I need help figuring out what is wrong with my XFX 7600gt xxx (with factory OC). I was playing Battlefield 2 and start seeing really bad artifacts, some seconds later a BSOD and reboot. The error report from windows said the error was from the Graphics card. Now there artifacts all over windows, some icons arent shown, videos are hard to see. With the ati tool in the "look for artifacts" option it shows artifacts just when the test starts, it doesnt get over 60C before getting artifacts. BSOD are getting more frequently and wihtout running any 3d application. I tested an old card on my pc and worked fine. I cleared the dust out of the fan. Fan is working.Tried reinstalling drivers and nothing. I think my card is dying, but could it be something else? or at least any idea of what could have done it?

I have thought of some reasons but dont know if there is a way to know..

Could it have overheated once and damaged the gpu permanently??
Could my card be underpowered? (7600gt doesnt need to be connected to PSU) .
Does playing BF2 in full settings with 2x AA 1280 x 1024 was too much too ask for a 7600? lol

System specs

Motherboard Aus M2n4-Sli
Athlon xp x2 3800+
2GB DDR2 800
Windows xp

Any more tests i could do??? Thanks for the help.

tbh, your card probably is dying... its pretty old and it may have been damaged some how with something you were doing

i've heard stories where someones stock heatsink works fine up to a certain temperature... and then just completely sucks and then the chip gets messed up

to me it sounds like your card is dying....

if you decide on getting a new gpu, i'd get a 4850 if you want current technology or get an 8800 GS which are about 70 bucks right now, which would also serve your purposes

Sounds to me like the the card is dieing. Not much you can do. Try using ATITool to underclock the gpu and memory and see if you still get errors.

That does indeed sound like a dead card.

Something similar happened to me back in the days when I had a trusty 5200.

We had a really hot summer, and one day I started noticing massive triangles jutting out of mesh seems... where previously there was none.

I didn't want to accept it, but deep down inside I knew my card was dead.

A few weeks later my entire system crumbled, and then I had no choice but to upgrade.

I underclocked it with ati tool, to my surprise i was able to leave the core clock at 650 but had to underclock the memory to 500 (originally 800) and had no artifacts for 5 min and im not seeing artifacts on windows anymore. What does this tells you? can it be fixed? should i go play battlefield 2?

Thanks for the help.

Obviously, it tells me there is something wrong with the memory. You should be ok underclocking it with ATITool. Test it and see what is the maximum it will be stable at. Then maybe bump it down just a little more for safe measure. But it may still die eventually. Does the video card's heatsink also cover the ram? It's possible the ram is overheating. You could try removing the heatsink and replacing the thermal pads/ grease for the ram chips. If they are not covered, you could add ramsinks to them.

+1 for orangegator's idea about reseating the heatsink.

As far as thinking your 7600gt is not getting enough juice, I doubt it. I had a 7600gt and I never had any problems with it even with a semi-decent psu. It really doesn't use a lot of power.
It just sounds like it is time to replace it. Too bad it is probably out of warranty, otherwise you could probably get a new card for nothing.


But since you're probably in the market for a new graphics card, I'd go with the ati 4850 or a minimum of a 9600gt. I have a 9600gt and I love it in comparison to my 7600gt.

Yup sounds like overheating RAM. Like orangegator says, try reseating the heatsink. If it doesn't currently cover the RAM chips then either your RAM is dying, or something on the PCB died so your RAM isn't getting enough voltage. Either way that would warrant looking into a new card.