Hi guys! 2 weeks ago I bought a new graphics card: XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb. Since then I have nothing but problems with it. My games like GTA SA, Gothic 3, F.E.A.R., don't run well at all. The textures in the game change during the playing, so it becomes impossible to play
See some examples I made in one game:

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231 [...] 811fa6.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219 [...] 246hv1.jpg
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511 [...] 431sl2.jpg
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4741/1234dn0.jpg

Some games freeze and I have to reboot my PC every time. I have tried different drivers:
158.19A (which came in the disc together with a graphics card), plus I have downloaded the latest drivers from NVIDIA web site – v163.71, 162.18. And I still have the same problem.

I have an Epox 5NVA + SLi – motherboard with a Pentium 4 - 3.2 GHz, 1GB of RAM, and I have upgraded the PSU to a 520W power supply.
My OS is Windows XP Pro 32 bit, SP2

Looking forward to your reply...
Thanks.

RMA the card. those look like signs of video ram going bad.....

A quick google shows this

http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

I have had bad video ram as well on a Geforce 4 once....did the same things you are getting.....

I am suggesting this since all your drivers are up to date....

Also what psu do you have?

I would think that the psu is fine. Anyways I also have a XFX 8800GTS card and I realized that when the momory is highly clocked, like at 1050, the game (like supcom) freezes. I never had this problem before, and was playing at 1050mhz on mem stably for 3 weeks. Did I hurt my vid ram?

Its hard to say if you hurt your video memory(sometimes it heat....some times the voltage may sag....it's just up to luck). But i would at least back it down to 1000 to play it safe.... in the end you have your warentee anyway

You had your memory clocked at 1050mhz? um............Thats probably not a very good idea.

1050 is maybe too high for extended periods of time. Are you getting artifacts?

Nope. The games I played just started to freeze. Then I had to hit ctrl alt delete and all. I tuned it to 950 (see my sig) with no problems. I really hope I haven't hurt it because now I can't even get it stable at 980...

you're lucky. Mine only clocks up to 867 max without artifacting and crashing .

I didn't overclock the memory. And I'm very new to all this overclocking stuff...to turn its speed down I need to go to BIOS??? I have no idea how to do it...

You should not have to turn it down...

But if you want to test if thats it get riva tuner and go under low level hardware and down clock it by about 20-40 on each and see if its any better.....

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

Install it run it.....then follow my images....

Click the blue square

Enable Driver...... when it asks you what to do select detect now.....(Don't use my clocks...this is a GTX...just go down from what it detects...)

I DO NOT recommend raising anything since you are having problems....but do down about 20-40 and play some games....see if its better(if it is....take the card back...RMA)....either way i still think the card is defective....

Note: Your new clock speeds will be reset every time you reboot....

what kind of branded PSU is it??
and does it have at least 20A on its 12V rails?

maybe you should try to lower the the GDDR3 frequency to 900 mhz or something and raise more the GPU clock to, let's say, 550 mhz or 575 mhz (i am assuming it's the standard 320mb card, as you said nothing about XFX "XXX" )...and do tell us about that PSU of yours in detail, I remember I had recent problems with a Hiper 425w PSU (big liars about their wattage ))...changed it to an OCZ 700 xtreme...
------------
za rig:GA-P965-DS3 (rev 1.0), Core 2 Duo E6400@3.0 Ghz, Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, 2 GB Geil Ultra 800 mhz CL4, XFX 8800 GTS 320 MB@stock, Soundblaster 24 live!, Baracuda 250 NCQ 16mb SATA2 + Barracuda 160 8mb SATA2, OCZ GameXtreme 700w, Antec Nine Hundred. ~ 9100 pnts 3dmark 2006 default.

I suppose you're talking to me? Well my psu is an OCZ 700watt so no prob there. I have my core clock at 600, had it at 633mhz before but I thought better of it. My vidcard is indeed the XXX edition and stock mem speed is 900

nukemaster, I did everything like you said. These crashes and artifacts started to happen not so often. But still they happen sometimes, so I think the card is defected and doesn't work properly.
I tried to change the Core clock from 513 to 400 MHz and the Memory clock from 792 to 600 MHz, but still the same problem. I'm gonna change this graphics card to a new one
Thanks for your help anyway

One last thing you can try before sending the card back....if you have 2 sticks of ram try them one at a time...see if one sticks is starting to go....

This is less common but can happen...

If its all still the same....send the card back...it is defective...