Advice needed on 8800gtx problem

[Retikulan]

This is a a problem that's been bugging me for two months now and still have no idea what is wrong with this BFG 8800gtx oc2 of mine, it's hard to explain but here goes.

When playing a game the level of detail will change depending on the distance, for instance if i approach a tree in call of duty 2 when reach a certain point i actually see more branches and foilage appear. If i step back again i see it revert back to what it was before.
A better example would be approaching a soldier, at a close distance he does'nt have much detail at all but when i reach a certain point all the detail such as badges and insignia appear, stepping back slightly it all dissappears again.

It does this in every first person shooter i have and it's so noticeable that it spoils whatever game i happen to play.
I tried another set of drivers but all they succeeded in doing was causing dawn of war to artifact.
I'm unsure if it's a driver problem, something in the 8800gtx nvidia control settings or if the graphics card is knackered.
I'll take any help i can get at this point, thanks in advance.

 

[achitophel]

Have you checked the draw distance settings in each game where this happens?

It is common to have detailed textures turned off on objects over a certain distance away to reduce the rendering strain on the GPU. However, with a GTX on CoD2, you'd be fine with all settings at max.

Try poknig around in the actual game settings for video to ensure that draw distance is at max and see if that makes a difference

 

[Teaf]

It's definitely not a problem with the card, it's what most games do so that you don't get massively low frames per second when looking at things at distance. They automatically turn worse the further you get away from them, and better the closer you get, but it's really easy to notice if your draw distance is low as achitophel said.. so just check the games draw distance settings (or maybe it's hard set from the drivers somewhere?).

 

[RaiderX]

its called LOD (Level Of Detail). basically every model in the game has lower resolution versions of each model and texture, it reduces the model quality the further you are from it, thus when theres lots on screen it doesnt slow it down too much, and when its close up and the only thing that fits on the screen, it looks better.

 

[Retikulan]

Thanks for the response guys.
I do'nt think it's the game settings as it happens in most games, including call of duty 1,2 and 4, hellgate london, fear and medal of honour airborne and i always check ingame settings before i play a new game. The 8800gtx worked perfectly when i first got it in january, only in the last couple of month has this started.

I suspect settings in the nvidia control panel such as conformant texture clamp or texture filtering negative lod bias or something.Could the settings in the nvidia control panel for the 8800gtx cause textures on trees, rocks characters and other scenery to change as i approach them?