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View Full Version : Shimmering? Something New? Driving me Nutz.

shadus
10-24-05, 08:20 PM
I've looked at a few of the shimmering posts and I can't see the problem I'm having in them, although it may well be the same problem or related. I get it in "most games".

In EQ2 I get it in models and underwater
In WOW I get it, well everywhere.
In America's Army I get it on the ground on odd shaped bits of ground
etc.

Here's some pics of what it's doing. It flickers around the screen, and it may be what people are describing as shimmer but I don't think so...

I did manage to get it to "partially" go away in WOW by turning off the pixel shader, then instead of being green it was like thousands of shadows flickering.

Still driving me nuts, didn't start having this problem until I got the pny nv6600gt, my older nvidia was fine (there was a full reformat between the change in cards.) Also I'm running an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe board and an amd 3500+ processor. Sometimes rebooting fixes it, sometimes reloading a driver fixes it, sometimes changing to windowed mode fixes it, sometimes change out of windowed mode fixes it... seems pretty frickin random, but regardless its driving me nuts.

Suggestions? Things to search for to get more info?

I attached 2 pics from wow demonstrating "mild" and "severe" and a couple pics from EQ2 also. Mind this isn't static in one spot this jumps all over the place and flickers in and out constantly. The WOW pics show it better and show the "other color" than the green that flickers too... weird eh?

Edit: Oh yah, ran drivercleaner, reinstalled mobo drivers, reinstalled directx, reinstall gfx drivers, reinstalled games... pretty much everything at one point or another. Currently running drivers 81.85... happened with previous 3 versions of drivers though.
DJB
10-24-05, 08:26 PM
you dont mention the clock speeds you are running.
That artifacting looks like it is from overclocking. If you are not overclocking then I submit that the heatsink is not making good contact with the GPU.

DJB
Clay
10-24-05, 08:27 PM
Your screenshots are not of shimmering (shimmering can only be seen when moving). Those screenshots indicate something wrong with either your memory (most likely) or your GPU. The cause of this could just be heat (are you overclocking?) or it could be faulty hardware. I'd start with assuming that heat is the cause. If you're overclocking, bring everything back to default speeds. If you still have problems then check your heat sink/fan and make sure they appear to be making good solid contact with your card. Also check for dust buildup anywhere, even in your case.
shadus
10-24-05, 08:29 PM
you dont mention the clock speeds you are running...<SNIP>...DJB

Stock speeds, ive never messed with it, had it performed well and not had artifacts I'd probally have tweaked it around a bit, but not in the state it's in... you maybe right... but i *really* hope not.
einstein_314
10-24-05, 08:36 PM
Yeah, it looks like artifacting from overclocked memory to me. I'd check to make sure the heatsinks are in contact with the ram and the gpu. Are there any games or 3d apps that this doesn't happen in? Looks to me like you're going to have to return it for a new one.
shadus
10-24-05, 08:59 PM
Your screenshots are not...<SNIP>...memory (most likely) or your GPU...<SNIP>...

No OC at all. Ug... Fans in the case all work peachy and it's presently running at... 48c (CPU) 43c (MB) 56c (GPU) and while running a game for 5 minutes (WOW) it hits... 54c (CPU) 45c (MB) 78c (GPU).
shadus
10-24-05, 09:00 PM
Yeah, it looks like artifacting from overclocked memory to me. I'd check to make sure the heatsinks are in contact with the ram and the gpu. Are there any games or 3d apps that this doesn't happen in? Looks to me like you're going to have to return it for a new one.

:(

Unfortunetely, due to a move since this thing was built I don't even have the box anymore, nor receipt, nor pretty much anything. Bleh. Well I've always wanted to dismantle a video card and put custom heat sinks on it > : )

Time for a new card i suppose. /sigh
Gentle
10-24-05, 09:18 PM
One way to try to identify the problem is to underclock the memory and see if the problem goes away.

Gentle
shadus
10-24-05, 09:43 PM
One way to try to identify the problem is to underclock the memory and see if the problem goes away. Gentle

Bleh, that took a while, heh forgot how to even get to the nv panel that lets you tweak your speeds... haven't done that since my ti-500 :P

Dropped the speeds back about 10% on both cpu and memory and it seems to be playing "nice" now... have to keep an eye on it, i really hope that was it.

It's at 500/1000 right now.
TierMann
10-24-05, 09:58 PM
Underclocking isn't fix though, it's just to help find the problem. If it's running ok and gets you into windows then that's good, but the hardware is still faulty. If it won't run at stock speeds for you I would send it back or give PNY a call. Your temps seem "ok" but not great. My 6800gt doesn't like to sit in the 80's for too long so you could try a good cleaning too.

Other things you can try though are older drivers like 78.03 or 78.05 because some people were getting strange corruption with the 8x drivers. If you're not using SLI or dual cores then there shouldn't be too much of a performance change. But you said it did it with previous drivers so I don't know which versions you've tried.
shadus
10-25-05, 12:46 PM
Underclocking isn't fix though...<SNIP>...previous drivers so I don't know which versions you've tried.

I know the original series of drivers was in the 7x range, but I'm not sure exact version any more. As long as it runs at these speeds I'll deal with it. This card was going to be pushed down to one of the kids older machines (replacing an onboard nforce2) when I upgrade, so I *really* don't want to upgrade without being able to push the card down the line.
Clay
10-25-05, 01:05 PM
I know the original series of drivers was in the 7x range, but I'm not sure exact version any more. As long as it runs at these speeds I'll deal with it. This card was going to be pushed down to one of the kids older machines (replacing an onboard nforce2) when I upgrade, so I *really* don't want to upgrade without being able to push the card down the line.
What is the motherboard and CPU in this system? I ask because depending on that you may not be losing much performance at all by downclocking this card.