New graphics card showing graphical glitches

[Schwaa]

i just bought a BFG Geforce7600GS 512mb AGP graphics card, link (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?bfg-76gs5&P=1)

and when i go into the nvidia control panel, and look at the clock frequency settings, i see this:

pic (http://img128.imageshack.us/my.php?image=underclockedul8.jpg)
memory clock frequency should be on 400mhz (to double up to 800mhz)

i just fired up a game (Counter-strike Source) to see if it was ok, but the game freezed the whole system.

my specs:

P4 Northwood 2.4GHz 533mhz FSB
2x512MB DDR-2700 RAM
ECS L4S8A2 motherboard (bios dating back from late 2002 :neutral:)
500W Jeantec PSU

The PC was actually bought from novatech back in Jan2003 (named Entertainer edition)

shall i just use coolbits to force it to be clocked to the settings this card should be on?
or is it my motherboard limiting the default GPU reading, or neither :P?

i've also used the drivers on the BFG CD i got given in the package too, and also offlical BETA nvidia drivers that "finally support 7600GS AGP"

[Taxation]

512MB DDR2 SLI
on AGP,i dont think so

but , you can try and clock it back up using coolbits, and if that doesnt work then it may be a different problem.
does it freeze on other games or just css??

[Schwaa]

well i know it is 512mb anyway, its on the BFG site, maybe the SLI bit was abit of a typing error or something :P http://www.bfgtech.com/7600GS_512.html

i tried "overclocking" it to 300mhz (=600mhz total), but there was alot of empty triangles so i turned it back down. i dare not try it at 400mhz the default for this graphics card

i played SWAT4 and call of duty1(<not exactly GPU intensive) i think it was tried out on when i overclocked it to 300mhz aswell, cant exactly remember the figure, there wasnt any problems i could see.

mabye its the mobo BIOS keeing it down? its a really old BIOS lol

EDIT: also americas army there were some random glicthy vertical lines on the same speeds as when i ran SWAT4 and COD1

[Taxation]

Could it be heat
an old bios wouldnt effect a gfx cards frequencies (as to my knowledge)
Check what the rest of your systems temps are (if possible)
Have you got V-sync enabled or disabled, if it is disabled then it can cause "tearing"

[Schwaa]

i'm sure its not a tearing issue, i just wanna know why the default memory clock frequency is only 250mhz (=550mhz), when it should be 400mhz (=800mhz).

at the moment when writing this my temps for the mobo is 32C, and the CPU is 34C

[Taxation]

whats your gpu temp, it is in the section right by the frequency changer on the gpu dash board.

have you tried another monitor
does this happen with another gfx card

[Schwaa]

at the moment the temp is at 46C, and on load it goes upto about 49/50C, thats when i last checked when playing CSS.

i havent tried another monitor yet, i do have a CRT above me so i might try it out then.

also with another graphics card, i used to have a Leadtek winfast geforce4 ti4200 128MB AGP 8x, worked perfectly.

i OCed the geforce4 slightly and i remember one of the values i kept it at was 550mhz, and at the moment this one is default on 275mhz (=550mhz) but i dont think there is a logical answer for that though.

at the moment i have to card in the computer, i installed nvidia 91.36 drivers (BETA), and i havent touched the clock frequencies, so would the card suffer from empty triangles/glicthy graphics if the card is underclocked like i think it is? if i OC it to the value it should be it would overkill the card i would imagine :/

[Nox]

i'm sure its not a tearing issue, i just wanna know why the default memory clock frequency is only 250mhz (=550mhz), when it should be 400mhz (=800mhz).


You sure its not meant to be 200Mhz (=400Mhz) ? My bfg card was out very slightly wehen I got it - but we are talking underclocked by 25 Mhz only.

Nox

[Coops]

I am little confused as to what the problem is.

I have looked at the picture you have provided.

Your core clock is set to 420Mhz. This is correct according to what BFG have said about the card. This is an overclocked version from BFG. Standard Core clock for 7600 is 400Mhz. BFG have upped this to 420Mhz.
Going by your picture. Your Clock is correct.

The Memory clock is set to 275Mhz. This is also correct. This 275Mhz represents the true FSB of the memory. However because it is DDR the same principle applies that does to PC RAM. DDR is dual data rate so in effect we see an effective rate of 550mhz. So the fact that the memory clock is set to 275mhz is also correct.

If you were to push this to 400 as you suggested you card would probably fail dramatically.

I believe you may be confused with the 400mhz speed of the RAMDAC. this has nothing to do with memory clock speed.
a RAMDAC or random access memory digital-to-analog converter is a part of the VGA chipset and consists of a small piece of RAM and Digital to analog convertor and does exactly what it says on the tin. It is the part of the Graphics card designed to process and handle the conversion of Digital VGA signal in to Analog and vice versa. Remember most modern graphics cards contain both analog and digital outputs. This is what RAMDACS are for and the 400mhz part is just the speed of the DAC Chip.

Does this help?

As for the tearing issue. This could be a Driver Issue, BIOS Issue, Particular software issue or a Faulty card. Please update your Driver, BIOS and Software and if still having problems, we may need to replace the card. You have got the internal power connector fitted to the card from your PSU??
Your temp should be ok for this card.

[Schwaa]

you must be correct about the whole problem of the frezuencies, they must be all ok then, whoops lol.

I have aplied the latest drivers from nvidia, and ones on the CD too and also the BETA ones that support this card, i will try to update the BIOS (hopefully goes smooth), and what do you mean by software as such?

And yes i do have a internal power connector fitted to the card, from a 500W Jeantec PSU.

i could provide you with screenshots as to the graphical glitches if you can analyse what the problem is with them, cause when you say the term "tearing" i dont think its the problem that i am refering too, but hey, i'm the one who was wrong about the problem in the first palce :P

[Coops]

If you can do screen shots that would be cool that way we can see exactly what you are refering to.

OK it looks like drivers are not an issue.

Mainboard BIOS would be good if you can, but only do this if you are confident as doing this incorrectly can render board not usable. Please follow BIOS flashing procedure very carefully and make sure it is right BIOS file for your board.

OK, had to ask about the power connector, sometimes people forget =)

[Coops]

Software could simply be an issue with the game itself. Please make sure that you have applied all avaliable patches for your game that way we can eliminate the software as being the cause of the problem.

Just in case its a glitch in the game code. =)

[Schwaa]

ok i will fire up some games, and get some pics of the problems.

the games (apart from battlefield 2, only got the demo at the moment installed though) used to work fine with my geforce4 in such that there were no graphical issues just the card wasnt strong enough to cope with the graphics especially i use a highish resolution of 1280x1024 with my TFT.

but saying that i assume that the glitching in the game code can differ from card to card

[Schwaa]

well i'm back with screenshots of the problems

drivers: NVIDIA 91.31 (provided by the BFG CD)

Battlefield 2 Demo only:

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1733/snag0006qb4.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2346/snag0007fm5.jpg

Americas Army (latest version):

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/2315/snag0005ho8.png
http://img426.imageshack.us/img426/8434/snag0008ib1.png

Counterstrike: Source:

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/9008/hl22006081717113864editedvm2.jpg
http://img430.imageshack.us/img430/7277/hl22006081717121828editedna2.jpg
http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/9334/hl22006081717123878editedfq2.jpg

Red Orchestra (Steam):

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4205/snag0010jo0.jpg
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/5074/snag0013sn2.jpg
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/795/snag0014kb4.jpg

note: both americas army and red orchestra use the unreal game engine

Problem looks similar from game to game?

[Chewie]

Umcan we have a clarification on just which card you have purchased.

This is your mobo http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/rou ... is648.html (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/roundupmobo/ecs-l4s8a2-sis648.html) which is an AGP based one.

The link you provided for the VGA card, i severly doubt you have one of those (or rather that one in particular) because (and i spoke with dan on the desk this morning because i almost recommended that for a mate) that card is in the wrong place, its a PCI-e card thats ended up in the AGP section (Danno, COOPs, you need to get that amended guys). The only 7600Gs novatech currently have listed for AGP is not due to arrive till the 28th of august (again, Dan at sales confirmed this)

As to the problems you are having, those are rendering issues, somewhere the information is getting corrupted and therefore parts of the screen is not being rendered. Wonder if the game or card are not happy with each other, per se, and its causing the problems.

Very odd, can only think, have you donea complete wipe of the drivers each time using a util such as drivercleaner? in case the install procees for the drivers is at fault.

[Schwaa]

Umcan we have a clarification on just which card you have purchased.


this one?

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/3394/p1010076ub2.jpg


Very odd, can only think, have you donea complete wipe of the drivers each time using a util such as drivercleaner? in case the install procees for the drivers is at fault.

yup, i've used Driver Cleaner numerous times when trying to fix this problem.


The link you provided for the VGA card, i severly doubt you have one of those (or rather that one in particular) because (and i spoke with dan on the desk this morning because i almost recommended that for a mate) that card is in the wrong place, its a PCI-e card thats ended up in the AGP section (Danno, COOPs, you need to get that amended guys). The only 7600Gs novatech currently have listed for AGP is not due to arrive till the 28th of august (again, Dan at sales confirmed this)


i thought a PCI-E card wouldnt physically fit into a AGP port, but i have never tried it.


The link below is the latest BIOS versions for my motherboard:
[http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?DetailID=35&DetailName=BIOS&DetailDesc=L4S8A2(V1.0)&MenuID=35&LanID=8]

will a BIOS flash resolve my problem, as it seems that it wont in the descriptions?

[Chewie]

Cheers Schwaa

Yep, a PCI-e card wont go in an AGP slot. Cards cosher so won't question that again. I only questioned it as the description mixes it up giving details that you'd find only on a PCI-e card (SLI for instance)

Have you had any other faults since this card was installed?

If it is the card thats at fault, the only way i can currently think of checkin it is to stick it in another pc, and running the same games. Can you arrange that at all?

[Schwaa]

Have you had any other faults since this card was installed?


umm, the display seemed abit blurry such as the desktop and when on webpages you could see it. But i went into the nvidia control panel and turned up the "image sharpness" so now its ok.


f it is the card thats at fault, the only way i can currently think of checkin it is to stick it in another pc, and running the same games. Can you arrange that at all?

Yeah i'm sure i can test on my mates PCs, will try to do that as soon as i can.


there was something that looked like the problem was going to be solved, what i done was changed the AGP aperture from 128MB to 64MB, i fired up the first game, counterstrike-source, it looked like all the of the rendering issues had gone, apart from a few brief flashing of "empty screen segments."
But when i quit the game and started up Battlefield 2 Demo, i suffered rendering issues again. Rebooted the PC tried BF2 demo again, no rendering problems :? (even minimizing BF2 demo caused it to come back)

it seems to be after i reboot the pc and try a game, there is either none/hadly any rendering problems occuring, till i quit the game and try it again or try another game.

it seemed i was getting closer to the solution, but not quite. i was thinking about setting AGP aperture to 32MB, but didnt think it was wise.

[Taxation]

is AGP fast write on or off??

[Schwaa]

erm, i just checked and it isnt :shock:

i enabled it last time, but i;ve reinstalled the drivers countless times since and it seems it has turned itself off

[Nox]

The product info on the novatek site states it has 800Mhz memory clock speed:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... -76gs5&P=1 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?bfg-76gs5&P=1)

I imagine this is a) wrong and b) where the problem lies.

Took a quick look on the bfg site, and could not see the speed it should be, but 550 (275x2) sounds about right to me.

Nox

[Schwaa]

yes that is correct, just trying to find out why i am getting these graphical problems

[UK_MADMONSTA]

I was getting the same glitches with my 6600GT see link http://forum.novatech.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... sc&start=0 (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=411&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) it was only solved by using a realy old driver 67.03. Its worth a try