Probs with pc games

[Stato Dave]

Hey all.

I found this and thought I may be able to find an answer to a problem I've been having when I run certain games.

It's a problem I've had for a fair while now and have already taken my tower back to where I bought it from and they can't even seem to fix the problem. When I play certain games I get these wierd colours and stuff going all over the place which I have been told are called artifacts :confused:

Here's an example of what they look like. (Black and White 2)

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4672/game7se.jpg

Now I've been told that this is cause by the video card overheating. So a little while ago I bought a decent cooling fan for my card and with that I got some little heat sinks for the chipsets. Still no luck. I tried calling the tech support of the place I bought it from and all they say is bring it in and they'll fix it. But I've already done this and they did J S!

It's always done it on Farcry and a few others. I tried getting a screenshot from Farcry but it doesn't want to for some reason. But when I was just playing that, all the "artifacts" showed up. So I minimised the game to see if my screen shot worked. Then I went back in the game and it seemed to go ok. But there has to be more to it then that.

Thanks heaps for any help I get :)

p.s. Sorry if this is the wrong section

[Stato Dave]

Another example

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4778/game20az.jpg

BTW My video card is a Radeon 9800 XT 256m. And it has the latest drivers and also the .net thingo installed. I am also running all the latest versions of each game and that still doesn't fix it :confused:

[i an not a nerd]

Huh, are you using the correct drivers for your vid card? Be sure to download the latest from ATI's website.

Also, did you use any thermal paste when installing the cooler?

[saphalline]

Full system specs please, and give us more detailed info about your cooling scheme.

[paul_]

Yes, that is consistent with a GC overheating. sometimes. If my graphics card overheats, a cool little procram called PowerStrip automatically restarts it. Whether that is the card(X700PRO) or the program, idk. But the app is very useful and you can control almost everything about the card because it takes the place of a standard driver. Download it.

[Stato Dave]

not a nerd: Yes and Yes.

saphalline: specs are... P4 2.8g pentium processor, 800meg FSB, 1g RAM, 256meg Radeon 9800 XT.

Paul. Thanks man. I found another thread from a guy with the same problem. And It really seems to be an overheating problem. Also I've only just noticed that it happens less when the air con is going. Thanks for the advice with that program. I will sus it out.

[saphalline]

What chipset do you have?

I agree that it's most likely an overheating problem. How many fans do you have in your case? And in which direction are they blowing? Modern high-end vid cards put out even more heat than your 9800 XT, so it's best to learn about proper system cooling right now. We went through a boom recently in large amounts of heat being dissipated by gaming PC's. Early P4 systems still had things under control, but ever since the Radeon 9700 and GeForce FX 5800... things have been getting hotter and hotter.

[i an not a nerd]

Ok, like Saph said, make sure that you have decent airflow in your case. It is possible that the place where you got your computer from decided to go cheap and skip out on some case fans.

[Stato Dave]

Thanks heaps for all the advice guys. Much appreciated :)