*A* (not great) Doom3 solution

[mushpuppy]

I use a stock-speed (non o/c) ATI 9800xt on an sk8v mb and was experiencing the same artifacts that so many others have complained about, no matter which ATI drivers (including the 4.9 beta ones) or in-game video settings I used--until I downloaded the ATI tool and underclocked my core speed of 412 or so to 400.

Voila! The artifacts disappeared!

Implication as near as I can tell: the problem is heat-related.

 

[Avalon]

What artifacting is everyone seeing?
I'm curious.

 

[Concillian]

Heat related issues would show up after playing a while. It may just be the issue that Carmack had talked about where the game just taxes things more than anything ever has, so there may simply not be enough margin.

I'd send screenshots to the card manufacturer and not mention anything about underclocking. They should RMA it. Don't take it upon yourself to fix a problem that is not yours by fiddling with the cooling and then voiding any warantee you have.

It may be worth it to add a fan or two if airflow in your case is not adequate, I had an issue with BFV on my 5900XT that would show up after half an hour or so. I added an intake fan and all was well. But if your issues are happening right off the bat, I'm less inclined to think of it as a heat issue.

 

[mushpuppy]

The artifacts I'm seeing looks like snow. In the opening scene, I thought it was.

I've had this card for at least 8 months, if I remember correctly, and never experienced a problem like this before. I doubt it's the individual card, particularly given that so many others are experiencing the same.

The problems happen after the machine's been on all day, and right away when Doom 3 starts. So maybe it's a driver issue. Who knows. But as soon as I underclock it disappears.

Someone more informed about clocking issues than myself will know what that suggests.

 

[eklass]

my VPU (radeon 9700) completely dies and has to be recovered by ATI's VPU Recover. i haven't perfectly pinpointed it, but when timedemo'ing some higher settings (1024, high, AA, etc) it dies right near the end of the demo. NEVER had a problem with my vid card card in the past. did DC @ 1280x1024 4AA 16AF no problems

 

[kylebisme]

ya, i just sent my 9800xt back to newegg yesterday because i had to underclock it to get rid of the artifacts in doom3. it was a gigabyte and apparently newegg handles the rma on them so it looks like i will be geting money back on it to put towards a new card.

 

[dguy6789]

If you bought a 9800XT, then it is guarenteed to be 412mhz perfectly stable reguarless of in case airflow. If i were you, id have a word with the company you bought your 9800XT from and get it traded in for one that works.

 

[jiffylube1024]

I have a 9800 Pro with the same issue.

The card even has (aftermarket) RAMsinks on it for heat, but I know the problem is core related.

I get some red snow in the game after playing for about 1.5 hours, especially on the hot days. When I take the card out of the case, I can feel the heatsink is burning hot.

When I put the card in front of a huge fan to cool it, and then back into the case, I can get another ~2 hours of (artifact free) play time.

Doom3 really is taxing these cards like never before - non-overclocked cards are artifacting after a couple of hours of playing, and it's pretty annoying.

 

[Delorian]

These problems are pretty crazy. I've got a 9800SE softmodded to a 9800pro OCed running at 408/360 and running the doom 3A I didn't see any problems at all as far as artifacts go. That was even on the bugged out alpha version. Haven't tried the released version but I wonder why this is causing so many heat problems.

 

[0marTheZealot]

probably because doom3 pushes hardware to the limit