What causes a video card to artifact?

Snakexor

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2005
1,316
16
81
I put a vf700cu on my buddies 9800 pro on which the fan died. After installation and a reboot , it artifacted. Is the card FUBAR'd? What causes it?
 

daveybrat

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jan 31, 2000
5,725
943
126
Probably caused by the fact that 9800 cards ran extremely hot and if his fan had been dying or died for a while, the GPU probably overheated and caused damage and now even with you replacing the fan, permanent damage has already been done prior.

I've pulled many older Geforce4 TI cards that started artifacting after the fan had seized for a long time from customer's machines.

 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
126
Or it could simply be the new HSF hasn't been installed properly and/or doesn't adequately cool it.
 

Snakexor

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2005
1,316
16
81
The HSF is installed properly, ive probably installed ~10 VGA HSF's ie. arctic cooler, and vf700/900. I let the card dry over night from the alcohol. Should i try to reapply the heatsink?
 

yacoub

Golden Member
May 24, 2005
1,991
14
81
Either you broke something or it's overheating. Not much else could cause that unless you also changed something with the software or drivers.
 

lyssword

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2005
5,761
25
91
yep it's FUBAR'd, unless like yacoub said, if the card's been overclocked put it on standard settings..
When this happened to my card I had to RMA it.
 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
9,537
2
0
You could have easily chipped the core. The R300-based cards were exposed core without any IHS like the ones found on today's CPUs and GPUs (think Athlon vs. Intel P4). The cores were also less resilient than Athlons, so chipping/breaking the core was pretty common back in the day.
 

Snakexor

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2005
1,316
16
81
It artifacts in BIOS/Post Screen so it shouldn't have anything to do with drivers. Ive had this happen to at least 3-4 other cards (6800gt, x1950pro, another 9800pro) i don't think ive messed up that many time :/.