It all depends on what is going on with the card. I had a card that got shorted out in one area. It would run Windows perfectly well. However, when DirectX kicked in, then the system would crash. So I was not able to run most games. That particular system was water cooled and a small leak had developed. The leak dripped on the video card and, until this day, that card will not run properly with games. So, it all depends on what on the card got fried (if anything).