Graphics Artifacts with 8800 Ultra

[northun_munky]

Hi,

I bought an ultra from a chap off a auction site and its throwing up some artifacts when I'm playing games. It started in Fallout 3 but you can see it best in Crysis Warhead. I've taken some screenshots:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26638256@N03/3199007329/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26638256@N03/3199860438/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26638256@N03/3199864812/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26638256@N03/3199868996/

From reading other posts on the forum I reckon in might be the ram on the blink but to be sure I've updated the drivers to 181.2 and it's still happening. The temps don't go above 89c when playing so I don't reckon its temp related.

If it is a ram issue would underclocking it make any difference?

The rest of my specs in case it makes a difference:

q6600 @ 3.2 & Tuniq tower
Ocz Reaper ocz2rpx1002g ram
IP-35 pro
Oryxx Titan 800w PSU

Cheers

 

[northun_munky]

I only bought it in november and the guy wasn't selling it as faulty or untested. I paid a ton for it. As it was a while ago I don't think theres much I can do about it. Gutted...

 

[northun_munky]

Its XFX. Might be worth looking into. I've RMA'd a card to them in the past. I'll get in touch with him.

 

[northun_munky]

Is it a ram related issue do you think?

 

[northun_munky]

When it first started doing it I tool the cooler off and blew the dust away using an air duster (of which there was a **** load...), reapplied TIM to the GPU and left the pads on the RAM as I'd heard the gap was too big to use TIM. Made no difference other than lowering the core temp from about 93c to 89-90c under load.

I did wonder about heat as one of the 1st things I noticed about the card (other than the length!) was how much hot air it vented and had planned to get an arctic cooling accelero cooler for it. I don't fancy shelling out for one if it has problems...

 

[northun_munky]

Thanks for the advice alexhull. For a couple of quid it must be worth a try.

 

[northun_munky]

Also id advise not buying off auction sites unless its from a proper shop that offers returns, i made that mistake buying a abit ip35 motherboard off ebay for £50 quid and didnt work, seller wouldnt let me return it

I think I've learnt my lesson on this. I've been lucky in the past with what I've bought but i'm gutted about the ultra as its a damn good card other than the issue i'm having.

 

[northun_munky]

My 2 current ultras are artifacting badly in crysis, there under water so defo not a heat issue

Just in Crysis or are they doing it in other games?

 

[northun_munky]

Surely it shouldnt just artifact for no reason other than its under strain? A 8800GT i had before never used to artifact even when Crysis brought it to its knees. Might it be a driver issue? I might an older driver to see if it makes any difference

 

[northun_munky]

the memory clock isnt overclocked by any chance? my 8800gt has a 900mhz memory clock speed, a single amount of mhz over caused the artifacts for me, aswell as the fans needed turning up

The memory isn't overclocked. I actually underclocked it last night to see if that made a difference. Sadly, it didn't

 

[northun_munky]

I'm having the same issues with the graphics on my GTX 295.

No overclocking and temps are all good.

I'm also having other issues with the game that lead me to believe this is the games fault, or a driver fault.

Falling through buildings and dying for no apparent reasons at times also.

I've also had the random dying thing happen. Strangely, I installed Crysis Warhead on the partition I have the windows 7 beta today and I't seems to play fine. No graphics glitches and I haven't randomly died yet! Maybe its just a driver problem with vista 64. I really hope it is anyway.

Either way, it sure looks and plays a lot better without artifacts and blocks of grey and brown hillside