sorry for being Off Topic, this isn't really a programming related question but I don't know where else to ask and get a good answer that I normally get here. anyway there are some strange artifacts when I play OpenGL games, like Quake 3 and Doom3 I don't have a clue where they come from I bought a new graphics card for like 2 month ago but back then it worked perfect since then I upgraded my memory to 1024mb and my processor to a P4 3.2ghz (from a p4 1800mhz and 256mb ram) anyway take a look at this pictures http://www.hig.se/~hco03phe/images/Quake3_01.jpg http://www.hig.se/~hco03phe/images/Quake3_02.jpg http://www.hig.se/~hco03phe/images/Quake3_03.jpg http://www.hig.se/~hco03phe/images/Quake3_04.jpg http://www.hig.se/~hco03phe/images/Quake3_05.jpg http://www.hig.se/~hco03phe/images/Quake3_06.jpg just another thing, the wierd artifacts does not apear in my 3D engine while I'm running it in OpenGL mode.. altough my 3D engine only draw 2 quads at the moment :p and the artifacts doesn't apear when I'm running FarCry (direct3d I guess). Thanks alot for your help.

If you have a GeForce, in the settings under opengl there is a tickbox, Enable conformant OpenGL texture clamp behaviour.

If its not that, (not sure what it actually does) It maybe a problem with the card. I would try installing fresh drivers and trying things like that.

If you still can't get it working, take it in to where ever you got it from, They should replace it after taking a quick look at it.

- Steve

The last shot is especially... special. That really looks bad. Did you overclock the card or something else? Perhaps check the BIOS settings that you didn't accidentally set the PCI clock too high, and of course make sure you have adequate drivers.

Anyway, here's a little something I managed to get ot of UT 2003 by fiddling with some driver settings:

I have not overclocked the card or anything else, according to a small software called ATI Tool (or something like that) I'm running the default mem and core speed. and that software can scan for artifacts and it can't find anything ( running for about 20min ) it is using Direct3D thats why I think it is an OpenGL issue.

but I can't understand what it is, could it be a heat problem or something? I have the chassi open on one side.

That kind of error is really hard to find. It could be literally everything, from bad or just badly setup main memory, a slightly glitchy PSU (my father's machine worked just fine apart from rare lockups in spite of the 12V rail delivering almost nothing), bad memory on the graphics card itself (unlikely, but still an option) or fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field (<-- sarcasm!).

Your safest bet would be to test the components one by one in a known-good system. Perhaps start by removing the memory you added recently, if that solves it, try some more moderate memory settings like the next slower CAS setting.

I had something similar recently. Whilst moving around in a variety of FPS games, random polygons would not be rendered. Just quick flashes, as opposed to static. ie related to moving around. I had just moved up to the FX5900 from the FX5600, so I went through all the driver/bios upgrades etc, but it did not fix it. Going back to the 5600 everything was fine. Finally found the problem to be the PSU. I was running on a 350W PSU and the GFX card simply wanted more than the system was providing. If you havent upgraded or added anything to your system then it might not be the cause, but it's worth checking - especially if you GFX card requires one 12v power connector from the PSU.