Weird 9800 pro problem, artifacts clear up if i alt tab, then come back after 5 mins or so wtf?

[dug777]

Like i said, for the life of me i can't find the original thread

But card works perfectly in d3, PoP, but artifacts in hl2/CS:S and farcry

However i can make the artifacts go away for a while by alt-tabbing out and into the app again...wtf is going on?

This has happened with Cat 5.4's and 5.5's

 

[Fern]

Just a guess, but I'm thinking it's heat. Alt tabbing out the game for a while will let it cool down and artifacts go away-for a while till it heats up again.

Fern

 

[Munky]

Try using an older driver. I heard many people complain about issues on 9xxx cards with Cats 5.4 and later. Also, run rthdribl, it shows up artifacts pretty easily if your card is overheating or clocked too far.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: munky
Try using an older driver. I heard many people complain about issues on 9xxx cards with Cats 5.4 and later. Also, run rthdribl, it shows up artifacts pretty easily if your card is overheating or clocked too far.

yeah no problems with rthdribl so it looks like a driver problem

d/ling the 4.12 Cats so i'll try them out and see if that helps...

 

[Killrose]

I had a similar problem like that before with a 9700pro, I reloaded DX9 and that cured it.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Killrose
I had a similar problem like that before with a 9700pro, I reloaded DX9 and that cured it.

thanks i'll try that i think first

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: Fern
Just a guess, but I'm thinking it's heat. Alt tabbing out the game for a while will let it cool down and artifacts go away-for a while till it heats up again.

Fern

My guess also. A chip with a heatsink & fan blowing on it doesn't take long to cool down at all, when not in use - so even if you're only alt-tabbing momentarily, that can be enough to cool it down enough for you to experience ~5 minutes of artifact-free gaming, if indeed heat is what's causing it.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: Fern
Just a guess, but I'm thinking it's heat. Alt tabbing out the game for a while will let it cool down and artifacts go away-for a while till it heats up again.

Fern

My guess also. A chip with a heatsink & fan blowing on it doesn't take long to cool down at all, when not in use - so even if you're only alt-tabbing momentarily, that can be enough to cool it down enough for you to experience ~5 minutes of artifact-free gaming, if indeed heat is what's causing it.

i guess i should have explained myself better

in farcry for example, if you stay in the same area it won't artifact again no matter how long you play there, it only seems to happen when you move into a new part of the level (so maybe every five mins it artifacts again when i'm moving quickly through a level....

and i ran rthdribl for ages with no artifacts, no problems with d3 or PoP...

card is stock speeds and cooling.

Anyway how can i reinstall directx?, i even d/ld the redist pack and it just seems to think it's already installed...

 

[Gurck]

Hrm, not sure then... It could certainly be drivers at fault, do you have the latest catalysts or omegas? Do you use Driver Cleaner whenever updating/changing drivers? It still could conceivably be heat, though it's less likely a culprit with your clarification... Different games can heat up different cards to differing degrees; a lot of 6800 owners noted that FC heated up their cards more than other games (Unfortunately for us 9800p owners, we have no temperature diode ). One possible explanation is that loading a new level utilizes your hard drive, causing it to heat up, which in turn heats up your case, thus your video card... *shrug*. Does it do this regardless of ambient temperature in the room?

 

[dug777]

I'm 100% sure it's not overheating...rthdribl doesnt show up a single artifact after a couple of hours fullscreen at 1280...case is vell ventilated with two 80mms above the card exhausting...and i run with the side of the case of anyway.

Its fine in simcity 4 (played that for about five hours straight the other day @1280 with everything set to high), so it's just this stupid alt-tab problem... how can i reinstall directx?

 

[akshayt]

how much psu do you have

try with antec or something better

 

[dug777]

w00t i dropped my old 20GB HDD in and booted from it just now, and no probs in farcry, so it looks like my main Xp install is corrupted somewhere, guess i'll just have to do a reformat

At least i know it isn't the card/psu/BIOS/mobo causing me the problems

Cheers for the replies tho folks :beer: