Doom 3 and ATI X850XT "flame" problem

[frel-dar]

I recently purchased an ATI X850 XT Graphics card and I am experiencing the following problem:

I ran Doom3 and I cannot see "flame effects" - for example, in the opening when teh ship drops you off all I see are "yellow" circles where the exahust ports are. The same thing occurs when any of the demons throw fire at me...any ideas? Could it be power supply related? I notice that when my pc boots the fan on the X850 XT fires up and is fairly loud (which I would expect) (this happens during the MSI splash screen -"the only Core cell you'll ever need, etc"), then it quiets down and doesn't seem to get any any louder from that point on (again, could this be power supply related). Any thoughts?

Please see prevoius thread for pc Specs.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=169086&postdays=0&postorder=asc&all=1

 

[ChipDeath]

That'll be a driver or Control Panel setting issue.

Try different Catalyst drivers and playing around with the settings.

This will definitely not be a power supply issue.

The fan behaviour: totally normal on modern graphics cards. They always spin up to max speed when first switched on, but when initialised the fan speed is controlled by sensors that decide on the fan speed based on load on the card.

 

[frel-dar]

Thanks - that's a load off. I never seem to hear the fan go any harder while playing games - should I be concerned? Also, any ideas as to what could be causing the graphics glitch (I didn't make any adjustmants to Control Center). I'm wondering if it is a previous change I made to the game. I might uninistall it and reload it to see if that makes a difference.

 

[Coyote]

Do what ChipDeath said and try a different driver(s) if still not right after the uninstall/reinstall.

Do all your DXDiag checkout OK?

 

[frel-dar]

Question, I was installing Half-life 2 when...each time I insert a new CD the system reads it...then stops. Sometimes If I keep re-inserting the disk, or turning off Zone Alarm, or putting another disk in, and then putting the next disk in it will recognize the disk and keep installing. Any ideas? Could this be a motherboard issue, a power issue, or something else? ANY IDEAS?

 

[ChipDeath]

I've had that happen with some DVD drives, and some DVD disks. I've got a dodgy BF2 DVD that's always been a bit intermittent, and I've had the same behaviour for Deus Ex 2 due to a crappy DVD drive.

It may be something to do with extra copy-protection stuff they put on the DVD, making your drive have issues with it... Although considering you need to connect to the 'net for all that steam nonsense, I don't know why they bothered with that side... It's just irritating.

 

[frel-dar]

Thanks, ChipDeath - that is most encouraging. Just to be sure, has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

[frel-dar]

Doing timedemos for Half-Life 2 to check my performance...and I always seem to average out to 55 FPS...shouldn't I be doing a little better than this? Any Suggestions? I'm using the Hardware OC: Half-Life 2 benchmark.

Again, I have an X850XT w/256 ram, and 1.5 gigs of ram.

 

[ChipDeath]

Possibly, but it depends on resolution, and AA/AF settings..