MSI 7900GT video problems

[Saldrin]

I'm having a problem, specifically with the game FEAR. I had issues right after I installed the VIVO drivers for my card. Since then I have had tp reformat and reinstalled XP.

The problem is, the game locks up, I get bad tearing from lights and shadows, rainbow squares all over the place, and it randomly locks up and reboots my computer. The intro movie is completely unplayable. And some times textures get "misplaced": decals on wrong objects, missing shaders... Exiting the game crashes my desktop and causes a system reboot.

I've had all my drivers up to date, I downgraded my nvidia drivers to the 91.31s. And I have made some progress if I tured the settings down (No FSAA, Vsync on, moderate settings). I'm only playing the game @1024x768, so I should be able to do much better. Even if I just enable fsaa 2x it crashes.

There are no appearent errors in any logs that I could find. My event viewer (XP Pro) lists nothing as far as my system crashing.

My other hardware:
e6600 Asus p5b
2gigs ddr2 800
X-fi Fatality
2x 90g sata drives (non raided).

I'm nervous since my system is only about a week old, and this is the only game I have played besides a quick match of Rise of Legends. I have no idea if this problem is a software/driver issue or hardware. I really don't have any other "Demanding" games I could slap in to test. Is there anything I could try or do to see if it is hardware? I'm not looking forward to an RMA, but I would like to get it over with ASAP if it is hardware. I've contacted technical support for the game but they have been "unresponsive".

Any suggestions?

 

[nullpointerus]

Underclock GPU and memory by 75 MHz. If the problem goes away, your card probably needs to be RMA'd. You see, many vendors are shipping factory-overclocked 7900 GT's, and some of the cards just aren't up to those speeds.

I had much more obscure problems which did not surface until I played a different game, but sure enough underclocking fixed the problem. Because the speeds are lower than advertised, I shipped mine back and am awaiting a replacement.

 

[Saldrin]

Thank you for the advice. What you are saying makes perfect sense since MSI did OC my card.

One quick question, will underclocking void my warranty?

 

[Saldrin]

I remembered that MSI ships the drivers with the OC utility, so I installed them and underclocked. FEAR ran perfectly on maxium settings at 1024x768. The card still had a hard time leaving "3d" mode and my desktop was flashing in and out. I guess that can't void my warrenty if they ship an OCing application and I *under*clock

So it is the stock OC that is causing the problems. Good call nullpointerus!

RMA it is then. Now I just need a cheap replacement for the time being. I have no idea how long it take to RMA a part, but I can safely assume it won't be before a few weeks. I don't know if I can survive with at least not browsing the web for a few weeks. What's the cheapest PCIe card I can pick up at bestbuy I wonder...

Thanks for the help!

 

[nullpointerus]

I'm glad you found the problem quickly. Underclocking won't void your warranty, BTW.

EDIT: I just remembered that you have an MSI card, so my info on EVGA isn't relevant.