Artifacts caused by MB/GPU/PSU ?

[MaXKilleR]

Alright, well how about: OCZ (OCZ600SXS) StealthXstream 600W Gamers Power Supply ?

it has 4 12v rails running 18a each.

[Elysium]

Yep, OCZ has a great reputation, so I think it would be safe to say that you'll be happy going with that PSU.

[MaXKilleR]

Well, I got the new OCZ PSU...unfortunately it did not fix my artifacts situation.

When I got it, I put in 2 video cards and overclocked the 8600gt a bit to make it work while trying call of duty 4. It started artifacting in the game after an hour, so I thought maybe its because I put in the second card. I took it out and used my computer with the 8600gt for about a day now without overclocking, and it started artifacting again.

When I lower the resolution it goes away, but when I bring it back to 1600x1200, it comes back. I'm even trying to underclock it and its still artifacting (540/700 to 450/550).

I'm out 100$, but at least now I'm ready for an 8600gt sli.

Does anyone know what should I do next?

[Elysium]

Please make a sig, as I am a little confused about your exact system specs.

I'm not sure, but I think the issue might be trying to run such a high resolution on such a small amount of GPU RAM. This would be a situation where SLI could be a big help, and worth it too. 1600x1200 is a lot is stress on that one card. So I think it may benefit you to either get:

1. Another 8600GT to run in SLI mode.
2. Or a different single card with a larger amount of GPU RAM that can handle the higher resolution.

It also might be that you have a bunch of dust in you card's fan that may be causing it to overheat and thus artifact. Try blowing out any duct with a can of compressed air.

[MaXKilleR]

I updated my sig.

When I change the refreshing rate to 75Hz @ 1280x1024, it artifacts as well (I haven't restarted my PC yet) so I think there is more too it. I didn't know 1400MHz is slow for 1600x1200.

these cards should be able to take all resolutions up to 2560x1600.

I wouldn't mind if I had a way to turn off the video processing while the rest of the computer would keep on working, but I think thats a special bios option (that I don't have).

[Elysium]

Originally Posted by MaXKilleR

I didn't know 1400MHz is slow for 1600x1200.

Not too slow, but maybe not enough RAM on the GPU. The 8600GT has 256MB of RAM on it, and that may not be enough to handle the high resolution.:dontknow:

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Not too slow, but maybe not enough RAM on the GPU. The 8600GT has 256MB of RAM on it, and that may not be enough to handle the high resolution.:dontknow:

Nope. Shouldn't cause artifacting. I'd suggest cleaning your drivers carefully and re-install either older ones or newer ones.

[MaXKilleR]

My Fujitsu laptop runs 1400x1050 at ease and all it has is shared ram memory.

I've been through this (drivers) 3 months ago. I have the newest one at the moment. Oh well, I guess ill try again.

Whats the best program to clear the drivers, or is there a method of clearing it completely through the registry?

[screwballl]

many of the older video cards could handle the higher resolutions without a problem (like my ATI 9600XT showed up to 19xx resolution... so I suspect it could be the card, drivers, PCIe slot, mobo.. there are so many possiblities

[MaXKilleR]

Yea, but this is happening to me with 3 different cards?!

like I said before, the nvidia ones (8600gt,7600gt) artifact on the desktop while the ati one (1600pro) blacks out flashing.

I tried both pci-e slots (x16)...same thing.

It’s not the power supply and probably not the card because 3 different cards are not likely to do the same thing. Oh and, like I said before, all 3 work fine on my other system back home (HP a1740n C2D E6300).

I just turned on my computer, changed the resolution back to 1600x1200 and it started artifacting right away.

I'm just fishing for a reason here, but could 4gb ram cause this type of problem (with xp)? I know in most cases the system just doesn’t load xp if you got more than 3gb, but that depends on the motherboard and mind loads just fine.

When I remove the driver, should I remove the control panel and ntune with all that stuff as well?