x1800XT Screen Corruption Help???

[picachux]

First my Rig:
Asus A8N-E
Athlon64 X2 4200+ (CNPS7000B-AlCu)
2GB OCZ EL DDR PC3200 Platinum
Sapphire x1800XT 256mb
X-Fi XtremeMusic
NVIDIA nForce 10/100 NIC
WD 120GB S-ATA
WD 200GB S-ATA
Lite On DVD-Rom
BenQ DW1640
Antec SmartPower 2.0 500watt



I can play games for anywhere from 5-10 minutes before the screen goes corrupt with Black or Rainbow squares. Once I have quit the game and I am on the Desktop the corruption is gone. I have been monitoring the cards temps with RivaTuner and they are Core 621mhz/Memory 747mhz temps top out at Core 79c/Ambient 61c/Fan 45%. I have yet to see it go over 79c in all 3 games and 3DMark06. So far the corruption has only occured during Battlefield 2 Demo, Far Cry and Call of Duty 2. I ran 3DMark06 and it ran all the way through without any corruption. Any suggestions?

 

[sisq0kidd]

The only thing I can think of is your memory overheating, especially in this weather, ack! Try underclocking your memory to see if that helps.

 

[picachux]

Would killing the hotkey poller and running the card at Core 600mhz/Memory 700mhz be a good test?

 

[sisq0kidd]

Not exactly sure if disabling or shutting down the hotkey poller would help, but definately try lowering the memory or core speed to see if that helps. I would reccommend just doing the memory first as that would help isolate your results.

 

[picachux]

I killed the hotkey poller service and it ran Core 600mhz/Memory 700mhz. I played Far Cry for about 30minutes without any issues, the temps recorded by RivaTuner were about 2-3 degrees cooler. I will test it some more tommorow afternoon after I do a fresh install of windows. This install is from when I had the x800 XL and Audigy 2.

 

[picachux]

Today I installed a Sytrin Kuformula VF1-Plus and it dropped load temps 15c. I also noticed when I reseated the stock cooler that it offers the memory absolutely nowhere for the heat to be spread. Could that be the reason I was getting artifacts? I've been testing with Battlefield 2/3DMark05/05 all day and no problems yet. What is the max temp for the Voltage Regulators on this card?


Stock Cooler
------------
Idle: Core 597mhz/Memory 697mhz
----------------------------------
Core 60c/Ambient 51c


Load: Core 621mhz/Memory 747mhz
-----------------------------------
Core 81c/Ambient 61c.




Sytrin VF1-Plus
---------------
Idle: Core 597mhz/Memory 697mhz
----------------------------------
Core 49c/Ambient 44c


Load: Core 621mhz/Memory 747mhz
-----------------------------------
Core 65c/Ambient 49c.