Video Card Help? Any Rocket Scientists Here????

I found an old thread for this problem on the internet might help explain my problem a little better. So far i have temporarily fixed it, but am wondering if anyone has a theory from a technical stand-point as to why I have to do this? (Hence the The Title)

The pics from megadert explain my problem to a T, only a different game.

http://forum.majorgeeks.com/archive/index.php/t-35388.html

http://www.imagegator.com/uploads/b8890fb49b.jpg
http://www.imagegator.com/uploads/f7cf53c2db.jpg
http://www.imagegator.com/uploads/efde229fe0.jpg

I bought an Ati Radeon 9800 pro around a year ago, I installed the card in my old setup (Amd) and then swapped it to my new setup (P4) upon arrival. The problem didn't change for either of the systems, and still remains today.

The Problem :

When I play games such as UT 2004, Americas Army, Battlefield 2, Act of war, pretty much any another game so far, I get artifacts and zig zag shaped images that are almost animated and squiggle all over. (almost animated) In menus, the words (buttons ei play save lan online etc) are disfigured and flicker out of shape. I

In addition to these problems I also get thick pointy line that usually begins off the top of my gun sight, or weapon itself and continues off screen. (whether it be a grenade or an m4 or and flak gun. when the line shows up it stays!) a black and/or sometimes invisible triangle, that usually shows up on walls or even the ground. (YeS! if the invisible triangle shows up on a wall I can see enemies through the walls)

Oddly enough! Even with the wonky glitches it still runs nice fps stats (35-99 fps depending on game and map) and is a really nice card in my opinion .

Everything else works perfect, I can watch dvds, surf the internet, work in acad mechanical destop! You name it.... just not games!

My Fix for the problem :

I tried everything from drivers, to a new power supply to a new whole new system. (I have been working at it for more than a year now) , nothing worked. I stumbled across underclocking the ram to 273 Mhz in ati tool and the game pretty much run perfect. i still get a small spaced out checks after 3 hours of game play but I am blaming that on heat.

As for the drivers I have found that dna drivers work best and the catalysts robbed fps by almost half. The exact Dna driver I am using is RADEON 9800 PRO (DNA 3.6.5.1a-High).

Anyway using ati tool, I have the core set to 396 Mhz From the original 378Mhz , and the memory is clocked to 273mhz from the stock 337mhz.

Anyhow that's enough typing for me. Anyone have any theories on this as I am stumped, And would like to have a permenent fix for this.

Flash58

Oh yea sorry my system is a P4 3.0, Asus P5P800 mobo with intel chipset,
1 Gb Pc3200 samsung ram

my old system was an amd 950 mhz some mobo i don't remeber the name of and, 512mb mixed up brand ram

 

set your card to the default frequency ... if you're getting artifacts that is from overclocking and there is a good chance that your problem is permanent ... you could try setting the AGP bus to 4x but I'm not confident that will fix the problem

 

Thats heat problem, set it to run at default cores.

 

Oh sorry! I get the initial problem with default frequencies, 4x 8x doesn't matter already tried that. Although i changed the aa af to max which is like 16x and 8x (no specific order) and it cleaned it up for a while then came back. The checks i know is due to heat because if turn it off (let it cool down) they go away.

more info: i downloaded that program Aida and i assume it says that the agp is running at 3.3V not too sure though. i am going to read what voltage the card is supposed to have because i think it is supposed to be at 1.5V. oh and i am running windows xp pro didn't mention it the first post

My theory was i would up the core frequency to compensate for the memory underclock (which fixes those lines i will try and post some screenshots of my games and with the ati tool up).

Thanks for your help!
Flash58

 

core freq and memory freq first off are in two diff. locations one is the frequency of the RAM and the other of the CORE. If your getting artifacts and your increaseing the frequencies, (increasing the heat) doesnt help at all.

If this is happening while theyre also at stock then you probably have improper contact with the core onto the heatsink/ram; there is a lack of thermal paste or there is a clearance that shouldn't be there.

You also might consider better air flow into/outof the case.

 

actually i think you are on to something there, it is extremely hot here right now and i took screenshots and the fix still leaves triangle spikes every where!

Here have a look!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/chellio77/FUP5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/chellio77/FUP4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/chellio77/FUP3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/chellio77/FUP2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/chellio77/FUP1.jpg

Heres a pic of the fix (notice the memory clock) cleans up most of the problem, it is really hot here right now though and some of the triangles remain!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/chellio77/Fix1.jpg

it is currently 83 degrees F in here at the moment

anyway i am now thinking of a new case and heatsinks for ram and gpu
i know it has worked nice with out under clocking the memory once or twice
anyway i am going to go play bf2 thanks for your help i will look at some thermal compound tomorrow. any suggestions on brands?

thanks
flash58

 

artic ceramic .. works as good as artic silver but doesn't cake

 

"doesn't cake" ? thats does that mean?
ive had the same problem as in the WoW screenshots. but a reboot and Driver Cleaner fixed that problem. if it is heat related then u should open up ur case and point a desk fan at it to reduce temps and see if it helps...before buying anything

 

I've heard that if you use artic silver and leave it at high temps you have to replace it every 6-9 months... because it becomes brittle or cakes and air pockets form... and supposedly artic ceramic doesn't do that .. others have had that problem and say ceramic works better at extreme temps

plus artic ceramic is non-conductive so if you spill any on your mobo there isn't that risk of shorting anything .. I use artic ceramic and although I'm not much for oversclocking it seems to work just fine for me

 

i see! didnt know that. but as far as i know AS5 isnt conductive either.. would be pretty dangerous if it were.... so, why use AS5 instead of Ceraminc anyhow? or does AS5 still deliver lower temperatures?

 

Personally, I find Ceramique (which is what its called by the way) is much easier to apply then AS5. It also has a much shorter "burn in" time (24 hours or so as opposed to 50 to 100 hours like AS5.

AS5 is NOT conductive. No decent thermal paste is.

AS5 is conspired to be a more efficient interface than any other Arctic product, but its all pretty subjective really, its not a particularly important part of the whole setup. As long as it doesnt insulate the CPU/GPU its fine.

As to whether there are any rocket scientists here, there is

 

AS5 is slightly capacitant because of the silver and silver oxide in it,not much but enough tho cause memory problems if spilled on the pins,ceramic and as5 perform about the same,ceramic is isnt as thick,letting it spread much better into a thinner coat offering higher performance.

reducing the memory frequency helped the problem?try increasing it and see if the artifacts become worse,also there are artifacts in your 2d menus,have you tried underclocking the core and memory In your 2d settings frequencies?

 

ok will try the 4x again! i will also try the other suggestions and see what happens, i have already tried a couple of them. (trying to keep an open mind cause ya never know!!!!) As for increasing the ram clock, it results in more artifacts, alot more i will try and get some more screenshots posted as i switch settings. It is weird though because the when ever i under or overclock the ram the results are instant, i also figured out that the fix1 was not refreshed (screen clicks in and out) as it wasn't in fullscreen mode. None the less, thanks for all your input. i need to get some thermal compound anyone have any links to a 9800 pro disassembly tutorial with pics???? .


Is there differrent heatsinks and fans for the 9800 pro? And would it be worth it?

 

Try running 3dmark 2003 and watch for the artifacts,if there are more in any specific test one or more of vid engines could be damaged,also as the test progresses see if the artifacts become more apparent with heat

 

this should be of interest to u!
http://www.nexushardware.com/articles/index.php?id=16