7800gtx artifacts (3dmark05)

[AiponGkooja]

Was running 3dmark05 a couple times with my new BFG 7800gtx, and I noticed that it would flash little lines of multicolordness and sometimes larger triangles would pop up in different places. It is still at stock speed, so I'm wondering what's up. The instances were rare, but I noticed them.

Btw:
A8N-SLI Deluxe
A64 3500+ (stock 2.2ghz)
2x1gb OCZ Platinum series (stock 2-3-2-5)
BFG 7800gtx (stock)

3dmark05: 8390


Edit: Updating drivers from 7772 to 7777

 

[ayabe]

What are your temps?

 

[Bona Fide]

I've heard some complaints about the 77.77 drivers. Not sure which ones to roll back to, but try the ones that came with your card.

 

[AiponGkooja]

temps stay under 80 after many runs

 

[Munky]

Well, it may not be the temps, but the card looks like it's clocked too high. I'd rma the thing asap.

 

[AiponGkooja]

It's clocked at 460/1300 BFG factory OC...although 3dmark05 shows 275.4 Core clock, which I don't understand...

 

[Elfear]

It probably shows the 275 in the info screen before you start benching. Once the card switches to 3D mode it should bump up to 460MHz.

Sounds like a defective card. Try the 77.76 drivers. They don't show any artifacting for me. If you still get artifacts after that than I'd RMA the card.

 

[AiponGkooja]

Tried those drivers, still get quick flashes of speckles (again, it is very rare, and only noticable in test 2 of 3dmark05 because it's so dark). Also, when I check the systeminfo after running the benchmark, it tells me the core clock is 501.4 mhz? And it dropped my score to 8076 (from 8390).

 

[AiponGkooja]

Well, I have run it a few more times and noticed that they are usually in the same place, does that make a difference? Also, another thing I have noticed is that in the first test, when it zooms in on the heavy gunner while he's shooting, there are thick horizontal bars of lighter/darker areas that kind of flash up and down the screen (like a bad lighting effect from his gun). This was only noticeable to me when I was sitting a little ways away from my monitor (maybe about 6 feet from my 19" Samsung SyncMaster 997df CRT). Another thing I have noticed is that some of the boxes in that first test look weird, with bright white pixels that kind of flicker as the "camera" moves around (this might be the already known "flickering" problem that people keep complaining about). Hmm...I guess one more thing is when there are objects that are slightly off from verticle (like ropes and such), I can notice what looks like verticle lines racing down them as the angle moves around. So anyway, does anyone else notice these things with their 7800gtx's? I am only running a single card, and these things only bother me when I look for them, and like I said before they are always in the same places when they happen.

Thanks again,
Aip

Edit: The grates in the first test have the white speckle flickering too I noticed.

Also, Update: ran it again, and noticed less in the spots that I usually do, checked the systeminfo and it said core of 450.

So, yeah...I'm confused...Where is a good place to get an ACCURATE reading of the clock speeds?

Also, what are some other video benches I can run to see if it does it randomly, or if 3dmark05 just has problems.

Thanks again,
Aip

Edit2: Could some of these problems just be because of the low res that 3dmark05 runs at? I play hl2 at 1600x1200 and I haven't noticed any of these problems...

Edit3 (Muahahaha, edit question crazy time): Just wondering, does the regular nvidia driver application give a proper reading of the temperature?

 

[kman79]

Well from what I read and experienced. 460 should be no problem on a GTX card. Most can clock higher than that.

Also the card clocked at 460, will show up close to 500 on borth 3DMark05 and RivaTuner's Monitor. It's the way the card's multiple chips work, it's wierd.

In coolbits when you click on detect optimal frequencies, what does it say? Use those to bench. I've noticed at times that if you don't have the GPU Frequency matched with the right RAM speed I get artifacts. Just something you can try. Good luck

 

[AiponGkooja]

GPU matched with ram speed? I have 2x1gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5 T1 @ 201mhz. Optimal frequencies it says are 472/1325.

Edit: Did it again and it gave me 475/1320 and 3dmark05 reads 516.4/1300. Oh, and it made the artifacts worse. Now I notice them when just watching the benchmark, as opposed to when I was actually looking for them. Temp still only goes to about 72C

 

[nippyjun]

Would it be possible to under clock the card and see if the problem goes away?

Also, run the benchmark with your case open and a fan blowing on the video card to see if heat is a problem.

 

[AiponGkooja]

Underclock the factory OC'd card?

I'd hate to RMA because it will probably take a while and I'm going back to school on Wednesday, but that's looking like the only option now, right?

I do have a 6600gt that I can use during that time, but I was hoping to have everything ready and running nicely BEFORE I moved...

 

[BFG10K]

How's your PSU? And have you updated your BIOS and chipset drivers for your system?

 

[kman79]

If you were to underclock the card, then you would not be getting what you payed for.

Like BFG10K says, how's your PSU? Card getting sufficient power? Temps look fine also. So either a bad card, or PSU is my guess

 

[AiponGkooja]

Sorry I haven't replied yet, but I've been talking to BFG support about what is happening and they also suggested the power supply. Apparently my Fortron 530W only has 18A on the 12V (which they even looked up for me because I couldn't find it: their support kicks ass). Just to add something else though, while playing WoW for extended periods of time (high or low res, both of which I get slight artifacts in), my computer will suddenly just freeze up entirely, only restorable by hitting the reset button. Would this be a confirmation of needing a new PSU, or is this a whole other problem that I have now?

Thanks AGAIN
Aip


Also, I haven't updated my BIOS ever, because so far all the problems I have had I could fix without doing that. I also don't have a floppy drive (which you need to flash a BIOS, right?)

 

[kman79]

Originally posted by: AiponGkooja
Also, I haven't updated my BIOS ever, because so far all the problems I have had I could fix without doing that. I also don't have a floppy drive (which you need to flash a BIOS, right?)

You can flash to newer drivers using the Asus Update tool, it should be in the CD, or you can DL it from Asus. Works perfectly on my premium board

 

[AiponGkooja]

Ok, so I've been looking for a new PSU. I kind of just want a reliable one with 28A+ max on a single 12V (don't want dual 12's because I'm pretty sure I don't need them). Are there any out there that aren't $200+?


Will this one work? 33A on 12V it says. The only thing I don't like, is if you take a look at the pictures, it looks like they have pics from two different PSU's...one of them has cables with big white plugs on them, the other has cables with small black and blue plugs...anyone know what that is? I guess what I'm asking is are those the same kinds of plugs? It just confused me, like so many other things in life...

 

[AiponGkooja]

Or this one which Rollo said he uses on his 7800gtx SLI and was suggested by nVidia. I have a question though that may or may not really matter. Is there anything to keep in mind when you're hooking components up to a PSU? A lot of items come with splitter plugs so you can just chain a bunch of things together, but is it a bad idea to ever do that? If you have to anyway, what kinds of things are safe to chain together, and which components should always have their own line to the PSU?

Thanks bunches,
Aip

Edit: One more thing, what is the red toggle on the back of PSU's for? *strives to become un-noobish*

 

[shilala]

How's about you back up about 10 steps and update your bios?
If you do as you are told, I bet your problems will all disappear.

 

[AiponGkooja]

Bleh, fine, I'll update my BIOS How do you check which driver version you have for your nforce4 chipset. I'm pretty sure I have 6.66, but it might only be 6.65...And I remember that you need only of those later ones in order to get the latest BIOS.

 

[AiponGkooja]

Ok, I've tried the tool that came with the ASUS CD and the one on the website and both of them pop up with errors when I run them. Sometimes it says "Setup program detected no ASUS motherboard" and sometimes it says things about some NT and that I have to restart it... "Unable to create NT driver service for BS_DEF.DLL" "NT service registry error! Please reboot NT and run again"


Edit: I'm going to post this in the Tech Support forum too...

 

[AznAnarchy99]

i have this and i like it alot
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=22550

price on newegg on it moves alot from $80 to $130

 

[AiponGkooja]

Sooooo, does someone that suggested updating my BIOS want to tell me HOW? Asus's site is terrible; I don't even know what to download. If you could provide direct links to everything I need that would be great. My motherboard isn't even on their "How to update your BIOS" page...

A8N-SLI Deluxe
Amd Athlon 64 3500+
Win XP Pro SP2
NO FLOPPY DRIVE

Oh, and the error messages from above when I tried to setup "Asusupdt60701"

 

[AsianriceX]

I honestly think that most people that are having image corruption are suffering from the same problem I had in this thread.

Text

I believe that rivatuner's readings are correct and that this has nothing to do with nvidia's weird clock speed levels. I honestly think that the drivers are to blame and that they're adding ~39MHz to the level specified with coolbits.

My eVGA 7800GT is spec'd to run at 445MHz and I had the same image corruption. Rivatuner was reporting the 3D speed as 486MHz so I changed the overclock setting to 407MHz, giving me the correct speed of 445MHz. I have had no problems since.

Try that out before RMA'ing your card. The fact that there's a problem with a 7800GTX from a different manufacturer leads me to believe that this is a driver issue.