Artifacts, but without rhyme or reason

[Trotter]

OK, my system is in my sig.

I am getting artifacts in Oblivion and BF2 (main games I play).

In BF2 I am getting black patches and bars, as well as flickering objects (like windows in the distance, for example).

In Oblivion, it will be shafts of color from an object going across the screen, and flickering abjects nearby. Speaking with someone will give you a headache.

BF2 is not overly intensive graphically, and I play with most of the graphics turned down for better visibility. Oblivion can be taxing, but I am running it on a low resolution (800x600, 1028x7-something) without all the bells and whistles, but I am still getting them.

As for drivers, I have tried the last two sets of Catalyst drivers, but they didn't help. I have went back to the Crysis drivers ATI put out, but I am still getting them.

As for heat, I have my fan set at 60% with Rivatuner, so it is staying cool. No OC of the GPU or RAM.

I am open to suggestions.

 

[KSoD]

Maybe try ATiTool to see what the temp of the card is. Maybe fan at 60% is not keeping it cool enough.

 

[Trotter]

I'll give it a shot tonight. I used to never have any artifacts on BF2 with my 7800GTX, and my X1950XT is a bit faster/more powerful than the 7800GTX was. When I used Rivatuner before, I didn't run the fan as high and stayed cool.

I may go ahead and pull my card and clean it out. It was fine a few weeks ago, but it couldn't hurt. Rule out the easiest stuff first, ya know?

 

[Jorsoft]

So you're not getting them in other games? Have you seen artifacts in 3dmark or have you run a gpu stress test? I think it's ATI Tool that has the stress test, right? I'd check these out after you've cleaned the card. It's weird if these are the only two games you're having problems with. If that's the case I would back up the saved games and reinstall, maybe some files got corrupted or some other general weirdness.

 

[Trotter]

They are the only graphic-intensive games I play, period. Well, for right now, anyway. Once I download ATITool, I'll stress it... good thinking.

But to have both corrupt, but nothing else on the hard drive? The chances are astronomical, to say the least. If I have to re-install, it's no big deal, though.

What gets me is that it is doing on both the newest drivers as well as the Crysis drivers. As a last resort I will go to Omega drivers. I want to rule out other stuff first.

 

[Whirlwind]

May be just a driver issue also Trotter.

 

[Trotter]

Yeah, I know. I need to pop a SATA hard drive in, anyway, though.

 

[ricanflow]

How long have you had the card for? I hate to say it, but it could be near the end of its life...components fail unfortunately.

But make sure your temps are good.....my card used to idle at 50C and now its at 60C.....i guess theres dust caked up inside so i went ahead and ordered a new cooler to solve the issue.

 

[Trotter]

Hmmm... June, last year.

Here's a shot from ATITool artifact scanning...

Still scanning, up to 75C and still dinging. The top is filling in slowly.

 

[Oreo]

Happened to me, when i screwed my X1950 because i accidentally overclocked it way to much. Underclocked it to normal, and it was bust in about 2 days time. Big random grey triangles and spikes on Cod2.

You fried your GPU, somehow - powersurge, static..