7900GS - Artifacting, lockups, etc. (esp in CoD2)

[doomsdaydave11]

Hello, I have a BFG 7900GS. I am getting some significant artifacting in Call of Duty 2, not only that, but the game continually locks up. In CSS, several times (though rarely now) I am getting artifacting, and lockups. In TF2, I am getting common lockups for 1-5 minutes. I have reinstalled the drivers twice, used old drivers, the latest drivers, etc etc. My system is not overclocked, and is completely stable. Is this a defective card? Is there anything I can try to do to fix it?

 

[trackman2010]

If temps are fine, and this is not a heat-related problem, I'd say the card could be on its last legs.

Check the temps by using ATItool or Rivatuner and make sure the card is not overheating during load.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

Interesting though, I don't get any artifacting at all in RTS's such as Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander (and Warcraft III ).

The card is topping out at about 74ºC

 

[trackman2010]

Interesting indeed.
Perhaps it's because they're not as graphically intensive as other games... but then again, you did say the card artifacted in CS:S and locked up a couple of times.

Anyway, we can definitely rule out overheating.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

Interesting indeed.
Perhaps it's because they're not as graphically intensive as other games... but then again, you did say the card artifacted in CS:S and locked up a couple of times.

It only did it in CSS once. And very rarely locks up.

 

[dagger]

Interesting though, I don't get any artifacting at all in RTS's such as Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander (and Warcraft III ).

The card is topping out at about 74ºC

Warcraft III is old and light on graphics. It won't load your gpu much even at max settings. Supreme Commander may be bottlenecked on your cpu, thus having less than 100% load on gpu. Call of Duty 4 is light on cpu and very heavy on gpu. So it makes sense.

Try increase fan speed. You can do it with rivatuner and a number of other utilities. Also consider downclocking core and memory, and see if it helps.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

My CPU Definately isn't bottlenecking it. An e8400 4GB of RAM and a 7900GS.

 

[dagger]

My CPU Definately isn't bottlenecking it. An e8400 4GB of RAM and a 7900GS.

Don't be so sure. Supreme Commander, on higher unit counts, can tax even the fastest systems. And remember, it's quad optimized, so your dual pays a large penalty. It should load a 7900gs to 100% otherwise.

But this is besides the point. Have you tried to run it cooler or downclock?

 

[doomsdaydave11]

I call of duty 2, I turned the fan up to 85% with rivatuner. Even at 85% it gets up to 78C. Is that too hot?

Also, do I have to leave rivatuner running to keep the fanspeed at what I want it?

 

[dagger]

I call of duty 2, I turned the fan up to 85% with rivatuner. Even at 85% it gets up to 78C. Is that too hot?

It shouldn't be, for graphics card. Some of the new ones tolerate up to 110 degrees C. Older gpus have less tolerance, but 78 is still not that bad. Not sure what effects of aging, if any, has on temp tolerance though. Have you tried increase fan speed?

rivatuner minimizes to tray. Just keep it running minimized. It doesn't use much resources.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

It shouldn't be, for graphics card. Some of the new ones tolerate up to 110 degrees C. Older gpus have less tolerance, but 78 is still not that bad. Not sure what effects of aging, if any, has on temp tolerance though. Have you tried increase fan speed?

rivatuner minimizes to tray. Just keep it running minimized. It doesn't use much resources.

Yeah, I said "I increased the fan speed to 85%"

 

[dagger]

Try leaving core as is and decrease memory clock. See if that reduce artifacts.

 

[pcgamer12]

Try running MemTest86+

I think it's a may be a memory problem.

 

[dagger]

Try running MemTest86+

I think it's a may be a memory problem.

Are we talking about video memory or system memory here?

 

[teh_boxzor]

mine runs 90* C just on atitool i think it hits 100 playing 1.6 although the weather in cali is in the high 30's

 

[pcgamer12]

RAM.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

do you think getting a completely new graphics card will solve the problem (a HD 4850, or 9800GTX, specifically?

 

[nukemaster]

To rule everything out you should check all other hardware first.

As said test your system ram. if its bad when data goes through ram if can get corrupted and them pass that data to the video card.

Get ATI tool and run its artifact scanner. Nothing heats a card like that thing. If it does not do it in there, you may have to look elsewhere for a problem.

Did this happen after a driver update? sometimes a driver messes up older hardware. try one driver back(WHQL, not beta).

Memtest86+ (I like pluses )
http://www.memtest.org/

ATITool
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Prime95(if you want to do some cpu stressing)
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103

 

[doomsdaydave11]

Well, once again, I uninstalled my driver (175.16), and then ran some cleaners, and COMPLETELY deleted everything NVIDIA this time. Then I went back and installed the current 175.16 drivers (which are WHQL). Still lockups, though I haven't gotten any artifacting. My card is still running below 80C. I haven't run memtest yet (It came with my Linux dual boot). I will run prime95 again tonight or maybe I will run the nvidia finetuning software tonight.

I think I've ruled out drivers, as I've rolled em back, rolled em forward, uninstalled them, super uninstalled them, reinstalled them, reinstalled them again... so yeah.
Again, I would like to ask, will getting an HD 4850 or 9800GTX solve my problems? I'm probably going to upgrade to one of them on payday... I.E. July 1st.

 

[teh_boxzor]

you can try....and if it doesnt just return it....

 

[nukemaster]

Sorry, i did not see the drivers have been changed several times. my bad.

All indication point to a card thats on its way out(if the card is bad, yes a new card would fix it), if you have a voltage meter you can try to check your power in a molex(CD/hard drive) connector(red - back is 5 volt, yellow - black is 12 volt)

Does ATItool artifact?