Graphics card checkup

[sigma17]

Short:
Does anyone know of a program to check for any kind of graphics card damage? I'm using an nvidia GeForce4 Ti4600.

Long:
Lately I have been having a number of strange graphics problems in a variety of resource intensive 3D games. Usually after playing for a few minutes random polygons will lose their texture and start flickering white. After a second or two that polygon will go back to normal and the problem starts up somewhere else. I've tried updating DirectX and card drivers, but haven't been able to fix anything. Also the fact that it happens to most 3d games (and that I haven't had the problem before) makes me think its hardware based. I tried turning my computer off for awhile and letting it cool down, but after restarting I ended up with the same problems. I'm afraid my graphics card might be stumbling towards its death bed, so does anyone know of a program to check for any kind of graphics card damage? I'm using an nvidia GeForce4 Ti4600.

 

[pauldh]

It sounds like your card may be overheating and be in need of a can of spray duster to clean it off good. Look at the heatsink/fan...is it full of dust? Over time enough dust can easily cause overheating.

If it is happening in the same games that used to be fine, it probably isn't driver related. COuld have had something to do with a DX9c update, but I doubt it. Any other hardware/driver changes about the same time as the problem came about?

You could also enable Coolbits in the NVidia drivers and try to underclock the core and ram a bit seeing if the video curruption goes away. But clean it(the card/heatsink/fan) off good first.


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[sigma17]

When I first started having problems I did clean off my card and clean out the fan just to make sure. It was a little dusty but nothing really bad, and the problems persisted after it was clean. I'm sure its not running too hot now, so is it possible that something was damaged that only effects 3d graphics (everything else works fine)? Is it possible that some of the ram was damaged from prior overheating? Hardware isn't really my area.

I haven't changed any hardware or drivers recently, and I only updated graphics drivers and DirectX after I started having problems.

I hadn't thought about trying to underclock it, but it seems like a good idea. I'll try that and see if there's any improvement. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Lonewolf19]

You mention you're playing "resource intensive games." Are you sure your graphic card is up to it? Your card is quite dated and actually does not support the new pixel shader features of Direct X 9 (i.e., polygons missing textures, etc.) Try upgrading or at least maybe borrowing some elses vid card for diagnostics.