Video Card Adjustments?

Alright, what do I need to do here.

I just installed the x1600 Pro Radeon in my machine, and while I'm playing the games that I've played so far (F.E.A.R,CS:Source, HL2,BF2) there are little glitches that I'll notice throughout. Like a wall that really isn't there, or some pink stuff on a wall. What is going on here? help please

 

someone please :-(

 

Check for updates for those games also check the games options and see what their set to and set them to what you want, also make sure your video drivers are updated.

 

Those "little glitches" you are seeing are what people refer to as Artifacting. These are caused by your VGA overheating, or by your VGA being clocked to high. I would definatly suggest making sure you have all your current drivers installed, and installing a temp monitoring program such as Speedfan. Speedfan can be found here on the MG website, just look for it under downloads. Also, though i do not know much about ATI cards (im a nvidia guy) i do know that there are the ATI drivers, and Omega (?) drivers, which also have a large following. Check your clock frequencies also and make sure they are not to far off of the manufactures recommended specs. One last thing to check is the fan speed on the card, make sure it is running at 100% during intense gaming sessions! Speed fan may allow you to check your fan speeds, though once again, having never used an ATI card, i cant say. As a last resort, open up your case and point a fan diagonally (from front of case to back) to help push all that hot air out. If that help with the artifacting then you have solved your problem! Good luck!

 

Ok, I got that speedfan program, but I know absolutely nothing about it, so I'd rather not mess with it, unless someone would help me.

 

don't exactly know what drivers on the ati site either

 

Go here in order to download and install the latest ATI Drivers

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

Go here in order to download and install the latest Omega Drivers

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ (Click Radeon at the top

Note that drivers are OS sensitive, so you need to download the drivers for your OS. Also, it is recommended that you UNINSTALL your current drivers before updating drivers (uninstall can be done through the add/remove programs). As for speedfan, the read-me that came with the file is alot of help! And i would imagine that the new catalyst drivers will be able to monitor your temps for you.

 

yeah, but which of the files on that am I downloading?

 

Either the Catalyst Drivers, or the Omega Drivers, not knowing much of anything about ATI, I would go with the Catalyst drivers that are put out by ATI. Im assuming your running Windows XP, if thats the case then these are the drivers you will be needing-

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

Also, next time you need help with any problems your full computer specs are always very helpfull! (though to be honest, they arent really needed for this problem as I am almost 100% sure this is a VGA problem)

 

100% sure that it's overheating?

 

No, not 100% sure its overheating, that is why you need to download and install these programs in order to monitor the temps of the card to see if it is overheating. Like I said, artifacts can be caused by A. Overheating B. Clock Speeds set 2 High or C. Bad Ram on the VGA. All we are trying to do is Isolate the problem, as, more than likely the problems is Overheating. Once we know what the problem is, we can solve it.

 

yeah, I am uninstalling my current drivers right now, and then installing the new Catalyst off of the ati site.

 

alright, got all my drivers updated, now what?

 

Now you go test out the card, play any of your games and see if you still get artifacting. Also, run the catalyst control center and see if there is anything in there that will allow you to monitor GPU temp and Core/Memory Clock speeds.