Curse

ithil · Jun 21, 2006, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Hi, I seem to have a strange problem to which i cannot find an answer so i m hopping you guys have this answer.

I recently changed my motherboard for a K8MM3 ( the old one was dead), and now when i play GW with this new MB and my GF 5900 XT I happen to have random goemetrical shapes ( ligne, triangle, rectangle, anything you can imagine) appearing on my screen, and disapearing the next second.

I though my graphical card had some problems so i trade it for a ATI 9600 pro of a friend. My friend tried my card on his PC , it works great, and i tried his card on mine, no more graphical artefact.

Considering i had to change my CG i bought a GF 6800GT, and here comes the same graphical artefact again.

I tried a 3D MARK01 and during test number 13 ( DOT3 Bump MAPPING) the graphical artefacts appeared.
I also tried many games with my new GF 6800 GT and every games works fine, only GW give me those strange graphical artefacts.Even oblivion works, and i dare think there is some bump mapping in Oblivion (High quality).

I also tried an ATI 9550, and no artefact.
I also tried like 10 different drivers for my GF 6800GT (including some non officials), but with no luck.
The conclusion to which i m going is some kind of incompatibility beetween my K8MM3, any GF , and GW (but only GW, here is the strange thing).

So i'd like to know if anyone happend to have a similar difficulty, and solved it.
Thank you.

Kyosuke · Jun 21, 2006, 02:30 PM // 14:30

www.nvidia.com <-- go there go to drivers, go download the latest "nForce" drivers, install them
then download the latest graphics drivers, install them.

this should fix your probem more than likely.

ithil · Jun 21, 2006, 04:55 PM // 16:55

My mother board is not nforce based.
Although I reinstalled all last drivers for my MB ( via MSI live update), last video drivers too, artefacts still there (less of them it seems but still there).

Kyosuke · Jun 21, 2006, 06:13 PM // 18:13

MSI drivers are irrelevant in this situaion. they typically have little and/or no effect on your video like that.

What chipset does your mobo use if not nForce?

Kyosuke · Jun 21, 2006, 06:24 PM // 18:24

ok, did a bit of quick research.

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

Go to that link. Select your OS. Then you want to download/install the latest chipset/platform drivers. -- this Should fix the problem if you have the latest nvidia graphics driver for your card.

Also, you might want to make sure the integrated graphics is disabled on your mobo. it shouldn't be causing the issue, but there's always that small chance.

ithil · Jun 21, 2006, 06:51 PM // 18:51

First of all thank you for your answers kyosuke.
I did try the viaarena thing yesterday, did not change a thing. Just to be sure i retried it, i now have latest driver for my MB ( from viaarena) and latest driver for my GC ( nvidia 84.21).
And artefacts are still there..

Concerning disabling the integrated video, i though of that but i don't how to do, can u explain me how to ( is it on the bios or on xp?), sorry for the noob question

.

Mustache Mayhem · Jun 21, 2006, 07:22 PM // 19:22

on boot during post hit delete.. there's quite a few settings you can tweak- set your agp aperture size to match your video cards memory.. onboard video switch will be in the bios too unless it's really ancient- then it'll be a jumper on the mb.. probably play with the bios some might help

Kyosuke · Jun 21, 2006, 07:23 PM // 19:23

before i say/do anything else can you attach a copy of a DXDIAG report for me?

ithil · Jun 21, 2006, 08:09 PM // 20:09

Here is the dx diag report you asked.

Concerning bios, i already settled AGP aperture size to match my GC ( 256).
On the other hand i could not find the "disable onboard graphic" on my bios, I'll go take another look to be sure.

Kaguya · Jun 21, 2006, 08:55 PM // 20:55

Um.. I suppose you could try disabling Fast Writes, my GF6800GT had some jerky performance when FW was enabled, and my friend keeps chanting that FW doesn't always work as supposed.

The setting should be somewhere in BIOS.

ithil · Jun 21, 2006, 09:00 PM // 21:00

Actually fast write DO help my graphic card, without it I get crapy performance.

For example i tried Oblivion without and with fastwrite, and belive me i saw the difference (did the test again to be sure).

Tried GW with and without fastwrite and it seems to run a bit better without it, but my little artefact problem is still there.

Kyosuke · Jun 21, 2006, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Well, the issue is somewhere in the installation/software. Pinpointing where is a bitch though.

This would be an easier case if it was an nVidia card on an nVidia chipset... but since it's an nVidia card on basically an ATI type chipset it's all iffy.

Do you have CS 1.6 and CS:Source by chance? I know you said you checked other games, but those 2 games specifically are good testers to see if it's just GW giving this type of thing or other programs. They will show off extras in your graphics that you don't want there usually. I've seen many times where you only get this issue on 1 game and everything else works great (or so you think)

Also, have you tried tweaking your GW settings as far as graphics go? It's a possibility that they're set too high for what your CPU can handle. Of course you've got a nice machine there, but it is possible that the lacking in Ram for such a powerful machine might be causing little blips.

I'm going to stick with my gut though for now and say this is a software related issue.

I also want you to check one more thing for me. Go to your video display properties for your 6800GT and make sure according to windows it's running as AGP 8x and not PCI or something else.

ithil · Jun 22, 2006, 12:01 AM // 00:01

Well you were right for CSS source, at first it worked fine but after a few games, the artefacts started to appear (not as many as on GW though).

Concerning graphic setting under GW I tried to lower them ( first thing I did I think) but no change... ( I usually have 1Go of Ram, but when I did the dxdiag I just had given 512 to a friend who needed it, but all my test were done with 1Go).
I don't know if it's revelant but I played Hitman 4 for like 2h ( high settings) and everything was fine.

Last: sandra 2007 confirm that i m using my card on AGP 8X (confirm by windows on : properties->advanced->6800GT)

I fell like I'll have to buy an new GC ( or Mobo, which is less expensive).

Kyosuke · Jun 22, 2006, 03:08 AM // 03:08

Well, here's what I would do.
I would e-mail your graphics card manufacturer (not nVidia, but the one who produced the card). Tell them exactly what happens, but explain to them what you have done already as far as upgrading drivers/software components as well. Also be sure to send them a copy of that DxDiag report. They should be able to better help you than I can on this end. While I could help more efficient on a nForce based mobo, I don't know the final resolution on one that's not. For now that's the best advice I can give you. It is a Fixable problem, but am not sure that last step you need to take. But guaranteed it is a Software/settings problem and not hardware. Your hardware should be fine.