Bad Vid Card?

[Orruar]

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2285/eqvidcard.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/683/eqvidcard.jpg/)

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After playing for some time, the graphics will go buck wild. The textures get all screwed up (notice the block of spell icons on the side of a hill). Note that mobs, pets and players all show up normally, with no texture craziness. If I continue for much longer after this happens, the entire machine freezes up and I have to do a hard reboot. This only happens while playing EQ, though I don't use this computer for much else.

This started a few months back and I read at the time that it may be heat related. The fan works fine, so I cleaned out the vid card real well at the time, and the problem went away for a few weeks. Problem cropped again and cleaning has not helped at all. I have also updated to the latest nVidia drivers. So is this just a bad card, or is there something else at work here?

Card is a GeForce 8800 GT, about 3 years old.

[Koota]

Notice any other issues after running your computer for awhile? Or is this the only problem that you see popping up? It's possible that the card is on it's last leg if you do in fact have current drivers both for the card, but also DirectX.

What OS are you running? Vista?

[Orruar]

Nope, no other problems occur with other programs, though I don't really do anything else graphics intensive. I do a lot of data processing for school, and no problems there.

I'm on Windows XP, running directX 9.0c. I'll try upgrading my DirectX and go from there.

[Orruar]

Nevermind, apparently 9.0c is the latest version that can run on XP.

[Koota]

So you've figured it out?

[Orruar]

No, I have the latest versions of DirectX and drivers, so still not sure.

[Koota]

It looks like just some of your graphics are being effected based on the screenshot. I would venture to say try re-installing Titanium, and my second guess would be to update the graphics card itself.

[Rogean]

This has happened to me before on older computers when I ran out of video memory.

[Orruar]

This has happened to me before on older computers when I ran out of video memory.

With my card having 512MB, I'm not sure this is the problem. I know the high end cards these days have 1GB or even 2GB, but is this much really necessary for EQ?

I may try to reinstall the Titanium client later today.

[Taryth]

My brother had similar issues with his 8800 GTX, though that was when he was playing EQ2 years ago. Artifacts, textures (such as spell icons/gems) mismatched; strobing or flashing rainbows etc.

His card burned out about one month after initial onset of the artifacting. Do you get random polygons flashing around the screen, or is it only textures?

[Orruar]

I get some random flashing occasionally.

If I were to buy a new vid card, any of you have suggestions on quality cards?

[Taryth]

I'm gonna assume you have at least a 500w psu if you had an 8800, so you're only really limited by how much you want to spend, and what features you want. If all you're doing is playing EQ, and don't care about enabling higher graphics details on more intensive games, I'd suggest a humble HD 5570 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102874&cm_re=HD_5570-_-14-102-874-_-Product). I hate overspending on components when you don't need the extra power. Anyway, that card will run most MMOs decently and wont cost you much.

If you actually do more than EQ, internet, and other basic stuff, what is it? That would help with recommendations.

[Orruar]

Yeah, have a 650W PSU, so an underpowered vid card wasn't the problem. I went ahead and got a GeForce 550Ti. Probably way more power than I need, but it was pretty cheap and I may need that power if they ever come out with a decent MMO.

Been on for 15 min now with no flashing or bugged textures, so it would appear that the old vid card was on its last legs. Thanks for your help all.