Tsunami Gaming

Posted: **September 21st, 2011, 9:40 pm**

This is to continue the conversation I was having with BadFishy on teamspeak....

Here are my system specs. Overall, the system seems to run pretty smooth. But every once and awhile (especially in more demanding situations) I get "tearing". I hope I'm using the right word (you can't take a SS of it, unfortunately) ... but basically it's like random objects/textures flickering on the screen.

I really want to figure this out so I can utilize the full power of my system.

Spoiler: show

The monitor is a Nokia 445 Pro. Currently set to 60Hz since anything higher it acts strange (I think it got damaged during my move) -- kinda like a permanent degaus/vibration. I'm running 1600x1200 resolution.

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 2:07 am**

Tearing is when the monitor switches frames halfway through drawing and is usually associated with a horizontal 'tear' across the display where old and new frames dont line up, so vertical lines that should be straight look like;

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If this isn't what your seeing then its not tearing and the term graphical corruption would probably be more approriate.

(Just trying to clarify the situation to avoid people giving advice to fix tearing if its not actually tearing)

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 10:03 am**

Yeah, I read something similar. And based on the definition/explanation you just provided: it's not tearing.

I've found a video that I made with Fraps of the problem (attached):

Crysis-Problems-1.wmv: (3.14 MiB) Downloaded 11419 times

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 11:39 am**

Well if you can fraps it then that rules out the monitor completely, meaning that the GPU itself is outputting dodgy frames... could be caused by drivers, overheating or a dodgy GPU... if updating drivers doesn't help and the PC is not running hot then I would RMA the GPU as faulty.

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 12:00 pm**

How common is it for a brand new GPU to be faulty? I've only had this about a year and it was a brand new one.

Also: what do you recommend for measuring the temperature? BadFishy gave me a few suggestions yesterday. Curious what yours would be.

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 12:22 pm**

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/nvidia_s ... 06_uk.html

As for failure rates for GPUs... typically very low, but there's always going to be some and somebody has to be the one who ends up buying them. Even if you RMA it and the new one still doesnt work at least you have an almost brand new card you can flog on ebay to raise funds for a shiny new one... a 1 month old card will sell for more than a 1 year old one

EDIT: You could also try underclocking it to see if that improves its stability....

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 6:54 pm**

a few questions

does this happen on other games to you?
does it happen to other people on this game?
is there a patch out for the game?
is your CD scratched?
have you tried uninstalling the game and reinstalling it?

basically are you sure its a problem on your side and not some type of coding glitch that keeps something from loading?
i know ive had issues like that with GTA 3 (mind you this is the PS2 version) where things wouldnt load but my CD looked like my cat used it as a scratching post and that was causing a lot of the problem

Posted: **September 22nd, 2011, 6:56 pm**

Yeah it seems pretty consistent (when I do heavy gaming at least).

Posted: **September 25th, 2011, 3:59 pm**

Id go with a faulty GPU.

This isn't common as mentioned above, but, it has happened to me. Looked very similar to what you have going on there.

Posted: **September 26th, 2011, 3:52 am**

Wonderful. -_-

Is it possible that a heating issue could have the same effect? I only have 2 case fans in this machine, which is way less than what it should have (quad core, full atx case, 750W PSU, PCI slot soundcard/soundblaster, and this 9800GTX+).

Posted: **September 26th, 2011, 4:06 am**

Yes, an overheated GPU can also cause artifacts like that, did you try checking the GPU temp when these issues are happening using the NVIDIA system tools (or other software of your choice) as suggested?

Although, if you have been overheating your GPU enough to cause artifacts regularly you've probably severely shortened its useful lifetime anyway.

EDIT;
If it is indeed overheating then a stop gap solution until you can improve the cooling would be to underclock the GPU, as I suggested earlier in the topic. I am fairly certain the NVIDIA system tools will allow you to do that with your GPU. If not you should be able to do it with nTune.

EDIT 2;
750W power supply is overkill for a single processor single GPU system, I run my AMD Phenom II X2 and 9600GT on a 450W PSU and even that is probably more than it really needs. People tend to really over-estimate their power supply needs these days....

Based on a quick calculation on http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp assuming high end motherboard, 2 spinning hard drives, 2 dvd drives and a 3ghz intel core 2 quad CPU along with your 9800GTX you only really need 396w, so a 450W PSU would be more than sufficient and would probably generate less heat. You could have spent the extra you paid for 300 extra watts to get a high-efficiency 450W PSU.

Just FYI.

Posted: **September 26th, 2011, 5:34 am**

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814162058

Sean after rebate you should have this card running you well for a bit.

Posted: **September 26th, 2011, 5:58 am**

Not going to help if the problem is overheating since the new card would also probably end up overheating if the cooling is not improved. Try running the pc on its side with the cover removed to let some heat out to see if that helps :p

Posted: **September 26th, 2011, 6:35 am**

From talking with him I dont belive its a overheat issue but a gpu issue. Cards go bad it happends its a cheap alternative.

Posted: **September 27th, 2011, 9:24 am**

The 9800 series of nvidia graphics cards all run very hot. I had the regular GT version of the same card and it consistently overheated. The GTX version may or may not have the dame issue but I would be whiling to bet it does.

Tsunami Gaming

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