Artifacting problem with X1950... what to do?

[SilentDragoon]

Hi guys. I have a friend with problems with his graphics card; specifically after some time spent playing video games (between 20 minutes and a few hours, depending on the card), he will see 'artifacting' on the screen, as seen in this screenshot. What I'd like to know if there's any way to prevent these from occurring or isolating the problem.

He's reported these specs to me:

Video Card:

HIS Radeon X1950 Pro IceQ3 Turbo (AGP, Rev 1.0)
GPU clock is 621MHz, Mem is 742MHz
256 MB of RAM

Rest of the Computer:

Intel P4 640 (3.2 GHz, 2 MB cache, 800 MHz FSB)
2 GB "Super-Ultra" Corsair RAM, DDR400
WDC WD400EB-11CPF0 is a 40GB Western Digital drive
ST3500630AS is a Seagate 500GB drive
WDC WD3200AAKS-00YA0 is a Western Digital 320GB drive
WDC WD1600JB-75GVA0 is a Western Digital 160GB drive
The 40 and 160 are EIDE and the 40 is 5400RPM, I think, and the 160 is 7200 RPM
The 320 an 500 are both SATA running in 150 mode, and have RPMs of 7200
Windows XP SP2

Drivers:

ATI CCC and the latest Omega drivers are installed
Latest catalyst drivers were also tried

Oh, and it was never overclocked. He's in New Mexico, which is a fairly hot state, but it is winter.

Thanks for reading.

Much love,
Alissa

 

[Oyeve]

Vacuum video card fan, use ATI Tools and kick the fan up higher. The problem may be overheating. Also check the fan blades and see if they are coated in dust goo as this will restrict the airflow.

EDIT: Just saw the screenshot. 39c is fine. Try having him remove and reseat the card. Maybe have him clean the cards slot connectors.

 

[tigersty1e]

Did he buy this card used?

I'm not too sure about the 1950PRO, but my 1950XT has 2d clocks and 3d clocks.

The card downclocks to 2d clocks in Windows. Tell him to run Rivatuner and monitor the speeds.....and search around to see if his card is supposed to have 2d/3d clocks.

Maybe the previous owner flashed the BIOS.

 

[SilentDragoon]

He didn't buy the card used, he got it new. The artifacts he's been experiencing happen after minutes of gameplay in 3D, then apparently persist into 2D mode, which I've heard of happening before.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: SilentDragoon
He didn't buy the card used, he got it new. The artifacts he's been experiencing happen after minutes of gameplay in 3D, then apparently persist into 2D mode, which I've heard of happening before.

May be a bad contact. Try what i suggested, remove card, check/clean contacts.

 

[Marty502]

Mine did overheat for a while, but it showed no artifacts; it simply shut the computer down after 20~30 minutes of gameplay. That was the GPU core temperature rocketing; artifacts are related to memory chips overheating. So you better check if the memory chips are having good contact with the heatsink.

 

[HannibalX]

My 1600 did this. I put an aftermarket cooler on it - problem solved.