Graphical anomalies with 8800 GTX

[dagoo7]

I have been experiencing intermittent but persistent graphical anomalies with only certain games for the past year with my 8800 gtx. In certain games, after playing for awhile, I will experience either certain character models or buildings throwing off crazy beams or little jagged squiqqly green lines (most noticeable on screen overlays), sometimes both. This problem seems to go away for a brief period when I change resolutions, but then happens again. Lowering or changing other ingame settings seems to have no effect. I have run nvidia monitor and it is clearly not an overheating issue.

What is frustrating is that this only occurs with certain games. Many games, like LOTRO, borderlands, champions online, most fpses, I can run at max settings with no problem. However, with other games, most recently Dragon Age and Risen, I keep having this problem. I even ended up playing Fallout 3 on console as the green lines were so bad in that one.

I am hardly a tech guru and my knopwledge is limited, bu I always keep updated to latest drivers and have even tried going back to earlier ones in several cases, but no effect. Is my card bad? Or is there some setting on the card that I have screwed up and can modify through ntune? Any input appreciated.

 

[obsidian86]

a lot of 8800's dying lately ,could be that

 

[nforce4max]

Clean out the dust unless you have already have done that.

 

[jay2tall]

+1 on the dust. I had a similar issue WAY back with an old ATI card. The thermal paste had gotten hard and didn't appear to be overheating but was still a heat issue. I took the cooler off, cleaned it with a alcohol and Q-tips. Then reapplied some good thermal compound I had. Solved my issue. If that doesn't work you can always get it repaired under warranty depending on who made it.

 

[dwisen]

if you have ever overclocked the card it may have been damaged and in that case your warranty most likely will not cover a replacement, otherwise just send it back to the manufacture and get a replacement

 

[nforce4max]

This is only if you are will to do so. Things needed tools, arctic silver 5 or some other compound (the good stuff not the crap), paper towels or toilet paper, and a brush or canned air. First remove the spring screws that mount the cooler not the retention frame around the gpu, next in a twisting motion remove the cooler (be sure to remove the screws is any at the i/o bracket that go into the cooler) and disconnect the fan. Make sure that you do not lose any thermal pads unless you have bought new ones. Clean the gpu ihs and heatsink base use 70% isopropyl alcohol if needed. Next remove the shroud/ cover to reveal the cooler. Use a brush or canned air to remove as much dust as possible. Reassemble the cooler and spread compound on the gpu evenly. Reinstall the cooler and test the card. Don't forget to clean the fan as well.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

It doesn't have have to overheat to give off artifacts. If it overheated before (you that indicated over the past year the card has had problems) the damage has already occurred and regular temps can cause render errors. I know because my old ti4600 died the same way, first overheating artifacts, then artifacts after 10 minutes, then 5 minutes, and eventually permanent artifacts.

Not sure on what is the brand your GPU (XFX, EVGA) but I would be surprised if it's still under warranty.

Here's a test: underclock your card by 15 to 20 percent and see if it helps. If it performs without artifacts after an hour of play, then you know your card has damage if you run it at the factory stock speed and the artifacts come back.

There are about 680 million transistors on the GPU. After a few years of intense gaming, some of those are bound to die and fail.

 

[jay2tall]

I'd still try to repaste. If that doesn't help, most likely the RAM has gone bad. I've seen this as well. The x1900 ATI cards were notorious for this after 3 years.

 

[nforce4max]

I'd still try to repaste. If that doesn't help, most likely the RAM has gone bad. I've seen this as well. The x1900 ATI cards were notorious for this after 3 years.

This is very true. I bought one that was unused old stock a few months ago so I could play fallout3 till better forceware came out well any way I found three of the v-ram chip (top of the horse shoe) didn't make contact with the thermal pads. In the end some scrap metal and AS5 solved the problem.