ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Artifacts - Opinion Needed - Thanks

[BMW330ci]

Hi there,

I've had my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro for a little over a month now and its beginning to display green or pink artifacts while playing Quake 3 or Warcraft 3.

I took a picture of it HERE

When I first installed the videocard, I noticed minor artifacts but it seemed to go away after I did a clean install of Win. XP with Direct X 9 + Cat. 3.0 until now. Do you guys think the card is defective? It seems to appear only when I'm starting to play a game and when I exit out of the game, it appears on the desktop as well.

I don't have my system or the videocard overclocked either.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Viper96720]

It could be overheating. Anyway to check the gpu temperatures with a temp probe.

 

[jiffylube1024]

yeah it sounds like overheating, meaning you either have a really hot case, or your card is defective (unless you're overclocking, of course). If everything is at stock speed then you should not be getting any artifacts whatsoever, and you should return the card if these problems persist.

 

[TheWart]

Yea, I would say that the card is defective...have you ever seen the artifcats in 2d?

 

[BMW330ci]

Thanks for your response guys.

You're right, it might be heat. I'm going to use it with the case off for a couple of days. The artifacts only appear in 2D after I exit from playing a FPS game such as Quake and after I restart my computer, the artifacts are no longer present in 2D. It has been warmer now in So. Cal so I'm going to see if it's heat related.

Thanks for pointing that out! You guys rock.

 

[Viper96720]

Try it with some air blowing directly on it from a fan. Only other thing I could think of is the thermal pad shrinked and the heatsink isn't making good contact with the core. The heatsink should feel a little hot since that means its doing its job.

 

[BMW330ci]

Originally posted by: Viper96720
Try it with some air blowing directly on it from a fan. Only other thing I could think of is the thermal pad shrinked and the heatsink isn't making good contact with the core. The heatsink should feel a little hot since that means its doing its job.

Hey Viper:

Well, I tried it with the case off and a fan blowing on the videocard with room temperature of approximately 71 degrees and it still displays those artifacts. Looks like the card is defective.

Thanks for your help and suggestions!

 

[nick1985]

another ati horror story to add to the pile

 

[Killrose]

Simple answer: Warranty