Snow effect in games?? Card Problem?

[FFactory0x]

So in some games I get a snow effect which is noticible in darker area's of games. What is this caused by???

I have a EVGA 6800nu which i unlocked the pipe and vertex

The clock settings are 325/700 at the moment which i think is stock.

Can somebody help me out?

 

[Gautama2]

Sounds like artifacts, most likely overheating video card. What temps you got?

 

[FFactory0x]

GPU - 55c (at desktop idle)
Amb - 33c

Could the unlocked pipe or vertex do that?

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: FFactory0x

Could the unlocked pipe or vertex do that?

Yes.

 

[FFactory0x]

Ok i set riva back to let VGA bios determine settings and rebooted. Started game and everything looks fine now.

I guess i should unlock each at a time and test. What gets more performance. The extra vertex or pipe?

 

[shabby]

Depends on the game, but most likely the extra 4 pipes will give you more performance.

 

[FFactory0x]

Can i have it unlocked for performance since i dont notice the snow much.

I mean its only noticible on dark parts of boards and thats hardly at all

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: FFactory0x
Ok i set riva back to let VGA bios determine settings and rebooted. Started game and everything looks fine now.

I guess i should unlock each at a time and test. What gets more performance. The extra vertex or pipe?

You can unlock both I think.

The snow is most likely artifacting, which can be cause be either, too much heat, or an unstable overclock. Sometimes even a driver can cause it (rarely).

Try and unlock the 4 pipes and vertex shader (theres one extra right? been awhile...) and overclock it a little bit and see what happens. Then just keep decreasing the clock speed (after unlock and overclock) to see when the "snow" (artifacting) stops.

 

[FFactory0x]

the pipes and vertex were already unlocked.

I locked them back up and artifacts were gone. Think it was a bad pipe. Ill try ocing