Artifacts.. not the Indiana Jones kind...

[Wingnutt]

having a rather odd issue..

I have a EVGA Geforce 8800 GT-SC ("superclocked)

under no load, and sitting for a while im seeing red artifacts on DARK areas, same occurs in game.

EVGA Precision is reading 55C with the fan at 70%   however increasing the fan speed and thus reducing the temp does not remove the artifacts.

this is a new development and I have no made any changes in hardware or software that coincide with this starting.


System Info

AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ @ 3.2ghz
8GB OCZ ram,
WD Raptor 10,000 rpm hd.
Vista 64


nothing is overclocked, everything is factory spec.

[Masherbrum]

Wosrt case - Might be defective RAM on the card.   

[Wingnutt]

Wosrt case - Might be defective RAM on the card.   

yea, im figuring its something terminal, and if it is, it is..  I just want to rule out anything reparable before I deep 6 it.

[TilDeath]

Since the 8800's are powered cards you maybe losing power to your card.  Try an alternative plug from your PSU to your card and see if that helps

[Hungry]

Wingnutt, fill in a few of the blanks, if you booted up cold then went right into AH does it come on as temps rise?  Have you checked all the "other" stuff.  Drivers and settings?  FWIW I think my std XFX 8800GT starts at about 47 degrees.

[Wingnutt]

Wingnutt, fill in a few of the blanks, if you booted up cold then went right into AH does it come on as temps rise?  Have you checked all the "other" stuff.  Drivers and settings?  FWIW I think my std XFX 8800GT starts at about 47 degrees.

if I fire up the computer and just let it sit, at idle... within an hour or so I will start getting artifacts.

if I start playing AH, I will get them too, and they will not go away after I stop playing.. 

they will not go away if I do a restart, but If I power down the system and then power it back on they are gone.. for a while..

temp seems to have no bearing on it..


if I set my fan to 40% and let it get up to 60C it does it..  in about an hour,  if I set it to 100% to where even under load it wont go over 54 or so it does it, in about an hour.

on the power from the PSU comment, I plugged it in to a different port (modular PSU) just for kicks.. no luck.

[Skuzzy]

The GPU temperature is not all that matters.  The RAM temperatures seem to be what is at issue here.  If artifacts start showing up after any period of time, it is usually due to RAM on the GPU overheating.

Easy way to see if this is the case.  Remove the computer side panel, place a small fan to blow ambient air directly at the RAM on the video card, noting that RAM is usually located on both sides of the video card.

See if the artifacts never appear.

[Fulmar]

Hopefully the fan helps some, but I'm not sure how much airflow will get to the actual RAM chips since most of the higher end cards today have covers for the HSF system that have.

[Skuzzy]

Uusally the afflicted RAM is on the other side of the PCB, where only ambient air is cooling them.

[Wingnutt]

Well GUESS WHAT...

1 of my 120mm fans quit working..

I have 2 one blowing out the top, another in front blowing in.. the one in front went kaput..

that explains it.. (hopefully) 

Ill see how she after the new fans are in.

[Wingnutt]

Ok, riddle me this..

I downloaded a video card stress test program..
I let it run for 3 min, my GPU temp went from 52C and topped ouyt at 74C after 2 min and held stable there..  NO artifacts..

Am I not seeing artifacts because the memory takes more time to get hot? or what?

[Skuzzy]

If the GPU is the cause of the artifacts, then running a stress test would show the problem, but if RAM is the issue, the GPU test may not address it.

[BaldEagl]

Could it be your monitor causing this rather than your video card?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Superclocked = overclocked from the factory, I'm fairly certain your card can't manage the higher clocks anymore.

If you have garantee left rma it asap.

[Wingnutt]

tried different monitor, thats not it

So, the card ram is probably this issue then..  well hopefully after I get better cooling the problem will stop, or at least it will hold out long enough so that I can get the new card when I do the rest of the system in a few months.