Artifact question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Borrall Wonnell
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Borrall Wonnell

Hi all,

Just upgraded to a 9600XT. You don't want to know what I was using
before.
Anyway, I decided to get Half-Life 2, since the card *should* support
it nicely.
Running on an AthlonXP 1800+ with 512MB DDR333 at 2-3-3-6.

I am getting artifacts that sometimes make the game unplayable (or at
least very unenjoyable). They appear as long "bands" of colour,
apparently extending for an infinite distance. Also, I am sometimes
seeing "triangles" that don't belong...presumably this is a polygon
that hasn't had texture applied properly. In one instance, I walked up
to one of these triangles and saw a white rectangular screen inside
that indicated 50% reflectivity. Bizarre.

I have only been running at 800x600, with moderate settings (No AA,
AF). I used all the "recommended" settings that the game suggests, and
tried going down to bare minimum.

Questions:
1) Is there a proper terminology for these types of visual artifacts?
2) Is there any way to prevent them from appearing?
3) Has anyone else experienced these in HL2?

Cheers,
Dave
 
They appear as long "bands" of colour,
apparently extending for an infinite distance.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a dx9/driver issue. You might want to try reinstalling dx9.0c
then the latest drivers from ATI to at least rule this out of the
equation.

Andrew McP
 
Borrall Wonnell said:
Hi all,

Just upgraded to a 9600XT. You don't want to know what I was using
before.
Anyway, I decided to get Half-Life 2, since the card *should* support
it nicely.
Running on an AthlonXP 1800+ with 512MB DDR333 at 2-3-3-6.

I am getting artifacts that sometimes make the game unplayable (or at
least very unenjoyable). They appear as long "bands" of colour,
apparently extending for an infinite distance. Also, I am sometimes
seeing "triangles" that don't belong...presumably this is a polygon
that hasn't had texture applied properly. In one instance, I walked up
to one of these triangles and saw a white rectangular screen inside
that indicated 50% reflectivity. Bizarre.

I have only been running at 800x600, with moderate settings (No AA,
AF). I used all the "recommended" settings that the game suggests, and
tried going down to bare minimum.

Questions:
1) Is there a proper terminology for these types of visual artifacts?
2) Is there any way to prevent them from appearing?
3) Has anyone else experienced these in HL2?

Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...

I've seen this issue with my 9700 and cured it by doing one of 2 things -
turning off Catalyst AI and reducing the overclock on my card. Try the 4.12
omegadrivers
http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=Files&go=cat&dwn_cat_id=14 and disable
the AI function - see how you get on. Also you need to make sure you have
decent cooling in your case as that card runs at high clock speeds and
fairly hot as a result.
 
Is you old power supply up to the new Video card? I had to replace mine when
I went to the 9800 pro. I had the same thing but much worse.

Randy
 
Andrew said:
Sounds like a dx9/driver issue. You might want to try reinstalling dx9.0c
then the latest drivers from ATI to at least rule this out of the
equation.
Click to expand...

This isn't the problem (unless the latest ATI Catalyst drivers are at
fault).
I have (had) a fresh install of Windows XP SP2 with all relevant
updates (and DX 9.0c).
Catalyst version 3.10

Someone else mentioned using a different driver...I will try this first
before anything else.

Also, my power supply *is* somewhat suspect. I'm not sure of the
wattage, but it's no more than 350W (possibly as low as 300). To make
things worse, it's a generic supply. I ran some diagnostics and all of
the rails are slightly low (e.g. 4.8V instead of 5V), except for the
12V rail which is actually running over 13V. Bad news, but I didn't
suspect that this would cause artifacts on screen....

Thanks to all who responded...at least I've got something to test!
Dave
 
Also, my power supply *is* somewhat suspect.
Click to expand...

Often people worry about power supplies with little real reason. However
to rule this out you might want to try *underclocking* your card using
atitool. http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

I run my 9800se at 200/200 for desktop work and crank it up to way over
spec for gaming (420/360). Go too low and you can crash the vid card
(requiring a reboot) but something like 200/200 might stop your card
pulling too much power or overheating (if that's part of the cause).
It's not a solution, but it might help your diagnostics.

Andrew McP
 
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