Been having a Nvidia 9800GTX for a few years now.I think it's hitting it's final days though.Whenever I boot up,It immediately looks like this.

Updating the drivers and that didn't solve anything.Just want to make sure before I shell out money for a new one since I don't know much about computers and whatnot.

It's most likely to be a graphics card problem.

I would open my computer and check if the graphics card is well connected. If after that it still shows up like this, I would replace it.

Artifacting.

Your video card is on its last legs. Soon it will be rendering games in valhalla.

Yes it's definitely either dying or perhaps the connection is faulty. But I think it's most likely the first...

Yeah I figured..damn it.

Oh well.Thanks for the replies fellas.Time for a new card.

If you are tech savvy there are methods of baking your video card to extend its life. But in all honesty it would be better to buy a cheapish card that will perform better and be more reliable.

Have any recommendations?

I'm not looking for a high end card.I just want to be able to play skyrim in medium to maybe high settings.

Maybe look at a 200 series card. I have a GTX 285 and it does quite well, a 295 shouldn't be too expensive these days. Though you should consider a higher end card, if you can afford it, it'll last you longer if you plan on doing a lot of PC gaming in the future.

Are you in North America? If so you're in luck. For like $130 you can get a 550 Ti from newegg.

A few weeks ago I booted up my PC and I had blue colored "crap" and horizontal lines all over my desktop, sort of similar to what you have there. I thought, "Oh great my GPU just killed over and its only a year old...". I removed it and replaced it with a different card and got it to boot without the crap. Took it out and put the "broke" card in... it finally booted and had seemed to have cleared itself of its problem. Haven't had any problem with it since I took it out and put it back in. I have no idea what was wrong, but removing the GPU and then putting it back in worked for me.

If you want to spend a little money and get a good card that'll last you a while, check out this 6870: Newegg.com - XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Its $150 but its a great card and this particular brand has a lifetime warranty. If thats a bit above your price range, I'd check back sometime in January -- the new series of GPUs are dropping soon and that will lower the price of the 6870.

If you would like more help picking out a new GPU a price range and the wattage of your PSU would help greatly. =P

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And The Heavens Shall Tremble [5/15/2012]