Advice, please - Hardware failing?

[Silent Warrior]

It looks like my X1900 (ATI Radeon X1900XT 512 Mb 2x DVI) is up against the ropes, for some reason... So, I want some second opinion. (And then some.)

 

The problem is that it has had... weird rendering things in OpenGL since sometime during the second half of 2007, seemingly up until the latest driver-release (9.3). I haven't been able to test each and every version, but as I recall it was pretty constant from the beginning through 8.6. And now, with 9.3, DirectX gets hit with this (as seen in FSX - I still haven't tried FC, but I'll do that once I get this posted). To a lesser extent, but still.

 

The OGL-problem is not too easy to describe, but there seems to be a set point in a zone (or it moves with the camera) from which random triangles pop out in slightly epileptic rates. Also, some textures/particles don't seem to render correctly and appear as big white square smears that move around. (Confirmed in NWN 1.69 and latest X-Plane.) Bah, X-Plane, now that's where my problems get to their most spectacular... (Although I guess I should say NWN2 is the real killer - but I've never managed to play it more than 30 minutes without crashing, assuming of course that the module even loads...)

 

The (ONE!) D3D-artifact is to do with text. The text in the message-box (for dealing with MS's ATC) is a little bit garbled, and the background over which the text appears looks a bit garbled too - probably the main symtom. This varies depending on... something. I never did manage to put my finger on it, but there seemed to be three different stages of this 'corruption' - clean (as it should be), shaded, and lit. Changes occasionally between opening and closing the ATC-window. If you've seen it yourself, you'll probably recognise it. If you haven't, I don't dare try to describe it in a different way. :)

 

I don't play any really recent prettified games - exceptions being NWN2 (at least I DID when it didn't crash all the time...) and The Witcher. I think FSX is the most brutal game/sim, though X-Plane seems to get the fan-speed up quickly as well.

 

What's your verdict? Has anyone else using a X1900 seen this?

[CAT_101st]

Pleas post your full system spec. There are many thing that can cause theas problems. one is your card might be gitting to hot. that is usaly whin I see problems with my graphics.

[Pilotasso]

Check you cards cooler for dust balls. If theres none overheating your card then I think it might be nearing the end of its life.

 

Whats your specs and budget for a new card?

Edited May 12, 2009 by Pilotasso

[Silent Warrior]

Hm... Heat is a likely culprit, I'll have to check for that. Any recommendations for checking that through Windows? (I can run FSX windowed, at least, as well as X-Plane.) I haven't been in there much for cleaning... The cooler is of a pretty big variety, though.

As for my budget for new vid-card: Preferably not. (But, you know, needs must, and all that. I get a fat tax-return this year...)

 

[Edit] Forgot to add: I tried FC after a reboot (with that snazzy fake-HDR-mod active), and there was no problem there at all. This is just weird... I mean, it's not as if ATI can horrendously and catastrophically botch a driver for a year and a half.

And I have been investigating options for new vid-card. My favourite place has a number of cheaper and mightier cards with a 0dB-cooler sales-pitch. I like that - I listen to music with a dynamic range, and the noise off the X1900 gets in the way. Still, I'll be damned if I'll make the switch for such a reason.

 

Specs:

Case: Dinky chinese no-name thing

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-E, BIOS v.1202 (or was it called 1201? Not the latest by a long stretch), nForce 570 chipset

CPU: AMD Athlon(64) X2 6400+ BE

RAM: 3 Gb DDR2-667

Videocard: ATI Radeon X1900XT 512 Mb, Catalyst 9.3

Soundcard: Creative Labs Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Music

[i fully expect this to be independent of HDD/CD/DVD-drives and input-thingies.]

Networking: Realtek 8169C

 

[Edit2] Ok, I looked for dust. And BOY was it a rich haul! The opening of the heatsink pointing into the case was nearly covered with dust - maybe it's just me, but it actually seems the system is much quieter even at idle now. I have yet to test it live - some things to stick in various places before I go, but so far so good. AND I also managed to cram a harddrive into where it's supposed to be. Damn CPU-fan getting in the way...

 

[Edit3] Aaaaand all of a sudden X-Plane runs just great. Windowed, Catalyst AI deactivated, a bunch of shader-options turned down or off, but still - artifact-free. Lookin' good, just after 5 seconds vacuum-cleaning!

 

Drat! NWN2 is still down for the count (and I even bought the card with that game in mind)! However, X-Plane is reliable and artifact-free (at least while windowed), FSX seems to be ok, although I still get some rare text-corruption, NWN1 seems to be just fine. But... NWN2... I've spent some good money on that thing, you know, and I wantsss it working again.

 

Some temperature readouts:

Idle: 63C (after boot - isn't that quite high?)

Load: 70-78C (70 normal in X-Plane, 76 in NWN, 76-78 in FSX, NWN2 crashes before I have time to check, but the fan speeds up gloriously when I enter an actual game)

 

14th: There's been a breakthrough. I opened the case and LEFT IT OPEN, gawd, and all of a sudden temperatures dropped by 8-10 degrees across the board (and my room was a few degrees warmer then). New idle-temp is 54C. Now testing NWN2, my X1900-killer...

 

Nope, NWN2 still locks up, and not just a little... Everything else seems to work as intended, though. Except for the slight D3D-artifacts I'm tempted to ascribe to only half-suitable drivers. I want my OpenGL back!

Edited May 14, 2009 by Silent Warrior
Screwed left right and centre...