Graphics card help

Ahoy. I just got a BFG 6600gt OC, installed the latest drivers through nVidia and went to test a game and....

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this is the screen that welcomed me. This happens with all of the games I try to play.

I'm running an AMD 64 3200+, 1 Gb dual-channel, ASUS a8n-sli MOBO. Any suggestions?


btw, the card has 128mb of GDDR3 and is PCI-E.

Did you buy this new?

That sort of artifacting is common in cards that are damaged by overheating. Is the fan running on it? What are the temps reported by the Nvidia control panel? If it's used, I'd wonder if somebody abused the card. Even if the temps look normal now, somebody could have pushed it too hard in the past and cooked it.

If it's new, then I'd say it's probably RMA time.

Before you do that though, you might strip down your PC to its bare parts -- boot drive, 1 stick of RAM, no add-on cards like sound cards or TV tuners, etc. Then try again. If you still get it then you can rule out bus starvation, IRQ contention, or other such conflicts with other hardware. Also, did you tweak anything video-related in BIOS? Like AGP aperture, fast writes, delayed PCI transactions, etc.? Resetting BIOS to factory defaults might be a good idea to test with as well.

[quote28c12852d3="dmorris68"]Did you buy this new?

That sort of artifacting is common in cards that are damaged by overheating. Is the fan running on it? What are the temps reported by the Nvidia control panel? If it's used, I'd wonder if somebody abused the card. Even if the temps look normal now, somebody could have pushed it too hard in the past and cooked it.

If it's new, then I'd say it's probably RMA time.

Before you do that though, you might strip down your PC to its bare parts -- boot drive, 1 stick of RAM, no add-on cards like sound cards or TV tuners, etc. Then try again. If you still get it then you can rule out bus starvation, IRQ contention, or other such conflicts with other hardware. Also, did you tweak anything video-related in BIOS? Like AGP aperture, fast writes, delayed PCI transactions, etc.? Resetting BIOS to factory defaults might be a good idea to test with as well.[/quote28c12852d3]

This was a card I purchased on ebay and was used. The seller had a 100% rating with 76 auctions complete...so i guess i assumed it was legit.
nVidia is reporting the GPU core temp between 50-53 C.

I haven't tweaked anything in the system, just popped the card in and installed the drivers.

One good thing about BFG, though, is that they offer a lifetime warranty on all of their products, even the ones they sell overclocked. Thank you for the tips.

Also, my PC is pretty barebones as is. I built it using Trainn's desktop $$$ ) 1 hard drive, 1 optical drive, dual channel ram (cant just have 1 stick), and this current card. Do you think having a wireless PCI adapter would cause conflict somehow?

[quote0286f8a214="burritopunk"]One good thing about BFG, though, is that they offer a lifetime warranty on all of their products, even the ones they sell overclocked. Thank you for the tips.[/quote0286f8a214]

Yep, that card is damaged. But good luck getting BFG to do anything for you. They only warrant the original owner with a copy of the original receipt.

I just bought a BFG 6800GT on ebay a few weeks ago.

u should try contacting the seller and returning it. Doesn't look good from ur pic.

ASUS mobo and WoW have Conficits with PCI Cards...

yea those artifacts are from overclocking too high

Can you underclock it to 500MHz and see if it still does that? 6600GT's main crititicism is that it runs hot and the stock fans usually suck on most, if not all brands (XFX, PNY). See if a lower clock helps.

Either way, you should probably return it to the seller.

EDIT Another thing to try is turning off "Enable Write Combining" under Display Properties->Advanced. The 6600GT has problems with some chipsets like VIA's. I had some problems before with my 6600gt but the artifacting was not the same as yours. If none of those work, definitely return it as it's defective and not a hardware conflict.

dont those come clocked at 500mhz? or 480?

The OC ones come overclocked at 525 I think.

[quote5a505c941c="RocLaFamilia"]ASUS mobo and WoW have Conficits with PCI Cards...[/quote5a505c941c]

I was able to play wow with an x1300 no problems. btw it comes 525mhz overclocked. hopefully this seller will be hassle free to return this card...from what you all are saying its been abused and is shot. thanks guys!

just a little note...

my eVGA 6600gt runs at 540//1080 and hasn't had a single problem.. no lock ups... spikes... artifacting or anything on games much more demanding than WoW... this is definately a problem with the specific card you have... never got why peopel buy computer parts on ebay when newegg and monarch are always having great sales. Good luck getting a new one or a refund though )