New Card; weird graphics

[TarJak]

I bought a brand new XFX Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS the other day, installed and everything was going along fine until I loaded up SHIII and saw this mess:

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/319/shot1168652727qu9.jpg
Anyone have any idea what's going on?
I installed the drivers that came with the card and then ran the latest update from Nvidia's website. I'm running at 16X AF and 8xS AA.

[TarJak]

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1710/shot1168652764bu8.jpg

[Gizzmoe]

Do other games work correctly? Have you tried a lower AF and AA setting? Did it work with the older driver?

[TarJak]

Other games do the same thing. I haven't tried lower AF and AA settings that's next on the list. It didn't work with the older driver either, hence the upgrade. I'll have a play around and if nothing else works deinstall the drivers and reinstall with just the Nvidia update and if that don't work I'll take the card back and get another brand.

[Gizzmoe]

Ok, first try and disable AA and AF. If nothing helps reinstall/update DX9, maybe something broke it:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=77BC0499-19D0-46B6-A178-033D9E6C626B&displaylang=en

[602Sqn_Puff]

Had this myself with games, still do, and I have a 6800. Its all to do with the motherboard you have, when I set the bios to auto or x8 agp aperture size I get these graphic anomilies..set it manually to x4 agp apeture size and this should cure it, I spent over three months with problems with VC, MoH Pac Assault etc and got nowhere till I was mucking around with the bios one day and happened to try changing these settings....hope this helps mate, I know how annoying it can be!

[TarJak]

Thanks I'll give that a try if the AA and AF settings don't work.

[CWorth]

Another thing is you willl see artifacting like that if the card is overheating.

I had those kinds of things showing up just before my last card bit the dust.So if the AA and AF settings dont help you may want to make sure that the card is cooling properly.

[TarJak]

It's a brand new card so dust isn't a problem. I cleaned everything around it with compressed air when I did the install.

I checked the temp and the core says it is running at 73 degrees C. The slowdown threshold says it's 125 degrees C so I don't think it's heat, unless 73 is too hot.

[602Sqn_Puff]

When I had these troubles I replaced the card on three ocassions, also the company I had purchased it from sent it back to PNY for testing...hehe as you guess it came back clear...the only fix is to set the AGP appature size to x4...I still get these artifacts when in auto or x8 mod yet..just last week I thought I'd try it out again and Red Orchestra was identical to the above images lol...so back to x4 i went :)

[CWorth]

It's a brand new card so dust isn't a problem. I cleaned everything around it with compressed air when I did the install.

I checked the temp and the core says it is running at 73 degrees C. The slowdown threshold says it's 125 degrees C so I don't think it's heat, unless 73 is too hot.

Is that temperature when playing or when the card is idle...

If that is the temperature at idle that seems a bit hot to me in my experience.If that is when playing then you should be good.

My card is running at idle around 36C ambient and 45C-50C core temp.When playing it gets around 72 at most.

[codmander]

40c here running 3 fans 1 cpu
1 exhaust
1 intake

[GT182]

If you went to newer drivers other than the stock drivers that came with the card, did you disable the originals from the CD and delete them? Then loaded the new drivers you got from nVidia? That could be the problem too.


My son-in-law to be has the same card that he got for Christmas, and all is well with the stock CD drivers in MOH PA and other games. All he has is one exhaust fan in his HP computer so it's probably not heat related... just a guess on that.

Here a very good freeware utility for monitoring your computer's heat output....
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

If it is heat related, get an Antec PCI cooling fan and install it under you GFX card. That will help cool the card even more, tho it's a large fan. Thermaltake makes one too that's a bit smaller and RadioShack here has them. Check where you are.

[Falcon666]

I have the same card, the 7600 GS, PCI x16, with 256MB. I just leave the AA and AF settings to Auto, let the game define it. Never had any problems with any games...

[Deep-Six]

I have two internal fans blowing air on the card.

[oldpdb]

602Sqn Puff, I have had the same thing happen when playing F.E.A.R. Not as bad as the example above. It would show up on weapon barrels and bldg. doors etc. My nvidia card is also a 6800 with the latest drivers.
I've only had it happen a couple of times in SH3.
602Sqn Puff, I'm not a computer person. So how does one find the fix you are recommending? I have gone through the heat tests etc. I KNOW it isn't heat on my machine.
Thanks

[horrgakx]

I got this problem with my new ATI PCI-E card with the standard drivers. Since then I am a convert to the Omega drivers. http://www.omegadrivers.net/ They support nVidia and ATI chipsets and gave me better stability and frame rates too.

[602Sqn_Puff]

Hold in the delete key as the pc boots up, this will take you into the bios. Use the arrow keys to navigate the bios to the section where you find the agp appature sixe and press the enter key when the area you want to change is highlighted, this will show the various options that can be choosen for the agp size, select x4 with the arrow keys and then hit enter again, once the new settings are in press F10 and then Y for yes, system will reboot and the new settings will be in...anytime you wish to exit any of the bios sections use the ESC key....hope this helps, but please only change this AGP appature size for the card...changing any other settings could cause you PC not to boot back up. Just looking in the Bios can't damage the machine in any way.

[GT182]

Curious, why change to 4x when the card is 8x? Will this help check if the card is fried or some other way it's screwed up?

And actually you don't have to use the BIOS. Rt click on blank space on screen, select NVIDIA Display and do it from there. Works the same and is easier to do. ;)

[Jusa_Finn]

AGP aperture size refers to blocks of main memory, which will be used when video cards memory is low. http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/43

AGP speed 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x depends on the mother boards and video cards agp speeds. Basically highest speed is used. If video card supports max 4x and mother board 8x. 4x is used etc.

[602Sqn_Puff]

Or in my case the board didn't like anything other than x4..not the cards fault..blame Jetway lol

[TarJak]

@ CWorth
That is the temp playing idle is normally around 45 deg.

My Bios doesn't have any options to change the AGP apeture. I can however change the AGP voltage. The settings I have are 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 or Auto. Buggered if I know what I'd need to change here as it seems my BIOS isn't the same as yours.

Still got the problem. Steps so far:

De-installed and reinstalled the card and drivers.
Set the drivers to allow the game to sort out the AA and AF setttings.
Check the BIOS AGP settings but there is no way I can see to step down the AGP apeture settings, but there is a voltage setting.

One other thing I've noticed is that the Nvidia control panel takes about 15 mins to load. It does load eventually and is fully functional but whenever I run it takes ages to load. Anyone else seen that? Everything else appears to load normally, i.e.; within seconds.

[stabiz]

Same here, nVidia control panel hangs for 4-5 seconds before coming up, and I have a pretty fast computer. I hate that.

[GT182]

Thanks J_F. But I assume TJs 7600 GS is an 8x card. Cutting it back to 4x won't make it run any better I'd say. I believe once installed it'll be 8x by default. The one my stb son-in-law has is 8x, and is made by EVGA. And his is 8x by default on installation. No way to change in his BIOS either.

Seeing SHIII is a memory hog, I ask, could the memory on TJs card is possibly buggered? Is it 128 or 256mb RAM? The one here is 256 DDR2 and plays MOH Pacific Assault like a champ. Tho MOH PA isn't all that hard on memory I believe. I've got to get him to install SHIII and see what his card will do.

The last thing I just checked is Performance & Quality Settings. His is set to Application Controled for Antialiasing. Try that TJ and see what happens, it's worth a try.

I've just run upstairs 4 times to make sure on all this for his card.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

Freon cooling for me :rock::rock: my quad core at 100% load at system benchmark was at max -10 degrees celcius around 20 farenheit (im not sure) and my video card is 2 bfg 8800 gtx in sli but i took off the water blocks that come with bfg and my dad machined 2 custom Gold plated coolers (gold has best heat dissipation out of all metals) with a silver core( gold layer outside silver chunk inside silver is 2nd best ) my 2 video cards on max hit around 5 degrees celcius and dont forget all these coolers are sealed so no condensation for me :p:p:p heres the cooler for my cpu (btw i got 3 of those 1 for cpu and 2 for 2 video cards.)

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1793

[stabiz]

:huh::huh:

[TarJak]

It's got 512Mb DDR2 and it is a 8x card. I bought it last week in an attempt to buy some more time before I have to get a new system so if it is buggered I'm taking it back. Sounds like I might need some cooling.

EDIT: Does anyone know of any good cooling systems compatible with this card?

[GT182]

You could get a PCI slot fan and put it next to the 7600. That will help draw the heat away too. For $9.99US I did it and it helped make my 6800 a bit cooler, but it's a small Thermaltake slot fan. Antec makes a large PCI slot fan that is very good and costs only a couple of bucks more. It could be a less expensive way to find out if it's a heat issue.

CWorht, I think 125C is the default high Threshold temp. My 6800 runs at 51 to 53C at idle for Core Temp. 33C Ambient. TJ's seems way to high.

[TarJak]

I've now got a Coolmaster heat pipe cooling unit on the card. $29AU. It's taken the idle temp down about 5-6 degrees at idle and it now peaks at around 65 deg when running a high end 3D game, (Black and White 2 with all the bells and whistles on).

It seems that this is still too high or the GPU is on the way to death because the problem is still there.:cry: I'm now taking a trip back to the retailler to find out what they will do for me.

I got no response so far (3 days) from XFX on their website support section. Be interesting to see if I ever get any response from them. At the moment all I can say is XFX doesn't look too good in my eyes right now. :nope:

I'm right out of other ideas.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. If nothing else I've learned how to install a heat pipe cooling unit and a bit about how GPU's work or not as the case may be.

[horrgakx]

I got this problem last night funnily enough, I just rebooted and it was fine.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/horrgakx/Sub/strange-sky.jpg

[3Jane]

Are you sure you don't have the 'Cubist' mod installed :p

[Abd_von_Mumit]

It's cubism, man. Quite a popular in WWII times, you should be glad! "Naval Guernica" could be sold for quite a sum of money, I suppose. :D

[GT182]

One last thought. Did you use the DVI connection for digital display instead of VGA for analog to your monitor?

I'd return it for a new one if the above fails to help. It sounds like a GPU problem on the card. The extra cooling should have helped if it wasn't the GPU I'd think. Good luck.

[BigBadVuk]

I dont want to start NEW topic for this,becose i have also some troubles with my graphic card:
I have 2 comps..1 is with ATI X1800X ( and on this 1 SHIII works)..now other is a little older (but still good) Athlon 2500+(barton core) and nVidia Ti4200/128MB and i need to make this one to work...So what is the problem?Well looks like i just cant get rid of the famous UZO problem with blocked view from 310 to 50 bearings.. :damn:
Ctrl +p for disabling close particles doesnt work...I have 1.4b vanila patch on both systems and nVidia 93.71 forceware for XP whql version of drivers...(no mods installed but im planning to use GW)

Is there any way i can bypass this particles issue?..Im downloading GWX atm..so will this solve problem?:hmm:

Ah yes 1 more thing.. i used old (GW1.1) with ATI graphic and never found any glitch..

S.O.S S.O.S. Becose i need to install all this and make it work so i can give this machine to my brother as a gift so be quick please.Im on the edge to use wrench on this stupid graphic nVidia card and get some AGP Ati inside

[Elder-Pirate]

That 7600 card is running TOO hot.

Here is my Nvidia 7800 GS OC 256Meg AGP 8X cards temps.

Am running two cooling fans in front of computer, one on left side, two at rear which are exaust ( not counting the power supply fan exaust ) Course the liquid cooled are the best.


This is idle:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Capture_01142007_160106.jpg

And this is after a 2 hour bout with SHIII :
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Capture_01172007_180436.jpg

[TarJak]

I swapped the card for another of the same make and this ne boots up to an idle temp of 63 deg C and the graphics start to go funny after about 10 mins of 3D play (any game that requires a bit of grunt and the temp is now about 80 deg. I've got two system fans and the ambient temp in the case sits at around 30 deg once everything is up and running. the CPU is nice and cool and peaks out at about 47 deg when I've got a heavy graphics load up. My old card a 4200 ti never gets above 40 deg but it had a whacking great heat sink and fan on it. I just think the XFX 7600 cooling unit is simply too small.:shifty: I'm going for another brand with better cooling on board cos I don't fancy getting into liquid cooling for this rig.

Ah wel back to the shop for a full refund and search for another card.:cry:

[TarJak]

Has anyone heard of Inno3D cards? What's their reputation? I've seen an Inno3D 7600GS 512Mb for AU$215 which is a bit cheaper than the XFX one I bought and have sent back to the mfgs.

I'm just interested if anyone else has heard of these guys and whether they are OK or not.

[GT182]

If I may make a suggestion, try a XFX 6800 XTreme 256mb DDR3 256 bit card if you can find one. Tho it's an older model it is an excellent card. It might help you save a bit of cash for now that'll you'll need for the DX10 cards when you do a full upgrade later on.

Just checked the temp on my 6800XTreme. GPU core temp is 51c. Ambient temp is 31C. That's not playing any games, but just here on the net.

[TarJak]

I've decided to go with the Inno 3D 7600 GS, looking at the info I can get and speaking to someone who has been using one for a while it looks like a not bad buy. Pick it up Monday so I'll let you know how it goes.

EDIT: So picked up the Inno 3D 7600GS and a couple of case fans today and guess what. It runs at 49 deg C on start up and maxes aout at around 59 deg C when running hard with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory with all the bells and whistles running. I'm thinking its still too hot but when I frist cranekd it up the graphics where just beautiful and the frame rates were fine.

I thought OK I'll run it for an hour or so to see what happens and hey presto after about an hours hard work knocking off bad guys the horrible graphics starts again and it looks like I'm back to square one.:cry:

I'm starting to think that the problem has got to be the motherboard now and I guess I'll have to take this card back and start talking about the upgrade process to a new Core Duo with PCIE.

I tried disconnecting the auxillary power cable that the card needs and just got an error message saying that the cable needed to be plugged in to support the card and no difference in running temp, so I plugged it back in.

The only other thing I can think of is changing the AGP voltages in the BIOS which is the only option I get when I run my BIOS. Does anyone know what this is likely to do?