Graphical Artifacts?

[TTangent]

Hi everyone, I'm having an issue with what I think are graphical artifacts, and was hoping I could get some insight from anyone with knowledge or experience on the subject. Here is the situation...

The Witcher 2 is currently the game that stresses my computer the most. When I play it, I sometimes get these solid color flashes on my screen, always near the top. They look like a smudge of color, bright neon green or something, sometimes white. They only flash for a moment and then disappear, but once they start they continue as long as I play.

I have a series of questions and a LOT more background information (including recent happenings with my computer and specific system information) that I can tell, but I didn't want to make this message too long for fear that no one would read it!

If anyone can help, is interested, or knows anything about this, let me know and I can provide any and all other information that you might need to know.

Regardless, my first question would be: are these truly graphical artifacts that I'm experiencing?

I'll be closely monitoring this thread so I hope someone can help! Thanks in advance.

 

[Slaymate]

I would start by checking the temperature of your video card at an Idle and under a Load. Without knowing any of your system specifications I would try the HWMonitor utility 1st.

 

[TTangent]

I'm running a Nvidia 460 GTX 1GB and right now, at idle, it is 45 degrees Celsius. While playing The Witcher 2, it runs around 70 or 75.

Does this have something to do with it? And is that a high temperature?

 

[FairPlay]

Odd, I have that card and 70c is not that hot, I'd be more worried if it went over 85 than 70... The max temp is 105 I believe, so there may be another issue.

 

[Digerati]

are these truly graphical artifacts that I'm experiencing?

Artifacts normally look like left over portions of the displayed image. If these "flashes" don't seem related to the image displayed, then they may not be artifacts.

I would try another monitor and see if it happens there. If it does, then I would want to know I have a good power supply - assuming this a PC and not a notebook and I would swap in a known good supply and see what happens.

 

[TTangent]

Odd, I have that card and 70c is not that hot, I'd be more worried if it went over 85 than 70... The max temp is 105 I believe, so there may be another issue.

Hmmm, well it definitely seems like my fans are working like crazy when I play this game.

Artifacts normally look like left over portions of the displayed image. If these "flashes" don't seem related to the image displayed, then they may not be artifacts.

I would try another monitor and see if it happens there. If it does, then I would want to know I have a good power supply - assuming this a PC and not a notebook and I would swap in a known good supply and see what happens.

Yeah, these "flashes" have nothing to do with the image that I'm viewing at the time. They're just random, but also, they don't always occur. Specifically, when I first start the game up, they don't occur. It is really only when I've been playing the game for at least 5 minutes.

The power supply should be good, as I've been using it with this card on other games (though, admittedly, not nearly as graphically intensive). Portal 2 on max settings (or close to it) is a recent example.

I could try it on a new monitor tomorrow. Until then, I want to mention that I recently had to reload Windows (I'm running XP), and this only began occurring afterwards.

 

[Digerati]

Keep us posted.

 

[TTangent]

So, I wasn't able to try this on another monitor today like I thought, so I'll give it a shot tomorrow. However, last night, I played the Witcher 2 for a solid 45 minutes, and only experienced these little neon flashes once or twice for only maybe 30 seconds or so at a time. I'm not sure why... but regardless, I was running GPU-Z while I played. My max temperature was only 71 degrees and the max fan speed was only 52%. I would post a screenshot, but it seems I'm unable to attach one... or can't figure out how.

 

[TTangent]

So, this issue basically just... stopped happening. I tried it on another monitor and had to play for quite a long time before I started noticing it happening. I went back to my usual monitor and had the same thing, but it doesn't happen nearly as often now, nor is it as severe when it DOES happen. I continue to check my video card temperature and it doesn't stretch above 75 degrees. All my drivers are up-to-date... the only thing that I'm still a bit concerned about is something that I mentioned in a previous post, which is that this didn't start happening until I reloaded Windows XP.

 

[Digerati]

Why did you reload XP?

I am back to what I said earlier, I would want to know I have a good power supply - I would swap in a known good supply, of ample power, and see what happens.