Flickering/Blinking Cursor

[Barana]

Yesterday I had my video card replaced after it literally melted with a Nvidia GeForce 210 (1 gig of RAM with 24 processor cores).

My cursor flickers and I've taken a noticeable hit to framerate where I normally wouldn't drop below 30. I've tried disabling hardware cursor but that just adds a quarter to half second of lag to its movement. Is it possible I forgot to install certain drivers, or would shutting off SLI work like I've read elsewhere?

Right now It's hovering around 125 F in temp, and my framerates stabilized around 25, the cursor is still flickering though.

Edit: My CPU also jumps to just a hair under 150 F when I start lagging.

[Cilraaz]

Without knowing what kind of CPU you have, we have no way of saying whether 65*C is a problem (CPU read-outs are typically done in Celsius). If you have an Intel CPU, that's not likely a problem. If you have certain AMD CPUs, it might be too high.

[Barana]

It's an AMD Phenom X4 9600, hovering around 64 degrees Celsius. And the GPU is at 53C

Edit: It feels like it's trying to go over an FPS limit, but every time it hits the cap it gets knocked back to ~20 fps.

[Moobious]

Your CPU is too hot. Need to get under 60*.

[None]

Your CPU is too hot. Need to get under 60*.

The original Phenom series ran hot, their thermal specs were 70°C. If it were a Phenom II it would be different, but it's not. It could be a program that's choking the CPU, an automatic virus scan or something would be the likely cause. It's definitely not overheating that's causing it to throttle down.

[Barana]

I updated my drivers and it went away. It's also running a lot smoother than my old card. Guess Geek Squad doesn't always install the right software.

Also, if I wanted to upgrade my video card so I can take my settings off of minimum, is there one that's reliable and low-cost (say, under $250)?

[Cilraaz]

I'd say for under $250, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is probably the best.

[Moobious]

Currently the Gpu hierarchy goes

Radion 5670 < Radion 5750 < Gts 450 < radion 5770 < GTX 460 768mb < Radion 5830 < GTX 460 1gb < Radion 5850

The 5670 starts at $80 and the 5850 can be had for $250 to $260.

Edit:
The series 1 phenoms have issues running wow well. If the GPU you have atm is decent you might want to consider a new Board/CPU/Ram.

[FlawlessSoul]

*Radeon

GTX 465 and 470 exist as well, you know.

[Moobious]

*Radeon

GTX 465 and 470 exist as well, you know.

As I understand it the 465 is completely obsoleted by the gtx 460. The gtx 470 is still $300 which was enough over the OP's price cap that I stopped at the 5850.