So I think my GPU is fried.

9800GTX? I'm surprised it still powers up after all these years [mid 2008 release date]. Best bet would be to stick another working vidga card in to see if it is indeed what you suspect, although that's not always possible. Does your CPU have a graphics core that can be utilised?

 

Funny, I remember having a similar issue with my old GPU a few years back. I'm not sure about the exact model, but think it was some form of 9800 too.
My suggestion is to do a clean installation of the last driver you used where this problem did not occur. Go back to the stable one and never ever upgrade again. It's not like you're going to be able to run any of the games the new drivers help with anyway.

 

If you've had the same GPU for 8 years, you probably need to upgrade more than that anyway. New motherboard, CPU and PSU. Might as well get a whole new one. I can recommend getting an SSD too.

Until then, try looking in C:\NVIDIA\ for old drivers.

 

Buying second hand isn't bad. I've bought my share of used graphics cards in past and they usually work fine in my experience at least.

Have you considered any ATI cards as an option?

 

Go for it. Pretty cheap. The rest looks fine enough actually. You can probably get one that's better if you can afford it, even though your MB looks a bit old.

 

I wouldn't know where to start, but you could ask the PC Master Race. I'm in the process of ascension and they've been very helpful.

I've also been building a PC, and they've helped with that, too.

 

I always check out GPUBOSS to compare different cards which helps to make a decision about bang-for-buck. Also it might help if you find out what the absolute best graphics card your motherboard is able to take then go down the line from there. I know how you feel about not having much of a budget for computer upgrades, I finally got my car registered which cost me over $1000 [had to loan, so now I owe someone else], so there goes any chance whatsoever of being able to afford at least maybe a 770ti or even a 960 :/

[sarcasm]
I'm fine paying 35% income tax while massive multi-national coporations pay 2% - really! I'm fine with it!

Yep, gotta pay those taxes so they can be spent on stealing other countries resources by military force. I'm fine with that too.
[/sarcasm]

 

Stealing the resources of other countries; that's America's god-given right. [/sarcasm but i do believe there were WMDs in the middle east due to first hand accounts]

In all seriousness, though, income tax is ridiculous.

 

Easiest way to find out what MB you have is to run dxdiag from the start menu. There you'll see system manufacturer and system model, i. e. motherboard brand and model.

What you'll also want to make sure is that your power supply unit can run a more powerful card.

 

I just saw the chipset said P31/P35, meaning it was old. Checking the exact model and manufacturer is probably a good idea.
Until then, I note that 560GTX uses PCI-E 2.0 and needs a 450 W PSU: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-560/specifications
Meanwhile the P35 chipset seems to use PCI-E 1.1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_P35#Features
However seems like PCI-E 2.0 is backwards compatible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_2.0
So you'll not get the full power out of it, but it's probably as good or better than anything else you can get as long as you have the wattage to run it.

Also, throw Vista away for gods sake. At least get windows 7.

 

I don't think that's relevant. Probably just some built-in graphics adapter or something like that. OpenGL and DirectX should be resolved on the GPU regardless I think. Besides, here's some relevant specs for your old card: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9_series#GeForce_9800_GTX

So the 560 should be just fine.

Also, I think Vista can't use DirectX 11, just as Windows 7 can't use DirectX 12. Apart from that reasons to upgrade are mostly annoyances like Vista automatically moving your savegames around for older games or denying you access to save and shit like that. I dunno, I never used it because I heard so much shit about it. Performance-wise it probably isn't a big deal, beyond the performance boost you get from formatting and reinstalling an OS of course.

edit: Also, I finally remembered that the card I had where the same problem occurred was the 9800 GT (so not exactly the same as yours)

 

Not sure about Vista Home Premium but Vista Ultimate x64 got access to directX 11 few years back but only up to DX11,0. Win 7 has support up to DX 11,1 and win 8,1 up to DX 11,2 ; win 10 as we know supports DX12

on the other hand with the GTX+9800 it's an eqivalent of Radeon HD4850 wich i ran up until december (and it would still work quite fine if i haven't upgrade it) so i doubt it's hardware related issue (who knows) but given the Nvidia policy where there is one driver for all (and this is why i hate nvidia cards) when card get's outdated the support for it in the never versions of drivers gets removed and installing them especially in beta can seriously screw over the system up to a point where it is nessecary to do a backup revovery/clean install. Not to mention there is little information when the support for a given card gets dropped.. plus it may partially still work in a later release or two.

However it might be a good idea to run some kind of RAM testing utility from a live distro like "hiren's boot cd" or put a windows malware clean scan on the run (try something good eg. emsisoft antimalware)
besides if Your ram turns out to be ok You can try to run a linux live cd and check there if Your card is allright (if You prefer it this way instead of windows reinstall).

EDIT
Oh yeah don't forget to check Your monitor and the monitor signal cable they might be faulty too

EDIT #2
as for the replacement card expenses You can try buy a used card on ebay or the like. On a local auctionhouse in my country i saw 9800GTX+ roughly for an equivalent of 25€ and it had a custom arctic cooling accelero twin turbo cooling kit on it, so buying a replacement is not such a big deal..
EDIT#3
i have preety similar mobo
and run radeon r9 390X on it all PCI-E are backwards compatible only difference is transfer speed so You've got two things to consider before You purchase the replacement
1) is Your power supply capable of supplying enaugh amperage on 12V rail (I assume You have the PCI-E power cables in Your PSU since GTX9800 also needs them)
to calculate how much amperage You need You'd need to know wattage consumption of Your PC components (CPU,HDD's FAN's etc..) besides cpu and gpu (wich can be checked on manufacturer's site) evrything else should have amperageor wattage use on the sticker)
to calculate amperage for DC divide wattage by voltage (W/V) in this case we divide by 12V
How much power supply can provide on 12V rail can be seen on the psu sticker on the psu.
sometimes PSU has 2x +12V rails one for cpu and hdd and one for additional mobo and gpu connectors ( they don't add up then) you just check for one of them refer to psu manual to find out wich one)
2)
ask for precise measurments of the card dimensions it might be possible that it won't fit Your old chasis (especially if you have mini-atx) usually hdd/fdd montage slots stand in the way and prevent longer cards from fitting in to the chasis so take a measurment from the nail slot up to the moment you'll see it won't fit and write it down in milimeters/inches whatever u use and compare it to the length of the card you buy to be sure

EDIT#4 and yes those opengl1,4 and ditectX 9.0c are indeed for integrated graphic on the motherboard ( check for blue colored 15 pin in 3 rows socket at the back of the pc [usually a d-sub connector] where a lot of usb's are and a integrated LAN/internet socket) if it's there then you have integrated graphic card built in the motherboard) so yes newer type replacement card will work but there is one condition make yourslef ABSOLLUTELY sure that there are drivers from the manufacturer for your operating system for that card..
I've been screwed over and also needed to buy a win 7 copy in order to use my new card since there were no drivers under Vista

EDIT#5
as this might be the source of concern Yes I do manage to run Fo4 on quad core q9650 an old low end socket775 mobo and a new radeon r9 390x it runs super smooth only real problem anre the load times since PCI-E 1.0a is only 2,5GB/s while r9 390x supports up to PCI-E 3.0 wich has transfer in hundreds of GB/s and no SSD jus ta crappy hdd and 32 MB cache on it