Weird textures when playing?

[selrath]

Hello, some weeks ago I started to notice how I seem to be getting weird textures when playing games. I've only played World of Warcraft and Age of Conan but the problem is pretty much the same:

I'm experiencing that all of a sudden (Might be 10 minutes after playing, hours etc) the textures becomes all weird. In WoW for example, all stuff beneath objects become green with some weird pattern. This can be fixed by simply quitting the game but usually I restart the PC because after this "issue", alt-tabbing goes very slow. It takes like 10 seconds for the game to come to the screen again.

Does this sound like a GPU problem or something else, like RAM related? I posted this here because I thought it might be GPU but I don't know very much so I'm sorry if this is "off-topic"

My computer:
Windows XP
Athlon 64 Dual core 4600+
2GB ram, if I remember correctly, it was 533 mhz (I can't remember if it was 2x1gb or just one stick though)
The GPU and PSU is the only thing I've replaced, this was almost a year ago.
The gpu is 8800GT and the PSU is at 550W
I have no idea about my motherboard though, I don't know how to check that.


Some more information: I've tried removing most of the dust in my PC (although the processors part is still quite dusty but I can't remove that with just air) and I'm using the latest DX9 and latest nVidia drivers. I'm most likely virus free, at least the scanners haven't found anything. I'm using SP2 (because the SP3 installer gets stuck at some part)
If you're interested in more information, I'll upload HiJackThis and my DxDiag just in case that might be necessary information.

 

[LinkedKube]

Usually someone would ask you if you have the lastest drivers, but you do. Next someone would think you have a faulty 12v rail. You may not be getting enough power the the video card. Just as important as how many watts it is, who makes the psu is important as well,

 

[selrath]

Usually someone would ask you if you have the lastest drivers, but you do. Next someone would think you have a faulty 12v rail. You may not be getting enough power the the video card. Just as important as how many watts it is, who makes the psu is important as well,

It's Corsair, the name is "Corsair PowerSupply (PSU) 550W VX ATX"

How do I know if the PSU is the problem? I'm also thinking, could the psu/gpu problems also affect other things than games? I just noticed that after I've experienced this problem once again (a while ago), the whole pc definitely moved a lot slower (until reboot), not only did it take quite long to load programs (it opens up but the screen remains white), Windows Explorer also crashed this time.

 

[LinkedKube]

umm get a psu tester, they're like 15 bucks most places. But with what you said its an indicator that your psu may be failing.

 

[selrath]

umm get a psu tester, they're like 15 bucks most places. But with what you said its an indicator that your psu may be failing.

Uuuh, so troublesome...
I'll test it later, I don't want to spend any money on my PC this month.

Thanks.

 

[nissanman]

Corsair PSU's are pretty good. Maybe your GPU is overheating?

Another possibility could be a compatibility issue with ur video card and motherboard.

Download a program called Everest. It is a very good system info tool that will tell you the make and model of your motherboard. It will also tell you the temps of your hardware, Including your GPU.

 

[selrath]

Corsair PSU's are pretty good. Maybe your GPU is overheating?

Another possibility could be a compatibility issue with ur video card and motherboard.

Download a program called Everest. It is a very good system info tool that will tell you the make and model of your motherboard. It will also tell you the temps of your hardware, Including your GPU.

I've already used up the trial ages agom, I don't know if there's a way to reset it though. Anyway, I'm not buying it though. It's quite expensive.

About that the GPU might be overheating: I don't know much but what I've heard about the GT is that requires good cooling. Yet the fan only runs at 20%~ of it's full speed?
Maybe I should try changing it to 100%? (or some other higher speed )

About the video card and motherboard compatibility issue: Wouldn't there have been some other problems earlier then? I mean, I've had this card for almost a year now and these weird textures have only been an issue for a couple of weeks.

As I mentioned earlier then, as I don't have Everest perhaps I can check the temperature with RivaTuner? There is a "Monitor Hardware" tab that tells me several stuff like "Core temperature"?

 

[nissanman]

Yet the fan only runs at 20%~ of it's full speed?

That fan should be running at 100%. Use rivatuner to set the fan speed to 100%.

 

[selrath]

That fan should be running at 100%. Use rivatuner to set the fan speed to 100%.

I'll try but I'm not sure about the 20% thing though. It's just something I've read, I have no idea if it's right or wrong.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

You are getting artifacts, which usually indicate an overheating GPU. Make sure your GPU HSF is free of dust and other junk. Also, as nissanman suggested, set the GPU fan speed to maximum. Monitor GPU temps using RivaTuner or GPU-Z.

Your PSU is a high-quality unit that provides more than enough power for your system. Still, if the above have no effect, try using another PCI-E power connector for the card. If that does not help, try removing all the power connectors from your HDDs (except the OS HDD) and optical drives and see if the problems persist.

 

[selrath]

You are getting artifacts, which usually indicate an overheating GPU. Make sure your GPU HSF is free of dust and other junk. Also, as nissanman suggested, set the GPU fan speed to maximum. Monitor GPU temps using RivaTuner or GPU-Z.

Your PSU is a high-quality unit that provides more than enough power for your system. Still, if the above have no effect, try using another PCI-E power connector for the card. If that does not help, try removing all the power connectors from your HDDs (except the OS HDD) and optical drives and see if the problems persist.

A little update about the fanspeed:
RivaTuner isn't showing the "fan" tab
ASUS SmartDoctor isn't allowing me to use the fan settings
nVidia controlpanel isn't allowing me to mix with the fan settings either

Apparently I also have to check my temperatures using SmartDoctor instead because according to ASUS website their cards have some weird function not allowing you to check temperatures with something else than their software..

Anyway, I read in the NvIdia controlpanel help section that there might be some kind of BIOS hindering me from changing the fan settings.
Any idea what they might be refering to? Any tips on what I should do?

Thanks

EDIT: I'll start up a game and check my temperature now. Right now when not playing, it's 60c (141f)