X1900 XT Artifacts - Card on the way out?

[Mevs]

Well i've had this card for sometime now, but I haven't gamed heavily for some time. I recently upgraded to a c2d from my old athlon system and decided to try fallout 3/DoW2 etc, but i've been getting some very bad artifacts and graphical anomalies. The frustrating thing is that my FPS is usually fine, i'm wondering, is this my card on the way out? Or could there be other issues at hand.

From my catalyst it says the card isn't reaching more than around 85-88 degrees C, which doesn't seem that much for a graphics card to me. Anyway, here is a link to a SS from DoW2 (Yes I was failing at the time, dead squadies But damn those artifacts are distracting)

To be honest i'm perfectly happy to upgrade as this one has served me well, but if there could be another problem easily rectified obviously doing so is much preferable to spending money.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2269/dow22009022022014943tk6.jpg

So yeah, any help would be appreciated, i'm really just looking for a) confirmation my card is bust/soon to be or b) other possible causes with solutions.

Cheers and much love and crumpets to you all!

 

[coozie7]

First off which drivers are you using? The newest will not always be the best.
Make sure the fan is clean, yes, 88C is fine, for a new, healthy card but maybe not so or an older one.
Use Rivatuner (or similar) and increase the fan speed to keep the tepmeratures down.
Try underclocking the card a bit, particularly the memory, this seems to be a not uncommon issue with older hardware giving artifacts.
Give us a more info on your spec; CPU, RAM, OS, monitor type and resoloution and PSU (Watts and AMPS on the +12v rail/s).

 

[aylafan]

1) If you overclocked your core or memory. Lower it down to see if the artifacts will go away.
2) If you updated your ATI drivers. Try reverting back to your olds ones to see if that fixes the problem.
3) Make sure your fan on your videocard is still running. Otherwise, your videocard is overheating.
4) Use rivatuner to set your fans to at least 50% or higher. Auto-fan speed doesn't work so well with ATI video cards.

 

[Mevs]

Awesome, I will try these things asap. Thanks a lot for the replies.

Pressumably, however, this could also be a sign of the card dying, or do such things usually just....stop rather than gradually decline in quality.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

As mentioned, try to get your temps down. That card does tend to run hot.

-mcg