GeForce 6800 polygon flashing glitch

[Nigel Strange]

Lately, I have been having some strange glitches while playing a variety of 3d games. It starts out with a few flashes here or there, parts of the scene get corrupted with flashing polygons. It's different from game to game. In Doom 3, it shows up as flashing colors over shaded areas, as if there were a flashing colored strobe light. In other games, parts of the scene start flashing in the distance. The flashing gets progressively worse.

I have not changed my drivers recently (though I'm using a fairly new driver) so it was not caused by a driver change. I wonder: the weather has gotten hotter. Would overheating cause this kind of error?

 

[Rik]

Heat is a possibility, speedfan from the downloads section will help you to monitor temps if you dont already have software for it.
Are your system and your graphics card overclocked at all??

 

[Nigel Strange]

heat issue

I'm pretty sure it's a heat issue. I left the Nvidia driver temperature gauge on while I played and saw that it was getting up into the nineties. I then took the cover off the case and played without issue. I'm not sure how heat affects the performance exactly: do the electrons start skipping the gaps or something? Does the resistance get too high? Don't know.

So, now we have to look into new cooling options. Why do the chassis fans never seem to have threaded holes for the screws?

 

[Rik]

If you are sure its heat related then there are a couple of things you can do.

The easiest and cheapest method it to buy a slot cooler. its an upright fan that sits in one of the back slots of your case, but, they only suck air out, not in.
If your graphics card already has a fan on it the it is not a good idea to mount one of those "above" the fan, its often possible to mount it the other side of your graphics card so that it still has an effect.

The second option it to cut a hole in the side panel of your pc case and mount a standard fan of your choice. This is obviously much more work, but then, its also much more effective.

I have actually done both and have absolutely no problems with heat at all.
My ethos is, you can never over cool a pc.