7900GS tearing

[iviv]

My friends been having problems with his 7900GS recently, its been tearing, as shown in these screenshots.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a285/SantaSpawn/weird.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a285/SantaSpawn/K2_00001.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a285/SantaSpawn/K2_00000.jpg

Though its all games that are effected, not just KOTOR. The card is seated properly and all that, and his drivers are mostly up to date, though apparently the latest drivers have problems with older games, so he hasn't switched to them.
Anyway, I'm not sure what the cause could be. If the card was overheating, then wouldn't it shut down? I know my X1900 used to crash when it overheated, but it didn't show any glitching in games.

 

[Monkeynut]

Force VSync.

 

[4T5]

, and his drivers are mostly up to date,.

There is your problem.
Unfortunately even though a fairly decent card you do have to find the right driver to match the game/games you play. Try different drivers.
The card wouldn't shut down if it overheats until it reached the cut off which from memory is set at default at around 125c So the card could be just running hot mid game & causing the artifacts but not reaching the blistering 125c to shut itself down.
Few things i would try before getting your dough out is firstly check the temps under load & really push it & see what it gets to. I'd want it around the mid 50's for happy gaming but don't be scared if it's at high 60's.
Secondly if temps were sweet under load I'd try a few different drivers.
Lastly i would Under clock the card & run it. If under clocking is the only thing that sorts it then it's crapping out.

 

[iviv]

It only gets up to 68C under stress, so I doubt its overheating. Though he mentioned that this all started after a windows reinstall. I'll get him to go back to an older driver, see if thats it.

 

[Blackhawk47]

yeh try out an older driver. for my 7800gt i use the 94.24 drivers. i tried the new ones but it wouldnt get past the splash screen for xp for some reason so i stuck with the 94.24. ask him to try those out

 

[Jongo]

that looks exactly whats happaning with my current 7900gs ive tried v-sync and diffrent drivers and nothings worked, apparantly its a memory problem seems to be quite a common problem with 7900gs so i hear. Even underclocking the memory doesnt help

Also my temps are about 54 under load and about 46 idle. I havnt tried reseating though but i doubt that would be the issue as its worked flawlessly for a long time before this started happaning.