This is a thread my friend started on hardforum.com for me.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=986388

I'm waiting activation on that site, but I figure maybe somebody from here could help me. Ever since I put the card in I've been getting random artifacts every now and then. When I run ATI tool sometimes on default it gives me artifacts, so I underclock it. Then underclocking gives me artifacts, so I set it to default.

Right now i have it barely overclocked, and I haven't gotten any artifacts.

Specs are
Pentium 4 1.8 ghz (dunno the FSB)
Dell OEM mobo.
512 SSDRAM
just upgraded from my friend to a 450w PSU (old was 250w)
and now the 6600 GT AGP 128 Meg.


I just played black and white 2 and I can run the game on high with no AA and I don't get any artifacts.
Then I play LFS and I get minors ones every 20 seconds or so.
Then I tried battlefield 2 demo, and it just flat out crashes on me, but I think that might just be my RAM.

Please help This is driving me horribly mad

Okay.........so now OC gives me artifacts, and I now have it horribly underclocked.
AWESOME. Defective card you think?

Have you uninstall the ATI drivers ? Maybe it's from there, I also have a 6600GT AGP 128 Mo and it runs good, no o/v yet.
If you have uninstalled them, maybe it is a defective card, but I am not sure 100% that is a defective card, so wait for others' answers

ati tool and a Nvidia geforce doesnt sound like a good combo to me.
suggest u remove atitool ,remove your video drivers, reboot
install new drivers and test again
if your problem stays try downloading coolbits (official nvidia clocking tool,found here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815) and underclock (so lower then standard..not just lower then your current overclock) both core and mem by about 5%

If that doesnt help either.. ease up your systemmemory timings in your bios and underclock your processor also (this is assuming u dont simply have a heatproblem or similar gremlin) and try again

Overclocking often kills graficcard's memory... resulting in a dead card, or if u are "lucky", artifacts.


If u do find the fault, try and slowly, 1step at a time, go higher up till u reach the point where u get artifacts again ,then back 1 step down et voila u shouldnt have any artifacts anymore

Quote from Noccy :

ati tool and a Nvidia geforce doesnt sound like a good combo to me.
suggest u remove atitool ,remove your video drivers, reboot
install new drivers and test again
if your problem stays try downloading coolbits (official nvidia clocking tool,found here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815) and underclock (so lower then standard..not just lower then your current overclock) both core and mem by about 5%

If that doesnt help either.. ease up your systemmemory timings in your bios and underclock your processor also (this is assuming u dont simply have a heatproblem or similar gremlin) and try again

Overclocking often kills graficcard's memory... resulting in a dead card, or if u are "lucky", artifacts.


If u do find the fault, try and slowly, 1step at a time, go higher up till u reach the point where u get artifacts again ,then back 1 step down et voila u shouldnt have any artifacts anymore

Thanks for the quick response. I uninstalled all the drivers but I guess they are still there? I'm gonna run drivercleaner 3 right now. I'll report back in a bit. Keep the suggestions coming, because I really don't feel like sending this thing back.

Yeah thanks man, that did the trick. Card runs good now. Medium settings in BF2 Seriously, thank you

It turns out there were 10 files from my old drivers that still existed in my system32 folder. Go figure

Errmm... can I just say one thing.

BOTTLE NECKED!

The proc and ram will bottle neck your card no end. You'll never be able to let it get a full run because your PC hasn't got the power to run it to it's fullest.

Besides upgrading, any way I could fix that?

Nope, i have a 6600GT, with a AMD Athlon 64 3200+. I still have a bottleneck, but i run BF2 on high settings, and i play LFS at 1600x1200. I would deffinetly up the CPU if ur mobo isnt outta date.