BFG 6600 GT OC: Why are the graphics flickering?

'Mike S.' wrote, in part:
| I just bought a BFG 6600 GT OC to replace my aging Geforce 2. But in
| every game, I see flashing\flickering graphics once in awhile.
_____

Additional, helpful, in fact critical information would be WHEN do graphics
flicker?
And what EXACTLY do you mean by 'flashing/flickering'?
During 3D accelerated games? And WHICH games? And at WHAT frame rates are
the games displaying - could a slow frame rate be the cause?
How about when only the desktop is displayed?
During DVD playback?
Does there seem to be any connection with temperature of the board?
Does the entire screen flash on and off; do individual pixels flash/flicker?
Does the image shake?

Possible problems with your system:
marginal power supply?
CPU limited graphic performance (during 3D accelerated games)?

These potential problems make it difficult to make the most important
diagnosis - is there a fault with the card itself, and should it be
returned?

If you are still within the return period, you should try the card as soon
as possible in a known good system with an adequate power supply (though 300
Watts SHOULD be adequate, but higher capacity might help with problems you
describe (depending on WHEN you see the flickering.)

Phil Weldon

"Mike S." wrote in message
...
I just bought a BFG 6600 GT OC to replace my aging Geforce 2. But in
every game, I see flashing\flickering graphics once in awhile. What
can be causing this? If you need any information to diagnose, please
ask. Meanwhile, my specs are --

2.6ghz Intel Celeron
768 megs of ram
CD-RW burner
CD-ROM drive
7200 rpm Maxtor Hard Drive
300 watt Antec Power Supply
Soundblaster 16 Live!

A modest system I know. :-P

I looked more carefully at the requirements on the box for my video
card. It says 350 watt minimum. I only have a 300 watt power supply. I
don't have another computer to test out the card so that is not an
option for me. So I am going to replace the power supply with a better
one. If anyone has better advice then that, I am all virtual ears.
Thanks.


You should go for the most powerful PSU you can afford; that way you future
proof yourself aginast further upgrades which might require more power.
Make sure you go for a brand name (but avoid Q-Tec). It is not just watts
that matter either; you need to look at how many amps the PSU can provide on
the 12V rail (at least 18A) is recommended.

From experience I can recommend Hiper PSUs (good balance of performance v
cost) and OCZ (currently using one as I type - although expensive I feel it
was money well spent). Both of these options are also extremely quiet.

Andy

My guess, for what it's worth, is that the Celeron CPU is limiting your
game's data processing and thus causing the artifacts. The Celeron is not a
gaming firendly card. Bottom line, your GPU is far more powerful than your
CPU. Mismatched.

--
DaveW



"Mike S." wrote in message
...
I just bought a BFG 6600 GT OC to replace my aging Geforce 2. But in
every game, I see flashing\flickering graphics once in awhile. What
can be causing this? If you need any information to diagnose, please
ask. Meanwhile, my specs are --

2.6ghz Intel Celeron
768 megs of ram
CD-RW burner
CD-ROM drive
7200 rpm Maxtor Hard Drive
300 watt Antec Power Supply
Soundblaster 16 Live!

A modest system I know. :-P

i thought i'd start a new line of responses because i think your problem
sounds more like a Vsynch issue.

try turning it on, or off, (whichever it isn't at the moment) in the 6600gt
properties. Application controlled isn't useful in this situation, force it
on or off and observe the results.

I might be wrong on this, but it could be a cheap (ie. zero dollar)
solution.

here is a website that talks about it
http://developer.apple.com/technotes...93.html#TNTAG8

and another
http://hardforum.com/printthread.php?t=928593

Try this out before you cough up for a new PSU....might be worth it.


"Mike S." wrote in message
...
I just bought a BFG 6600 GT OC to replace my aging Geforce 2. But in
every game, I see flashing\flickering graphics once in awhile. What
can be causing this? If you need any information to diagnose, please
ask. Meanwhile, my specs are --

2.6ghz Intel Celeron
768 megs of ram
CD-RW burner
CD-ROM drive
7200 rpm Maxtor Hard Drive
300 watt Antec Power Supply
Soundblaster 16 Live!

A modest system I know. :-P

i was thinking of frame tearing, clearly i misinterpretted your problem. it
might still be a factor, but if you're ready to return it, your call. I'm no
expert, just another user.
Good luck getting it sorted.

Bushy

"Mike S." wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 11:34:29 GMT, "Bushy"
wrote:

Try this out before you cough up for a new PSU....might be worth it.

Too late. I bought a new Power Supply. Whatever the problem is, I do
not think it is power or heat. As far as your suggestion goes with
VSync, you aren't thinking of Screen Tearing are you? That isn't the
problem I am having. I don't have to have any movement on screen. The
'artifacts' as one person here put it, occur all the time. Screen
tearing is something I see only when I spin around in a FPS or First
Person RPG.

Anyway, I took the card out of machine and put it back in the box to
return it. I want to make sure you are referring to my problem rather
then just screen tearing before I try the card out again.

Overkill could not be the cause of your problem, just a situation that could
exhibit the limitations of your CPU. The solution, if that is the case, is
to reduce the quality settings when playing 3D accelerated games. If you
replace the 6600 GT with a less capable card and try to use the same quality
settings, the image problems will be even more evident.

If you swallow all advice without evaluation, you will continue to spend
money to no effect.

Phil Weldon

"Mike S." wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:02:52 GMT, "Bushy"
wrote:

i was thinking of frame tearing, clearly i misinterpretted your problem.
it
might still be a factor, but if you're ready to return it, your call. I'm
no
expert, just another user.
Good luck getting it sorted.

Yep frame tearing I am familiar with already and I already know how to
deal with that particular problem. Thanks anyway for the reply.

I am going to return the card in a day or so. If a 6600 GT is overkill
for a 2.6 Celeron, I hope someone can point out a better Nvidia video
card for my computer....

'Mike S.' wrote:
| Whatever the problem is, I've decided that this card is never going to
| work properly in my system. I have 'evaluated' the problem long
| enough. Since the card is going back to the store to be replaced with
| another one, *now* is the best time to find out if a Geforce 6600 GT
| is overkill for a 2.6 Celeron equipped computer. The problem I was
| having with this card is irrelevant to this new question.
_____

If you swallow all advice without evaluation, youw ill continue to spend
money to no effect.

Phil Weldon

"Mike S." wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 01:04:34 GMT, "Phil Weldon"
wrote:

If you swallow all advice without evaluation, you will continue to spend
money to no effect.

Whatever the problem is, I've decided that this card is never going to
work properly in my system. I have 'evaluated' the problem long
enough. Since the card is going back to the store to be replaced with
another one, *now* is the best time to find out if a Geforce 6600 GT
is overkill for a 2.6 Celeron equipped computer. The problem I was
having with this card is irrelevant to this new question.

What you did do is run out and buy a new power supply that evidently made no
difference in the performance of your system. What the box says as minimum
requirement is just about useless - the CPU power consumption is also a big
factor, along with memory and the number of drives.

Of course the 6600 GT WILL provide more performance with your current CPU
than a less powerful video card will provide with your current CPU. A
nVidia 6800 Ultra will provide even MORE performance with your current CPU,
just not as good performance as if the CPU had a larger L2 cache, higher bus
speed, and higher clock speed.

You still haven't provided enough information to diagnose your current
problem.

And what you assuredly haven't done a proper evaluation. You might also
want to consider future, incremental upgrades (in which case your new
impluse buy 350 Watt power supply might need to be replaced.

Phil Weldon


"Mike S." wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 05:40:32 GMT, "Phil Weldon"
wrote:

If you swallow all advice without evaluation, youw ill continue to spend
money to no effect.

The only extra money I spent was on a power supply. When someone
mentioned power as a possible cause of my trouble, I looked at my
power supply for the first time. It said 300 watts. The box for the
video card said 350 watts under requirements. I 'evaluated' that I
needed a new power supply. I did not blindly run out like a Lemming
and buy a new power supply just because someone here told me to as you
seem to be implying.

Now I just want to know what card would work best in tandem with a 2.6
Intel Celeron computer. If the 6600 GT is going to sit there twiddling
its virtual thumbs waiting for the CPU, then there is no point in
buying another $200 6600 GT - even if the next one works perfectly,
right? See that? EVALUATION! g

DaveW wrote:
My guess, for what it's worth, is that the Celeron CPU is limiting your
game's data processing and thus causing the artifacts. The Celeron is not a
gaming firendly card. Bottom line, your GPU is far more powerful than your
CPU. Mismatched.


"The Celeron is not a gaming firendly card"?? I guess that's true,
since it's not a CARD at all...

Andrew wrote:
I looked more carefully at the requirements on the box for my video
card. It says 350 watt minimum. I only have a 300 watt power supply. I
don't have another computer to test out the card so that is not an
option for me. So I am going to replace the power supply with a better
one. If anyone has better advice then that, I am all virtual ears.
Thanks.



You should go for the most powerful PSU you can afford; that way you future
proof yourself aginast further upgrades which might require more power.
Make sure you go for a brand name (but avoid Q-Tec). It is not just watts
that matter either; you need to look at how many amps the PSU can provide on
the 12V rail (at least 18A) is recommended.

From experience I can recommend Hiper PSUs (good balance of performance v
cost) and OCZ (currently using one as I type - although expensive I feel it
was money well spent). Both of these options are also extremely quiet.

I have a FX5950 Ultra, and am experiencing the same problem.
I have a 500W PSU, Pentium 4 3.2GHz and 2GB memory. It
occurs almost 100% in games, but one other program exhibits
the same symptoms. In Spybot: Search and Destroy, the "logo"
part of the screen flickers during the scan. This is the
only non-game program that it occurs in.