Card Testing

ajm · 9 Mar 2006 at 16:06

Can someone please tell me how i would go about testing my video card?I want to check make sure there is nothing wrong with it as i am having problems with high settings in games.

Card is 6600gt on agp
Drivers are 81.98 and have tried others.
Have got 3dmark 06 but not sure what i should do with it(settings ie).

ajgoodfellow · 9 Mar 2006 at 16:57

Leave it on default settings and check that you've got vSync, AA, AF etc all switched off and run it. It'll give you a score which you can compare with other PCs to see if it's performing on par

Default settings for 3D Mark 06 are 1280x1024, for the other 3D Marks it's 1024x768

ajm · 9 Mar 2006 at 17:28

Ok thanks i will give it a try.By the way i can't find vSync, AA, AF

Phil99 · 9 Mar 2006 at 17:30

What are the problems specifically? The 6600GT isn't best suited for high details on the latest games.

ajgoodfellow · 9 Mar 2006 at 17:32

ajm said:
Ok thanks i will give it a try.By the way i can't find vSync, AA, AF

They should be in your nVidia settings

vSync might be referred to as Vertical Sync, Sync-on-frame, lock sync, Wait for Vertical Sync, etc

AA is Anti-Aliasing and AF is Anisotropic Filtering

ajm · 9 Mar 2006 at 17:34

Well i have posted already on this topic but i am having the problem below

and the game isn't even on high settings.Aparently the game (Sniper Elite) isn't a very graphics demanding game.

ajm · 9 Mar 2006 at 18:07

Well i have ran the test and here are the results,but i don't know what they mean.

ajgoodfellow · 9 Mar 2006 at 18:16

That looks about right for a 6600GT - see the result here from this thread with loads of 3D Mark 06 results

ajm · 9 Mar 2006 at 19:59

Thanks, i will take a look.

phatboy · 9 Mar 2006 at 20:31

the score is 3d mark 06 does look fine, my 6800LE is only pushing out 1800 points, so thats pretty respectable

ajm · 10 Mar 2006 at 08:40

If that means that my card is working ok,then why am i getting this problem in games? :confused:

ajgoodfellow · 10 Mar 2006 at 09:38

It could be a driver issue or it could point to a fault with the card

Have you tried using different drivers? Can you see the artifacts in other games?

ajm · 10 Mar 2006 at 09:43

Have used drivers 77.77 and 81.98 so far and i am about to try 78.01 but no luck so far.I did see another slightly different problem in another game but only happened once,it was the outline of a bush and it showed in light blue.I don't have many more games that i can test.

Is there any other programs out there that could test to see if my card is faulty?

ajgoodfellow · 10 Mar 2006 at 10:01

Is it just that game?

If there was a problem with your card you would see it on every 3D application - games, 3D Mark, etc

Perhaps there's a patch for the game? Have you tried different detail levels? (I had a problem with artifacts on my X800Pro on HL2 but reducing it from 6xAA to 2xAA removed them!)

ATI Tool has an artifact scanner that you could try (it'll work on nVidia cards)

ajm · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:44

Like i said in my last post it has showed wierd things on 2 games which are the only 2 i have installed at the moment.I don't seem to be able to find a patch anywhere for this game yet.SOmething makes me think it is happening when AA is enabled in the game,does my card not support it?

Do you have a link to ATI tool and some guide on what to do with it?

ajgoodfellow · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:41

Your card does support AA. Did you notice the effect in 3D Mark? It's possible that your card might be overheating or there might be a fault with the card

You can get ATITool from here. Its easy to use - just click the "Scan for artifacts" button on the main screen.

It can also read the temperatures from your card so you can see if it's overheating. It's usual for cards to hit 60+ but if it's hitting 80+ then it's getting a little hot (although the threshold is about 125 degrees IIRC for the 6600GT)

ajm · 11 Mar 2006 at 09:48

Thanks again ajgoodfellow

My card temp is only 60-61 under load.
I will give ATI tool a try and see what that comes up with.

ajm · 11 Mar 2006 at 10:44

Well i just tried ATI tool and ran it for 30 mins and did't find any artifacts i don't think.How long should i run this for?

ajgoodfellow · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:44

Hi

It usually finds them pretty quickly. Your temps are fine too

Have you had a chance to install any other games and try them? Have you tried 3D Mark?

Have you tried the card in a different PC?

ajm · 12 Mar 2006 at 10:14

Haven't tried any other games yet,will try today if possible.Good game recomendation to test the card?

Have tried 3dmark but weren't sure what i were doing or looking for.

No i haven't tried the card in another pc as the only other pc's i have access to are not very high spec.