[Fugazi]

Hi Dirty,

I already talked to you on xfire about this but I will reiderate and some more.

I believe the best option for you would be to RMA. Newegg gives you 30 days. If you arent satisfied with its performance on CS:S (which I wouldnt be) then go this route otherwise you arent really getting what you paid for. If you are feeling lucky then RMA and get another 7900GT and see if just the card you got is defective, but I would advise against that. I see your best route to be the ATi route. Get an X1800XT and use the omega drivers. Also with ATi too you should be able to get the core clock from 625 to 700 easily.

I know you well enough to say your main game is CS:S and you want a card that will get your most bang for the buck on the game.

Another thing you might want to check to see is if the motherboard is running the card at the correct voltages. Look in the manual to see what the voltage should be at and check to see if your BIOS set it right. If your BIOS underclocked the voltage then you performance will definately suffer.

Here is the x1800xt
[link=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102008]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102008[/link]

Here are the ATi omega drivers
[link=http://omegadrivers.net/]http://omegadrivers.net/[/link]

To save about $100 you can go to X850XT route and still get amazing CS:S and FEAR performance.
[link=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCompare.asp?CompareItemList=N82E16814102688 %2CN82E16814241013&SubCategory=48]http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCompare.asp?CompareItemList=N82E16814102688 %2CN82E16814241013&SubCategory=48[/link]
This is a newegg comparison between the Sapphire X850XT and the Gecube X850XT PE. The PE OC'd will get you to about the speed of a not overclocked X1800XT.

Anytime you read for either the X1800XT or the X850XT "THE FAN IS REALLY LOUD!!!" just get ATi Tool. It will overclock the gpu for you and it will control fanspeed so that is isnt running at high rpms when it doesnt have to.

Good luck