9600XT Artifact Problems

mbrown · Jan 11, 2005, 09:01 PM

This problem's been bothering me ever since I got this card a few months ago. It runs most of my older games fine with no apparent problems, but with every game I play that uses DirectX 9 has these ungodly artifacts and other random garbage popping up and flickering on the screen.

Here are a couple of examples from HL2:
http://sweb.uky.edu/~mlbrow1/hl2-1.jpg
http://sweb.uky.edu/~mlbrow1/hl2-2.jpg

And some from FarCry:
http://sweb.uky.edu/~mlbrow1/FarCry0004.jpg
http://sweb.uky.edu/~mlbrow1/FarCry0008.jpg
http://sweb.uky.edu/~mlbrow1/FarCry0009.jpg

I'd wonder whether it was a physical problem with the board, but this only happens with DX9 games. Also, I'd managed to stop the artifacting with one of the recent Omega Drivers, but 1) the drivers would apparently stop working after one reboot, and 2) I've since reformatted, reinstalled XP and installed SP2 and no driver (Omega, Catalyst, or Unian so far) has fixed the problem. The best I've managed is to decrease the artifacting a little bit.

If anyone can help me figure out this problem, I would be most grateful.

agenthex · Jan 11, 2005, 09:12 PM

That, my friend, is what happens when you have your RAM frequency way too high. If your RAM is running at stock speed, it could be damaged. I'd recommend underclocking the RAM (look up the stock speeds for your card online) or run even slower. Increase voltage to your card (this will increase heat, so you must have more than a stock cooler and preferably some RAM cooling). Your RAM is either getting too hot, can't handle the speed, or it's bad to begin with.

mbrown · Jan 11, 2005, 10:46 PM

Just tried underclocking the memory via Radlinker, and it didn't work.

But would a hardware problem only effect those certain games. I'm no computer expert, but I'd think a physical problem with the card would affect any game that used that much power/resources, not just DX9s.

Also, would a power supply issue have anything to do with the problem? I'm pretty sure the one I've got is only 350 watts or so, but I've heard the higher-end ATIs need at least 450.

No_Style · Jan 12, 2005, 10:46 PM

350 Watts is not a problem, if the PSU is a quality one.

If you can try the card with a different system to see if it's the card or something else on your system.

mbrown · Jan 15, 2005, 12:12 PM

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a second system to test the card.

No_Style · Jan 16, 2005, 11:19 AM

No? Not even a friend's PC? If you don't have second PC, how about trying a different video card in there?

mbrown · Jan 18, 2005, 06:26 PM

None of my friends in the area have PCs. And I don't have an extra video card to test in this machine either.

No_Style · Jan 18, 2005, 07:28 PM

Question: How much did you underclock the memory by with RadLinker?

To save huge amounts of hassle, see if you can get the card replaced. I tried to think of some economical means of testing it, but underclocking with RadLinker is the only one you could do and it yielded no real results.

pir8nyc · Jan 18, 2005, 07:33 PM

malfunctioning at stock speed is a good reason to RMA IMHO

mbrown · Jan 18, 2005, 08:46 PM

Underclocked by about 50% with Rad (was running at around 200 MHz, I think, and I lowered it to as little as 100). Unfortunately, I can't recall offhand where I ordered the card, so I'm not sure about any return options (I don't have the packaging with me either, so I don't know if their having a return policy would help).

Strange thing, though: I just finished playing the Halo demo, and it ran perfectly fine. This why I'm so hesitant (well, that and the whole "replacing the card thing

) to consider this a hardware problem--if it was the same problem on every game or all the time, I could believe it (my last card started artifacting with *every* game as it started to wear out), but this only seems to affect certain games under certain conditions.

And if it was a hardware problem, by the way, why or how could it work fine under that one set of drivers?

No_Style · Jan 18, 2005, 09:02 PM

Go to Futuremark.com and download 3DMark03 or 05 and run those to see if the errors appear.

Also get the Catalyst 5.1s and try them out with your games. Be sure to install your chipset drivers for your motherboard if you haven't already done so.

I'm just reaching out and grabbing as many possible solutions as I can right now.

mbrown · Jan 18, 2005, 10:18 PM

Weird. Ran the '03 3D Mark. There was BAD artifacting and texture corruption with the Game and CPU demos using the flight and fantasy games, but everything else ran fine (albeit slowly on my default settings). Strangely, the flight game ran fine during the Sound Test with no graphics hiccups whatsoever.

(This is with the most recent Catalyst drivers and whichever version of the VIA drivers that came with my motherboard, BTW.)

No_Style · Jan 18, 2005, 10:33 PM

Try using the latest drivers from VIA Arena. They're called Hyperion drivers. Give those a try.

mbrown · Jan 18, 2005, 10:58 PM

No apparent effect. Still getting artifacts.

No_Style · Jan 18, 2005, 11:02 PM

The most drastic thing you can do is do a fresh install and see if that helps, but I'm thinking something is borked on that card. But I'm curious as to why it's only DX9 stuff. Try re-installing DX9.0c?