Is my GFX card dying?!

[Rantici]

Hi, I have a Radeon X1950XTX card which I got about a year ago

On Friday I bought Crysis. I started playing it and everything worked fine

Suddenly the screen became really bright and I could only make out very dark details

I quit the game and restarted Crysis. The bright effect had gone but in its place there were sparkling circles of red and green dots arranged in a grid pattern all over the screen (most pronounced where the screen was dark)

I got the latest drivers and updated my PC but the effect was still there so I tried it in Portal (which I have never had any problems with) and dammit it was happening in Portal too!

Is my GFX card dying? I was considering getting another one to CF with the one I already have but that's obviously a bad idea if it's terminal...

Any help / advice appreciated - I took a screenshot but I have no way of uploading it to the web unless anyone has a suggestion?

Cheers, Dan


Full PC Spec if it will help:
MOBO - MSI 975X Platinum
CPU - C2Duo E6600
GFX - Radeon X1950XTX
RAM - 2 x 1G Corsair PC6400
Some hard drives

 

[nightscope]

Sounds like it's overheating. Check if the fan on it is still running. Check the temps when running the game.

 

[starcraftfanatic]

it's probably overheating, like above said, try to go to CCC and change the fan speed to 100 percent if it's not there already. Minimize Crysis after about 3 minutes of hard work and tell us the temps before and after fan speed change.

 

[kingoftherings]

I honestly didn't think Crysis would actually kill GPUs.

Sounds like its badly overheating, but I don't know why its having trouble with Portal all of a sudden...

 

[aznstriker92]

Hi, I have a Radeon X1950XTX card which I got about a year ago

On Friday I bought Crysis. I started playing it and everything worked fine

Suddenly the screen became really bright and I could only make out very dark details

I quit the game and restarted Crysis. The bright effect had gone but in its place there were sparkling circles of red and green dots arranged in a grid pattern all over the screen (most pronounced where the screen was dark)

I got the latest drivers and updated my PC but the effect was still there so I tried it in Portal (which I have never had any problems with) and dammit it was happening in Portal too!

Is my GFX card dying? I was considering getting another one to CF with the one I already have but that's obviously a bad idea if it's terminal...

Any help / advice appreciated - I took a screenshot but I have no way of uploading it to the web unless anyone has a suggestion?

Cheers, Dan


Full PC Spec if it will help:
MOBO - MSI 975X Platinum
CPU - C2Duo E6600
GFX - Radeon X1950XTX
RAM - 2 x 1G Corsair PC6400
Some hard drives

Go to http://www.imageshack.us/
and upload and paste the forums html.
I think that its either that your GFX card can't handle the graphic setting you have it at or its overheating/artifacting. If it plays other games fine, then its not dying.
Dont get the latest driver (7.11). Get the hotfix driver at ATI.
http://www.driverheaven.net/windows-xp-2k-radeon-display-drivers/149600-crysis-hotfix-ati-drivers-x-series-hd2xxx-hd3xxx-vista-xp.html

 

[Rantici]

Ok, here is the image from Portal:



It's actually worse in the game than it looks in the screenshot!

I was about to run the fan speed tests you guys mentioned but I noticed that in CCC the effect even appeared in the 3D preview window!:



As you can see the effect does not appear on the parts of the display which are not being rendered in 3D. Does it still make sense that it could be overheating?

Cheers, Dan

 

[aznstriker92]

Yes try opening your case up and get the air flowing more.
If you are artifacting in the ccc then somethings gone bad. really bad.

Also if you are OCed then lower the clocks. even if you arent, lower some and see what happens.

 

[spuddyt]

this really does look bad for you..... you may not want to hear it, but it is possible that it overheated once while playing crysis, and was permeanently damaged by the experience.... does it do the artifacting if you just straight away load up a game after turning the computer on?

 

[Rantici]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

aznstriker92:
The fan is running fine and the GPU temp in idle is about 60C which seems ok and nothing was being overclocked.
Re: slowing the clocks, is it even possible to slow the clocks below factory settings? Some kind of BIOS trickery?

spuddyt:
Unfortunately yes - it does it straight away even in the CCC

I feel a spending spree coming on (8800 GT?) and maybe some RAM too. I'm gonna sue EA. At least Liverpool thrashed Bolton.

 

[mactronix]

I have a similar problem with crisis if i try to run any AA at all it pretty much does what you are showing when i turn it off its all good.
Mactronix

 

[nightscope]

60 Celsius at idle is kinda hot, that's not the problem though. You need to know the temperature at load. Play a game for about 10 minutes or run a benchmark and check the temperature. I don't think it's been damaged, but you never know.

 

[starcraftfanatic]

60 celsius is actually quite normal for vid cards, but you have a point. The temps at load are what we need. One of your pipeline/shaders might be going bad or have been damaged if it overheated. CCC should not have that happen.

 

[Rantici]

Ok, I just played Crysis for about 1/2 hr checking the temp periodically and the highest I saw was 77C

I don't know if it's relevant but I've noticed it does the same thing if i play video in WMP or TV through my digital TV card though only in the window that is actually displaying the picture, not around it

 

[bash007]

Try cleaning the card's HSF. I'm sure it will be clogged with dust after a full year's worth of use, especially if you've never cleaned it before.
If that doesn't help, then it might not be an overheating problem.

 

[cleeve]

Sir, I apologize to have to say this but your GPU is dying, regardless of the temperature.

Time to call the manufacturer and see if you can get them to honor a warranty.

 

[Rantici]

So my GFX card dies on Friday 30th November 2007.


With a one year warranty.


Aged exactly one year and 9 days.


Weak.


Oh well, I have now ordered an XFX 8800GT and some more RAM to cheer me up.

Thanks to everyone who offered help and advice

Cheers, Dan

 

[Evilonigiri]

If your card died due to the heat in the case....just to let you know, the 8800GT's cooler isn't the greatest in the world. Might wanna tweak the fan a bit before doing any gaming.