Troubleshooting Having A Graphic Problem Please help.

Having A Graphic Problem Please help.

I just bought a new computer on Wednesday, installed TS2, and everything was running smoothly. I was about 5 minutes into the game when I started seeing little purple dots on my Sim's skin. A few minutes later, the graphics just started stretching and distorting. I have a few screenshots of it..







Now it happens all the time, like every 7 seconds. First I see some little dots on some of the textures, then something random (like an object, House, or a Sim) will stretch like that. Here's my system specs:


3.2 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor w/ HT
1GB of RAM
77 GB Hard disk space
nVidia Geforce 6800 GTO 256MB Graphics Card
I think I have the most recent driver (66.93)
DirectX 9.0C
Windows XP

This problem is making the game really unplayable, and I have searched almost everywhere looking for a fix. Help? :(

 

Well, such severe artifacing is certainly... unexpected with such a kick-donkey video card you have there. Does it happen in any other games? Usually, such things are caused by either overclocking the video card beyond tolerance levels and/or the GPU overheating.

Some graphics card manufacturers make video cards overclocked by default. Usually these are the models which ship with larger-than-average cooling systems and the like. Make sure your core clock is set at 400 mhz and memory at 2 x 550 mhz, or 1100 mhz.

If your graphics card has a built-in temperature sensor, ALT-TAB out of the game when artifacts appear to check it. A temperature reading of around 40-60 celsius is good, if the GPU is hotter than 80C, you've got a problem.

However, if you don't have a temperature sensor (only CPU thermometers are standard right now) and you suspect an overheat problem, check the fan on the board. It could be defective. If it appears to be working fine, try opening the case and blowing a fan into it while the game is running and see if things improve at all.

 

Actually the only game I have is TS2. Although I have downloaded some nVidia demos (like Nalu6800 for this card, to see how it would run), and that seems to runs smoothly for a little while, and then some of the hair usually stretches and distorts like that.

This card (and computer) is from Dell, so I'm not sure what they've done to it.. I know this 6800 model is only available through a Dell PC, though..

How do I check my core clock, and temperature levels? --- Actually I just checked my "core slowdown threshold" and it is at 135c. My GPU core temp. says it is at 57c, and my "Ambient temp." is at 45c. Of course I don't know what any of this means, except that it shouldn't get to 135, and it is currently at 57c. I don't know hot to set the core clock, though.

Thanks for the advice, the next time I play the game and the graphics mess up like that (which will more than likely happen..), I'll see what the temperature is at. It probably does have to do with it getting overheated, because the graphics work fine for the first few minutes of gameplay, then it just messes up. What should I do if my temperature is over 80C? Can I buy a new fan for it?

Thanks so much for the response.

EDIT - I am running the game now, and watching the temperature carefully. I've noticed that once the graphics distort, the temperature is around 78-80 degrees c... which isn't good, I'm assuming. Is this the reason for my graphic problems? And if so, is there a solution?
I just keep Alt+Tabbing and letting the temp. go down to around 68 before I continue playing, but I wish there were an easier way..

 

Hmm. Some cards start artifacing at around 80C, some cards can tolerate more - but it does sound like a heat problem. Download Rivatuner and in the main window, go to Driver Settings > System Settings, enable driver-level overclocking, and set Core and Memory to, say, 50 mhz below the default speed. Try this and see if anything improves..

 

Well, she did specifically say the graphics drivers were 66.93...

 

Thanks Josh (btw, long time no see ) but i also tried that nVidia beta driver, I think.

I downloaded the RivaTuner, and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing..I can't seem to find any of the options I'm supposed to use like the Driver settings and system settings...

Edit - Oh, I found it.. Ok, it says my core clock is set at 350Mhz, and my memory is set at 900mhz. Should I put them both to 50Mhz below that?

 

So.. I should buy more fans? I'll probably end up having to bring my computer into somewhere like Circuit City, and have them install it. Are there any specific fans for this card? I was looking at newegg.com and saw some fans for the 6800 Ultra.. would those fit this 6800GTO?

 

A GPU load temp of 45C? You do mean ambient temp, right? 45C load (not idle) is the kind of temperature one gets with watercooled graphics cards.

Anyway, sniffing around some hardware sites and forums, apparently, people have been getting idles of 70+C and loads of 80-100C with the GTO and encountering no problems whatsoever. With the high heat tolerance of this card, you might not want to blame it on overheating just yet. Although it does seem to be the most likely candidate.

Also, a few people have been getting visual artifacts and distorted images by bumping up Vertex and Pixel piplines to 6/16, from the stock 5/12. Since these pipelines are apparently hardware-enabled but software-masked, there's a slight possibility the hidden pipelines were enabled somehow, causing the distortion. I wouldn't count on it though.

Just try downloading 3dMark03 or 3dMark05 off www.futuremark.com. Do all the tests run without distortion or visual artifacts?

 

I just ran the 3dmark05, and about 1 minute into the test, the distortion started happening. The same distortion that happens in TS2. I ran the test again, to get a snapshot of it..



And those little white blotches in the bottom left corner also happen in TS2..

 

25 FPS! I am writhing in envy. Well, perhaps not exactly, considering the problems you have, but my poor system ekes out around 3-5 FPS in that part of the test....

Anyway, one last thing. Run Rivatuner, and open up Hardware Monitoring under Customize... in hardware. This will show a graph of the temperatures of your graphics card. Run 3dMark05 and cancel after severe artifacing starts occurring. Do the temperature and appearance of artifacing correspond with each other? If so, we have a winner.

Also, unless temperatures are going well above 90C and beyond, it's probably a defective card, and as long as you haven't done anything like overclock or physically modify it, eligible for replacement. Remember, adding a fan or heatsink yourself will void warranty.

 

Ok, I did what you said. The Core Temperature is at 78C when the distortion started happening.

So this means I must have a defective card, then?

 

Is there any significance to the fact that the nVidia Geforce 6800 GTO appears to be a PCI ... well, PCIe ... card?

 

Well, it is a PCI Express card..

 

Um, I have no idea what those are, so I'm not sure..