getting artifacts in games wit hmy Radeon Sapphire x800Pro

MikeTheVike

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Mar 1, 2006
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When I got the card, I played half-Life2, Doom3, other game demos just fine with no hiccups. Now for some reason when I play Doom 3 I get artifacts in the game about 20 minutes into playing.

From what I've read on here it sounds like overheating, but I haven't overclocked, the fans are still working, and I blew any dust out of the card the other day and it didn't make any difference.

I was using the drivers that came with the card when it worked perfectly, I updated the drivers once, and I'm not sure if the problems started to happen around that time or not. I upgraded the drivers again recently to the newest versions, but still get artifacts.

My Call of Duty 2 demo and FEAR demo don't get the artifacts, just Doom3, and the FarCry demo. Farcry has artifacts as soon as I start the game. Any ideas? How do I check the temps of my card? I have the catalyst program that comes with the drivers, but i don't see a way to check temps. Thanks for any help.
 

Vokofpolisiekar

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Get ATiTool from guru3d.com, but be sure to get Beta 13 or 12. It has a temp graph for most ATi Cards and if you dual view it (thanx to whom ever posted that previously!) you can extend your desktop and drag the ATiTool application to the non gaming screen and see what happens in game temps wise.

What artifacts are you seeing? Dots or general color corruption in various shapes?
 

fainis

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it`s the temperature....perhaps the cooler got jammed or it`s hanging from one reason or another....is it pasive or active cooler? fireblade or ultimate (i think these are the models from sapphire)...if it is a pasive cooler try to reorganise the cables in the case use additional coolers in the case ....try to run the game with problems with the open case.....
.....the fact that you have problems after few minutes it indicates a temperature problem.........use o temperature monitor like overdrive (it shows the frequencies and the temperature of the gpu) or use rivetuner (it has a temperature monitor ...i presume real time)
good luck......keep us posted if you find the problem
 

fainis

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if you don`t see the overdrive option in the catalist..try rivatuner or atitool to monitor the temperature...
the temperature can be higher in same games....and lower in others .... it also depends of what kind of settings do you apply ..... try to run the game in high or very high settings while you monitor the temperature
it`s important to keep the default settings in catalist while you monitor the temperature..and also make sure your card is not overclocked .. from one reason or another
 

MikeTheVike

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Should have updated this post, I actually alread yhave downloaded atitool..this is what I posted in another forum...The artifacts are random shapes and flashes, and yesterday Doom3 kept crashng my computer.

When I got the card, I played half-Life2, Doom3, other game demos just fine with no hiccups. About a week ago I started getting some corrupted graphics about 20 minutes into playing...now they are there as soon as I start the game.

From what I've read it sounds like overheating, but I haven't overclocked, the fans are still working, and I blew any dust out of the card the other day and it didn't make any difference.

I was using the drivers that came with the card when it worked perfectly, I updated the drivers once, and I'm not sure if the problems started to happen around that time or not. I upgraded the drivers again recently to the newest versions, but still get artifacts. Today I tried uninstalling all my drivers and reinstalling the ones that came with the card, but there is no difference.

I downloaded the AtiTool program and it says my idle temp is 43degrees, and it goes up to about 76degrees on load. When I run the artifact checker it never detects anything.

My display is normal otherwise, games are whats messed up. Thanks for any help.

Motherboard: Chaintech VNF4 S939
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+
RAM: Corsair 512mbx2 DDR 400
VideoCard: SAPPHIRE X800PRO 256M PCIe
PSU: Antec TPII 430w
Monitor: normal CRT

Video Card Drivers: 8.221.0.0 (newest drivers)
motherboard drivers: not sure...how do I check?
 

MikeTheVike

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76 degrees is a little high...try to ventilate the case ... run the game with open case .. and see what happens

doh, should have put earlier that the case is open. I've read that those temps are within normal range for stock cooling?

I also changed the fan settings using atitool and i runs a little cooler but still has the corrupted graphics in every game
 

ProHandyman

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I agree... all things taken into consideration, especially if the card has never been over-clocked, and has only been in use for a little time... the core has either over-heated, is is starting to show signs of silicon migration... time to RMA the card! The sooner, the better.
 

MikeTheVike

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Mar 1, 2006
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I agree... all things taken into consideration, especially if the card has never been over-clocked, and has only been in use for a little time... the core has either over-heated, is is starting to show signs of silicon migration... time to RMA the card! The sooner, the better.

yea I've had it since August 05, so should I RMA it to Sapphire, ATI, or Newegg?