Series of video problems

It all started playing Final Fantasy XI on my omega'd 9500np->9700, I noticed that some of the text and map would artifact even though the actual 3d graphics were fine. Other games ran beautifully even though I had the occasional crash, then all of a sudden bam one day in FFXI hard crash and when I boot back up I see nothing. I check out my vidcard and the heatsink popped off, so I got a Zalmann fanless heatsink and next thing I know I get artifacting just booting up in bios with crazy redness and overall ungoodness. So I bought myself some 100 buck geforce 5600 to lay me over until I fixed the problem, everything was running fine but my FPS SUCKS, even in Counter-Strike I can run 100fps just fine but when a smoke grenade hits the screen and I run through it I drop to TWENTY (20!!!).

Being fed up with the card I rechecked out the 9500 and I noticed a small burnt smear mark on the chip itself, so I'm wondering if it is even possibly salvageable as is or if I should just bite the "wallet" and get a new card. Perhaps the 5600 is actually good enough and I should put some aired cooling on it? Is it at all possible to get crazy fps hits because the zalmann cooler just sucks?

somebody with knowledge plz do reply.

...man Im sorry to hear about that. I would try cleaning the video card with alchohol and look at the burn mark carefully. It may just be superficial.

But if it isnt I gotta ask you; did the heatsink pop off before you put the Zalman on it? If it did RMA it.

If not then you did knida voided your warrenty . However ATi are a bunch of nice guys, maybe you can RMA it to get it repared if you tell them what happened.

Finally the 5600 flat out sux. What you are seeing is not you computer but your videocard. If you want a good budget card I would suggest looking into a 9600pro / XT.

Best of luck to you

I didn't even think about that. Yes the videocard did in fact pop off before I put on the Zalmann, that's the reason I put on the Zalmann in the first place. The problem is that I bought the videocard off a guy from the anandtech forums because he said it successfully softmodded. What if I have none of the papers/receipts/whathaveyou. Is it still possible to get a refund?