Radeon HD 2600XT trouble

Hi folks.

I have just installed Vista x64 with a Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, and I am experiencing graphics corruption in, particularly in 3d apps.

I sometimes get white horizontal lines across the screen and sometimes white blocks. In some 3d apps portions of the environment flicker out... they seem to disappear and I can see what is behind whatever object has disappeared momentarily.

Using Catalyst I can see that the graphics card never breaks 40% GPU utilization and the temperature never exceeds 40 degrees C.

I also had a very low end Nvidia 7500LE using the generic windows driver which also had the white lines, but I never tested the 3d apps with it.

Currently, if using the 8.2 ATI drivers, all seems well until I launch a 3d app. I have a 500 watt power supply.

Any ideas? If other folks are using a 2600XT, can you tell me what driver version works for you?

-geoff

That's interesting. I've got 2 of those cards in Crossfire mode. I get the little blocks from time to time in COD4, but I'm pretty sure mine come from weakness in the Crossfire file (it seems to have been partly fixed in 8.2, oddly enough) and from some oddities in how COD4 was created (a bit of experience in making a custom map explained a few things).

What kind of settings are you using in Catalyst? The root might be in there. Also, what's the rest of your set-up looking like?

i get similar problems running my hd 2600 xt and have tried tons of different settings in the catalyst control and got sploogy colours in crysis when i lowered the settings and fine quality when i raised it to high which didn't make sense but i get 3d app failures alot becuase of the graphics too and i have tried all the versions from dec through to feb on the 8.2 ver where i got more problems on some and better fps on othersi would like a solution other than get a better card like the 3870 which i am considering anyway.

Are you guys running the same brand 2600 by chance?

may well be i'm running the saphire hd 2600xt
not sure what the other guy is running
do you have a thought???

Not really. I have Sapphires too. I was just hoping it was a wonky brand, as that would explain things. No such luck.

How about motherboards? Could be northbridge issues?

it might be i want a new mobo with better upgrade-ability to what i have as it will soon be reaching it's limit with some upgrades i'm buying
what affect will the north bridge have on it as it's a newish mobo i just want a better one

Northbridges affect how many channels can run in the bus, as well as how quickly they run. Typically, these are referred to as "chipsets", though you should remember there can be Southbridge chipsets as well.

Consider this: Comparison of AMD chipsets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm running an AMD 580X, which (at the time) was a little more expensive than a 480X. You can see in the Crossfire column why I'd consider it worth the money.

If you get a new one, the 790FX is basically the best. Then again, there was something about it (I can't remember what) that makes me think you might want to wait for the 800 series to come out. I believe it'll end up lasting you longer.

In any case, you two might have run into a point where your graphics card is just too fast for the motherboard and the MOBO is struggling to keep up. I really don't know, though I seem to recall having heard about some oddities like that arising. Without knowing all the equipment you each have, I'm kind of shooting in the dark. Even as it is, I'm no infallible expert (yet....bwahahaha!).

i'm going to look into that then it may be one of my many problems as i can't seem to get the full potential from my ram either oh you may know this though? why would reducing the quality of the graphics in crysis say by lowering the resolution create sploogy graphics (like what a kid would do by folding painted paper) best example i could think of i get massive green and blue bits instead of clouds and all i've done is lower the resolution would that be a case of the card being to fast for the board as the card doesn't get hot or run at full speed either??

Lower resolution does that? Higher doesn't? Very odd. What you're describing would be artifacting (normally), but that doesn't fit the description of not overheating and being better at high-res. A screen-shot might make it easier to figure out, I guess. Could be something in options, maybe. Catalyst and Crysis never have played well together (took them ages to get Crossfire to work; to the point I never even bothered to buy it).

Are you using a DVI cable to an HD monitor? It could have something to do with forcing a low resolution on a high-res monitor. Starting to shoot in the dark here.