Just checked my Graphics card with FurMark and... :(

[gokengt]

My games have been slowing down after 5 minutes or so of play time as of late, and I haven't been able to remedy this problem yet.  I just ran FurMark and this is what it said...

FurMark v1.6.5
Fullscreen Score.

[SCORE : 6091042 ms ]
- Frames : 1000
-FPS Min : 1
-FPS Max : 14
- FPS AVG: 2
- RES: 1440x900 / MSAA:0x
- Renderer NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS
- Active GPUs: 1
- Drivers 9.17.12.5896 (7-9-2010)
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz
- CPU Speed: 2499 MHz
- OS: Windows Vista ver. 6.0 build 6002 [Service Pack 2]

Is this a bad score?  I used to be able to play games for hours without any problem, but about a week ago my pc started really having trouble with 3D games. 

[JohnY]

Hey...I can't say for sure on that score as I haven't run Benchmarks for a while now, but I did notice your min-max FPS were as bad as they get, indicating somethings not right!? I can offer some things/idea's to check on.1- would be to reload and or update the graphics card driver, they can & do, become corrupt over time. 2- check the cards temps under load, heat will take them down over time? 3- get an eye on the card and check for any damage like leaking capp's etc, as well check it's cooling fan is running and clean. On a side note, keep up with games needs for graphics power, you may be getting behind on whats called for, that 9500 isn't real strong to begin with. Games are out of hand for the power needed to run them, well. BTW- That benchmark may have been more than your card is rated for, check into that?

[Big_Dave]

Some of the NVIDIA 9500s have a history of issues. Go to NVIDIA for a video card update.

Review the ATI and NVIDIA performance specifications. Look at the memory bandwidth specifications and the DirectX level support.

What model HP PC are you using?  You might need a new video card and the faster gaming cards require a bigger power supply.

[milesrf]

What driver version are you using with that card?  I've seen some messages at GPUGRID, saying that the 257.15 and more recent versions work well with the new Fermi-based Nvidia cards, but 197.45 is likely to be a better choice for an Nvidia card design that old.