maybe.

Windows 7 Home

AMD Athlon 64X2 5400+ at 2.8 ghz

ASUS M2A-VM motherboard

4 GB RAM at 622 MHz

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB RAM

Civ V is installed on a 100 GB OCZ SSD

 

[civ_king]

What manufacturer is the GPU?

 

[joyous_gard]

What manufacturer is the GPU?

Phew, I don't know that. how do I find it out? It's nVidia GeForce 9800 GT.

I kept getting weird stuff happening... started to get BSOD, restarting, all kinds of stuff (always appeared video related)... so I bought a new "cheap" card from Best Buy a GeForce 210 and things appear to be working... haven't tried Civ V yet, but I will

Will video cards die faster if I try to run them on high settings? I guess it makes sense that they will. Should I change all the settings to low. how do I know where my sweet spot is for graphics settings?

 

[Senethro]

They shouldn't be dying unless they're getting fried due to insufficient cooling. Find a way to measure the temp the graphic card runs at (like this: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/)