ATi A-I-W 9700 Pro problem . . . me = sad

Vampyromaniac · Jul 19, 2003, 01:03 AM

Well, this has been happening since the beginning, but I thought it was because I was on Win98, and/or that I had not reformatted when installing the card. But even now, freshly reformatted several times, on both Win98 and Win2000, on Cat 3.4 and Cat 3.5, in D3D and OpenGL, everything 3D I've tried (3DMark3001, 3DMark03, 3DMark2000, GLExcess, DronezMark, Counter-Strike, Serious Sam, Radeon's Ark 1.3) in every combination of the above, I have this horrible problem . . . .

When looking at a scene, some of the textures get bent and distorted, then flicker back to the normal-looking texture, and this happpens very rapidly, flickering between distorted and OK very fast.

Needless to say, I can't stand this, and it has really upset me, especially after all the reformatting/driver-installing/OS-switching I've been doing to try to fix this. My only guess is that there's something wrong with the card, or it just doesn't work with my computer . . . either way, I'm real sad about this.

If there's anyone who has any ideas, I'd love to hear them, please! I'm at my wit's end
Here's what I have:

Built By ATi All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro (tried Catalyst 3.4 and 3.5, each on both Win98 and Win2000)
AthlonXP 1800 Palomino
ECS K7S5A mobo (SiS735 chipset)
256 MB PC2100 RAM (1 piece, set at 2-3-4-6)
400 Watt Antec PS (model PP412X)
currently using Win2000 (sp2)

Nothing is over-clocked, temps after gaming are:
CPU . . . . . 48
SYSTEM . . 38

I think that's about it? Ask for more, if needed.

Thanks, guys

Vampyromaniac · Jul 19, 2003, 01:09 AM

Here are some shots from 3DMark2001se b330, to show what is happening (2.25 MB each):

Mountain in background distorting EDIT: (removed)
Leaf distorting on the tree EDIT: (removed)

Those areas flicker between their normal state, and the distorted state, very rapidly.
This problem also seems to be less prominent in benchmarks than in actual games . . . Those shots show only a small area is glitching, but in games, a lot of the scene does this stuff

I also just noticed that Cat 3.6 has been released . . . I wonder if it's even worth giving a shot.

Kgentatszu] · Jul 19, 2003, 06:45 AM

have you contacted ati????

Sharkims · Jul 19, 2003, 06:46 AM

Are the problems more or less prominent with DX9 + 3DMark03 than DX8 + 3DMark01?
Your temps seem slightly high, but nothing to be too worried about.

I'm not sure about that SiS chipset, however. What do you have your aperature settings at? 64, 128, 256? Also, is it AGP 4x or 8x? AGP FastWrite?

I also highly recommend going up to Win2K-SP3.

Vampyromaniac · Jul 19, 2003, 09:03 PM

I have not contacted ATi yet, I wanted to see what input I'd get from here, first.

In 3DMark2001, the worst game test is the #3 Lobby test. The glitching occurs in the buldings outside (behind the shooter in the beginning annd end of the test), some on the floors and walls, and on the time/fps counter somewhat.
Test 1 and 4 have it the least, and Test 2 is in between.

In 3DMark03, the worst is the 1st test, because it occurs on the sky and ground textures, and those are everywhere . . . . Also, the ambient light flickers at times.
Test 2 and 3 don't have very much, but there are things like the fps counter, windowpanes (test 3), outside planet/stars (test 2), and couple other things on floors/walls.
Test 4 is in between, since it happens most with the ambient light flickering at times (very annoying), and some leaf sprites and the butterfly's wing goes nuts at the end

In all the tests, the time/fps counter display has the glitching occur.

Overall, I'd say they're about the same . . . 3DMark03 might look worse just because of Test 1 . . . .

Yes, my temps are . . . what they are. It's a Palomino, what can I say =\

My aperture size is 64 (128 didn't make a difference), AGP speed is 4x, Fastwrites is OFF.

I didn't want sp3 because of the nonsense that comes with it

Anything else, just ask

Kgentatszu] · Jul 19, 2003, 09:41 PM

i think you have a bad card................my oppinion though...
have you tried on other PCs????

Vampyromaniac · Jul 19, 2003, 10:02 PM

I've arranged to do that with a mate's pc, next week

BWX · Jul 20, 2003, 11:00 PM

Wow that sux. But I can tell you that I got 3 9700 pros from Best Buy before I got one that worked. The first one I got on the website was totally F'd bad- Huge triangular glitches all over the screen (filling up the screen) in the chimp demo- and all the other demos and in games.

I went to a retail store to exchange it, got the next one home, and it did the same thing after looping demo's or benchies for a few minutes. It swent back, got another one and if I OC'ed it 10 mhz it would have lot's of black snow in 3dmark o3. And black snow at normal speed after looping, it went back- This is all with very good case cooling and cold room temps. (I have an 80mm fan in a hole I cut in my case an inch away from the card)

Got my current one that OC's to 337/317 w/o black snow (w/ stock cooler/fan- removed shim w/ arctic silver 3). I've had it up to 378 core w/ snow (stable though) and 371core w/o snow with a big 60mm fan connected to stock heatsink. You can tell the health of your card by OC'ing it.

I bet you have a bad card- I would just go through the RMA process with ATI or the retailer if you bought it from one. Just don't mess w/ hsf or shim, wait till you get a known good card before ya do that if you're going to.

Where did you get the card?

Vampyromaniac · Jul 21, 2003, 12:26 AM

Yeah that's what I've been afraid of . . . this would be the first time I've ever received a bad piece of hardware

I got it from Amazon, but it's too late to RMA with them. I guess I'll have to go to ATi, after I try it out in another PC.

Hehe of all the PC specs I've seen posted, your system is most similar to mine

Hopefully my experience won't be as bad as yours

I'm gonna try out that chimp demo, see how it looks . . . .

BWX · Jul 21, 2003, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vampyromaniac
Yeah that's what I've been afraid of . . . this would be the first time I've ever received a bad piece of hardware
I got it from Amazon, but it's too late to RMA with them. I guess I'll have to go to ATi, after I try it out in another PC.

Hehe of all the PC specs I've seen posted, your system is most similar to mine Hopefully my experience won't be as bad as yours

I'm gonna try out that chimp demo, see how it looks . . . .

yeah, it could be a compatability problem- Maybe with your chipset or something.

toddsmack2k · Jul 21, 2003, 08:38 AM

Dude that sucks big time! After you waiting all this time, this happens to you. Let's hope you get this sorted out quickly!

*CATALYST maker* · Jul 24, 2003, 05:05 PM

We'll take care of you Vampi

You should thank Wyre for alerting us of the situation. You have another board coming your way. Please send back the busted one to us (Wyre will send you the info as to how to get it back to us), so that we can see whats wrong with it

Vampyromaniac · Jul 24, 2003, 09:47 PM

I've thanked Mr. Wyre up and down for arranging this, and now I want to you thank you, sir!
I appreciate this very much, Mr. Makedon, taking the time to help out a man in need

Thank you very much!!
- V

Vampyromaniac · Jul 26, 2003, 04:32 PM

For anyone interested, I did end up testing the card in a mate's PC, and the glitches were still there.
We tested: 3DMark2001, 3DMark03, Midnight Club 2, Ghost Recon, Medal of Honor, and Counter-Strike.
He still offered to buy it off me for $100, being used to his AIW Radeon.
I politely declined