XFX 6800 256mb ddr3 agp - Artifacts

[solosolo]

Recently I have noticed artifacts on the screen during 3d games in both windows and linux. I RMA'd my card to get sent a new card with a new serial number. The new card was installed today and I STILL have issues with artifacts during games. Any suggestions?

Here is an example of what I am talking about in WoW:
http://www.cat5camp.com/tmp/Screenshot-1.png
http://www.cat5camp.com/tmp/Screenshot-2.png

[Lee H]

Is this in all games or just World of Warcraft ?

Does running other apps such as 3DMark05 show these visable markings as well ?

[solosolo]

Yes. Many games have graphic glitches very simular to this. BF2 has occational texture glitches that cause walls to flicker sometimes. CS:S will have less issues but will have those sort of boxes on player models in rare situations. I'm not sure if this has to do with the AGP slot on the motherboard. The XFX card looks like it's AGP connector is a slightly different then my GF4 or radeon cards.

When running in windows instead of linux the artifact detection causes windows to underclock my card multiple times while playing games (most noteably BF2). I end up having to close about 50 warning windows that state my card has been underclocked in order to prevent damage after I leave a game. This causes games to freeze while playing them for small periods of time. In linux, the nvidia drivers will just ignore the graphic glitches and continue on.

This is off both cards... including the new one I just got from XFX after the RMA.

[jamena]

sounds like it's getting too hot...that's the usual cause of my card getting artifacts. Try running your pc with the side of the case off and a desk fan pointed at it, see if that helps. If it does then you need better airflow in your case.

[wesleyaldred]

Thats a very good suggestion and definately worth trying.

[Carlh]

I had a similar problem on WOW.

What I would suggest is firstly disabling all the plugins, esp the titan control panel as I had the same prob with this for some reason it started puting the icons etc in the wrong places as indicated on the screenshot.

If there are less issues with other games I dont think that it will be the graphics card as normally WOW doesnt really push the graphics in most situations.

See if this resolves the issue if not post a further screenshot and it could well be a overheating problem.

Let us know how you get on

[solosolo]

Alright, heat can be ruled out. I have very good air flow in the case and I've run it with a window fan beside it with the case side off in order to make sure it's not heat. It's not wow addons because I was getting the same glitching with the boxes in CS source. The addons I have installed have been removed in an attempt to get rid of the artifacts but they still persist. Keep in mind that these artifacts do not show up when I use the GF4 or radeon 9700 cards on the same machine.

When setup to, WoW does push your graphics card pretty far for what's it worth.

Another note is when in a 3d game, and I start getting the artifacts, I can still see pieces of them when on another desktop in gnome (window manager). It appears as if they still dance around the screen in their smaller version. I have not tested alt-tabbing or running the program in windowed mode in windows to see if it's the same but I am willing to bet it is.

[solosolo]

Alright, I tried a bunch of other things, and still no luck.

1) I reset my bios to it's default settings: FAILED

2) I put the video card on it's own power supply in case of power issues: FAILED

3) I reseated my RAM and CPU/heatsink: FAILED

4) I reseated the video card many times: FAILED

5) I tweaked driver settings in both windows and linux: FAILED

6) Turned on the nvidia gpu temp threshhold alarm. (didn't even come close to tripping): FAILED

Tonight I plan on bringing the computer to a friend's house who has a very simular build (with a BFG card instead) and we're going to try to swap video cards and see if either of us has the artifacts.

My best guess regarding this entire thing is an issue with the AGP slot on the motherboard. I've had trouble when I first got the board with my old radeon 9700 card needing to be reseated when I transported the computer for lan parties. That was resolved when I purchased the xfx card last year. I didn't have any graphics glitches at all until about a month ago. I would then have to reseat the card a few times to get rid of the artifacts. Now it's so bad that reseating it does nothing. The other cards I've used on the motherboard have different AGP contact layouts which might explain why they work fine but the xfx card doesn't.

Here is a screenshot of 3dmark05 in the cpu test showing the glitching. There was larger glitches (like big black polygons extending from other polys) in the earlier tests but I couldn't cap them with printscreen because of the higher frame rates.

[Steve A]

Hi,

and this has happened on both cards you recieved? it may be a dodgy Slot on the board ?? i couldnt think of anything else it would be ..

Regards

[solosolo]

Yep, with both the original and the RMA'd card.

Quite possible... I may RMA my motherboard if possible.

[Steve A]

Hi

Contact our return dept and point them to this post and they will get the drift.

Regards

[jamena]

On the dodgy AGP port front...
Some time ago I had a motherboard with a temperamental AGP port, but with me the PC completely failed to boot and just beeped forlornly at me. After several hours crying screaming and generally failing to fix the issue by swapping cards with other people etc I worked out that cleaning out the AGP slot with an old toothbrush did the trick...possibly hazardous in terms of static, but it worked for that motherboard (PcChips special) so look for overly bent and/or dirty contacts perhaps? If you can RMA of course that would probably be a tack worth trying if the card swap still maintains artifacting...be interested to hear the results with the card swap.

[solosolo]

Ok I think I know what happened. My top fan stopped spinning on my case which could have put an unneeded load on the PSU. Over time I think it caused it to loose some of its output causing the artifacts.. I removed the fan and ordered a new PSU. This would explain why cards that didn't require a large amp draw worked fine but the 6800 didn't. I'll post more information when I know more.