6600GT How to make it work right, HOT TOPIC: old rig - still successful Options

[FALCON]

>>>>>> Please re-read, this post has been edited numerous times. Special thanks to all who continue support of this thread, esp. Rayson <<<<<<

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Important New Post Addition:
Solving Artifacting problems for Any Card
Some corresponding performance tweaks are also thrown in (See also P.3)
In an effort to help people with various cards, including the 6600GT, I improved this thread. A lot of problems with this card, and at least 20% of all the problems on this entire forum, concern artifact issues. Artifacts include wierd stuff on your screen, such as strange lines, colors, triangles, shimmer, pixelation, etc. The problems that cause these also lead to freezes and eventual crashes. I have streamlined the opening help section and added a section (go to the middle of this post) for artifacting solutions and performance tweaks that work for ANY video card. I hope you will find it one of the most helpful anti-artifacting posts on the entire internet. Feel free to help me improve it.
The section also explains some video terminology and is still on topic because it gets your card working right.
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The primary purpose of this thread is to help people find solutions for the 6600 GT, and they also work for 6800 cards!
Please read this post (page 1) before posting your problem. It is frustrating telling people the same solutions repeatedly because they havn't read the solutions and just want to state thier problem. After you read posts 1 and 3, there are great solutions in the red post numbers below, please try them Thank you.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Don't panic because of the size of this thread. I have saved you a lot of time.
Currently there are over 1300 posts on this thread. God helping me I have read them all! I isolated the posts that give direct SOLUTIONS to problems or performance tweaks. Here they are: 1, 3, 8, 11, 19, 28, 41, 47, 50, 75, 83, 97, 100, 101, 116, 124, 139, 141, 143, 154, 161, 162, 163, 165, 168, 172, 173, 188, 192, 196, 211, 225, 235, 240, 250, 261, 262, 266, 279, 285, 291 305, 318, 341, 357, 373, 402, 404, 424, 431, 436, 451, 460 463, 466, 487, 494, 498, 553, 578--580, 607, 609, 610, 614, 615, 622, 658, 659, 667, 674, 723, 727 - 729, 769 - 774, 822, 827, 834, 845, 850, 888, 892, 898, 910 - 912, 917, 927, 945, 946, 972, 973,. 978, 992, 1005, 1009, 1016, 1020, 1037, 1043, 1064, 1072, 1093, 1115, 1197, 1198, 1201, 1203, 1226, 1229, 1232, 1270, 1271, 1279, 1350, 1351, 1362, 1363, 1716, 1717 If I missed some let me know. We appreciate ALL of the posts. You guys/gals are great; thanks for helping.

Know someone in another thread/forum that needs help? Copy and paste a link to this thread: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=1029

There are many tips on this page and the others that follow that can get you started and enhance your video card performance. If these solutions worked for me and my aging system, they will probably work for you. If not, seriously consider returning your card, some are bad. This thread will help you decide.
My OLD system (See signature at bottom for new system 12/06):
AMD 1900 + CPU, Gigabyte7VTXE mobo with Via KT266A chipset. This is only 4X. AGP. A 200 Gig Seagate and a 60 gig Seagate hard drive, Samsung DVD/CD + RW, and a floppy. Alienware box with three (loud) fans, and two more fans in the new power supply.

Problems people have: Freezes, crashes, wierd artifacts, and blank screen on bootup. Recognize any of these??!

Causes: Top Four - In Order: inadequate power, overheating, faulty chipsets, bad connections.
Other causes: incorrect BIOS settings, Motherboard driver incompatabilities (SIS and VIA), damaged heatsink/fan connections, .
There is hope! Most problems are user solvable. You can do this
See item #9 below for SIS and VIA advice and links.

If your card does not even boot up properly at all --before attempting any 3D apps -- it is because either: it is not seated properly in the slot, the molex power cable (for AGP cards only) is not (properly) connected, incorrect BIOS settings, incompatibility between motherboard/chipset drivers and video drivers, or you need to clear the CMOS. All are discussed below.


Be a Power-user: DO NOT re-install windows or worse yet, reformat your hard drive. Why should you waste time writing down all your settings, reinstalling windows, reinstalling all your programs, and re setting all your preferences?? There is a much better solution. Instead, keep your computer in good shape all the time by getting a good utility program such as VCom's System Suite or Symantec's System Works. I use both, and although I've used Symantec (Norton) products for over 20 years, I have to say that V-Com's System Suite has won this wrestling match for a couple of years now, and version 6 Professional easy slams any utility program on the market. Both of these programs have won Editor's Choice awards from PC Magazine, as well as other prestigeous awards. (Check out their web sites for yourself) [I am not affiliated with these companies or magazines in any way.] These programs have registry fixers, registry defragmenters, disk defragmenters, system information sources, great anti-virus programs, quality firewalls, Anti-spyware, and numerous other utilities in one inexpensive package. And its the best stuff on the market! Always use Driver Cleaner Pro before installing any driver (see below and post 3). It will save you a lot of time and headaches.


OK, Now, What to do to get this card working:

1. You need lots of power. A good percentage -- ALMOST HALF --of the problems with this card are solved by addressing some aspect of the power issue, (including improperly seated cards or Molex cables). See post #3 on this as well. A lot of people are upgrading when buying this card, and many will need to upgrade their Power Supply U as well. You cannot run this card on a 350 or even many 425 watt PSUs. It will die in anything 3D-- Games, demos, etc..
It does NOT matter what the manufacturer says on the box for the minimum spec. I've been using PCs since 1984. You should never trust minimum requirement lists. Manufacturers lie to make sales. It is common for manufacturers to over-rate their power supplies, and the specs they list on the PSU represent ideal conditions with no other periphials attached - to get their highest rating. So be careful, you are getting less real world power than what is advertised. [Note: if you are going to buy a new one, don't skimp a few dollars, go 500W.]

[b]What should you get? The amperage rating on the + 12 volt rail is what you have to check. It can be found on a sticker on the PSU itself. Based on the experiences of many users on this and other threads, 17 Amps is the minimum - tightrope walking limit - for this card. It will work with that, but it all depends on how many other periphials you have drawing power ( hard drives, optical drives, etc.) I upgraded my power supply to an Nspire 450 Watt (true watts), having 28 amps on the +3.3 rail, 40 on the +5, and 20 on the +12 -- this is the important one. Some card manufacturers are putting a 450 W requirement on their boxes now. This is wise. Tomshardware.com (an awesome site for comparing hardware, if it stinks, they say so) evaluates at least 21 of them. [See my next post.]

Gentle in his post #279, provided this link to show that Power is very big issue with this card, (and all the cards that will follow it). http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/bfg/6600gtoc/index.php?p=5

See good comments from Deeko, Antibody, and Mitsubishi on pp. 60, 61, and 62, posts 1197 --1203, and 1226 - 1229.

This card is backward compatable with AGP 4X But, TimC has some interesting information on incompatiblility of a card with certain 4X AGP motherboards because the card is not truly backward compatable with the 1.5 voltage of their AGP 4X spec. I have a 4X motherboard with a VIA chipset and my MSI card runs great, but not all cards will. try getting a MSI or BFG card, they are well made. His thread: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=6197&hl= If you have an ASUS A7V8X-LA see Miscreant7's post 1270 on P. 64.


Please note: Lack of power is not the only thing that causes problems with this card. So when you read of some people saying they bought a new PSU but it didn't help, it is because that was not the (only) cause of their particular problem. This is however the starting point. If you don't have enough power to run this card and your other peripherals, additional experimenting is all in vain, regardless of what else you do.

Note: AGP card owners: You need to properly connect a molex power cable to the card, it is not optional --line it up right and push it in, then pinch it together tight --. But some installatoin manuals (like mine from MSI) do not mention it untill later in the manual. Do not use a molex Y to connect this card even if they do give you one. It needs a direct line, use the "Y" elsewhere like for CD/DVD players. Do not use the same line that powers your hard drive; re-rout the wires if you have to, its easy. [Note for newbiies -- this is the multicolored wire set that runs from the power supply with plastic rectangular plugs that go to each important thing in your system, like the mobo, your hard drive, the DVD/CD, etc. find one that is not already plugged in and hook up the video card. Relax, plugs only go in one way.]
PCI-e cards do not need the molex cable connected, and do not have a socket for it to plug into.

If you get the Power Indicator pop up telling you that Windows is reducing the performance of the video because of lack of power, and you are sure you have enough power according to the info above, see post 1064 on p.54.

2. Be sure you have a good fan and heat sink on the 6600 GT you buy. Do not try to skimp, you get what you pay for! Check Newegg.com for good pictures and even customer reviews of video cards.

3. A lot of problems are caused by the card overheating. This is most likely the manufacturers fault, either from a cheap cooling solution, or from broken seals between the chips and the heatsink/fan. See the link from post # 220 . Try temporarily underclocking your card in 3D to 300 for the GPU and 800 for the memory (you can use Riva tuner), and see if it crashes. If it does, then there is a manufacturers defect in the cooling solution, or some of the memory chips are bad.
Note do not overclock a new card to get it to work!

Run Riva Tuner in the background. If temps are high you have isolated the problem. To Monitor your temperatures in Riva Tuner, go to the Target Adapter section, Hardware Monotoring and set it up. Be sure widen the view panel to check a longer time period. Get Riva Tuner at Guru 3D.com or laptopvideo2go.com.[/i] See Post 580, P. 29.

2D temps should be in the 40's or 50's no big deal. Its the high temps of 3D that can hurt you card. Normal temperatures for this card (not overclocked) at load (running 3D games, demos, anything 3D) should be between 65C to 75C plus or minus a few degrees. Temps in the 80s are OK but high, keep an eye on it. If your 3D temps are in the mid 90's or above, you do have a problem. It could be: a lousy connection between the heatsink/fan and the chips, a cheapo, lousy HSF, or very poor circulation. If these are OK, you need to return the card for one that works right, or get 3rd party cooling.

If your card does not monitor temperatures, you can flash your video bios and it will! I had to do this for my MSI card. Note to manufacturers -- What are you thinking!!? Enable temp monitoring in your BIOSes, there is no reason not to!! Symbios has some very clear directions. It is not hard, and you will make a backup of the original, . Link:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=2379

For 3rd party custom cooling solutions, check page 21 my post # 402, for info on the Logisys cooler, or post 373 for links to info on the Zalman cooler. I have concluded that the Logisys is superrior -- more copper, lots of surface area, faster ball berring fan (quiet), and it includes heatsinks for your memory chips, the Zalman now includes small memory sinks.
BUT be informed, to use 3rd party cooling will void your warrenty, so I suggest you wait and use your card for about 4 weeks or so, to make sure it works right. Then get your custom cooler and overclock to get 6800 base card performance out of your enhanced 6600GT.

Unperf cooled his GPU and HSI heatsink with a fan card, see posts 394, 396, and 1020. Cardinal solved his heating problem with a fan card in post #460. You might want to get one that vents heat out of the computer case, but 3rd party cooling is a better solution. Here is his source:
http://www.glacialtech.com/sub-product11.htm

NOTE: If you had onboard ATI video on your mobo. and you disabled it and used driver cleaner for the drivers, but your NVIDIA card still never works right. Well, it probably won't, Check this post 1115.

4. In your BIOS have AGP fast writes turned off, and set your apeture size to 256, or 128, NOT 64. Mine is set to 256, and some posters on the forums report better performance, esp in the Nvidia demos [which are cool] at 256. Fast writes can help you a litttle, so after shutting it off, and using your card for about 3 weeks, try turning it back on and run some games and other tests. If you can leave it on, do so. Most VIA chipset owners will need to leave it off. For more on this, see post 622 on P.32.

For newer BIOSes, designed to run MS Vista, you should also disable Sideband Addressing if your BIOS has it activated. You can use Riva Tuner to do this, but as of this date, it does not work in Windows Vista yet. A great video utility that does work in Vista is Powerstrip 3.7 There is a link in the artifacting section

NOTE: One SIS chipset owner reported that Fastwrites must be turned ON.
Oh yea, If your BIOS does not let you turn fastwrites off (necessary for older Via chipset owners as well as some others) or if you are not comfortable doing things in the BIOS, use RivaTuner from Guru3D.com.

A few 6600Gt owners got their cards to work by using AGP 4X instead of 8X, even though their system could run 8X (or at least they thought it could). Its a voltage problem.

Warning -- Do not fool around in the BIOS experimenting with some setting that looks tempting to you. If you make a mistake, simply exit without saving and come back in later. You should write original settings down before you change them. If you need further info, just ask.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In the Advanced Chipset Features of the BIOS, if you see a TURBO or ULTRA or TOP PERFORMANCE setting in the BIOS, Turn it down to a normal speed. Many have had great success with this, especially VIA chipset owners. I experimented and put my turbo setting on, and it caused all kinds of problems.
Do Bios changes one at a time, but fast writes and apeture size can be done together. If you make changes like this you do not need to update your CMOS.

Note Leadtek and Point of View owners have posted elsewhere in the Nview forums that having an AGP value of BA instead of DA or Auto in the BIOS has helped them. My system uses DA.
5. You need memory. You should have at least 1GB if you expect speed and stability on current games. See the Memory area in the Artifacting section below for this and info on increasing your swap file size.

6. Keep DRIVERS current, and experiment See POST 3 below. I quit playing the Driver lottery, basically, it is a waste of time. Improvements are very slow in coming, but you still need to be smart.
WHAT TO GET: read the posts on the NZone Forceware Driver forum, then go to the forums at Guru3D.com and laptopvideo2go.com/ You will find out what works well and what doesn't. NOTE both of these latter sites have great utilities for your card, but be sure to run your anti spyware program and delete cookies and cache afterward, because they both pack a handful of them. If you want to find the latest drivers, not yet posted by Nvidia, which you do, go to these last two sites.
For the 6600GT, I recommend the 78.05 drivers available from Nvidia.com Beta section, released 9/26/05. It's old but so is the card! It works.
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_download...betadriver.html

They are stable, have great image quality, and they're fast. This might be the best driver for this card period, but we should still hope for and check for a better one. They do not have some of the overhead junk of the 7900 card series drivers that 6600 users cannot use. Driver 71.89 is dated, but one of the best written and most compatable. The 81.XX drivers work well for many users.

NOTE: Anytime, and everytime, you install a new driver, you should do two things. First open Control Panel, and use Add/Remove programs to uninstall your provious drivers. But this is not enough. You should also use Driver Cleaner Pro (its free! God bless the writers of this program!)(See post #3 below) from http://www.drivercleaner.net/
to really clean out old driver files and erronious registry entries. Be careful if ALL your drivers are Nvidia. You may not even need it. [I do not use it for my Nvidia/EVGA 680i motherboard.]See post 424, p. 21. Also, when installing, if you previously used Riva Tuner, do NOT have it set to overclock or run (anything) on boot up. Reset it after your new drivers are installed.
Most drivers in the 71.xx range run hot, and this is NOT a mis read of temps, it is an inappropriate fan adjustment, especially affecting 2D, but also 3D on some systems. If you overclock your 2D settings slightly (i.e. by 5 or 10), it will solve the 2D overheating by running the fan at 3D speeds.

7. Check patches for your games. A lot of people are solving problems this way.

8. Check your card manufacturer's web page for updates for the video card BIOS. Galaxy posted one and it is helping their customers. Other companies need to get with the program or get their cards back.

9. Do the tips above first, but you may need to Check your Motherboard manufacturer for updates to its drivers. Warning -- do not just get their latest driver, it could mess you up. Get the latest driver for your mobo. NOTE: If you upgrade your BIOS (motherboard drivers) check to see if it runs OK. If so , fine, if not , you should clear the CMOS. See how to below, see also post 1203 on p. 61.
If you have an ASUS motherboard, shut off the Asus smart Doctor monitoring software. See post on this.

VIA CHIPSET OWNERS: if You have an older VIA chipset on your mobo, use the driver recommended for it -- an old one. For the VIA KT266A I use 4.43 from VIA (or 4.51 from Gigabyte) 4-in-1 drivers, they work, even on more recent chipsets!!.. See post 770 - 774 p.39. Most Via problems are fixed in the BIOS (see above).
Here is a lengthy thread from 6800 owners and problems with VIA chipsets, similiar to 6600Gt problems:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=5519
Essentially it says that if you have a VIA 8235 or 8237 chipset, and the BIOS fix above does not work for you, you are out of luck. Get rid of it before it drives you crazy! These chipsets, on most motherboards, are incompatable with the 6600 and 6800 cards, and manufacturers should list this on the card box.
If you have one of these chipsets you can: 1) Play in Open GL, it works. 2) Play in windowed mode, not full screen. 3)Use any driver BELOW 66.72, but then you can't play new games. If the BIOS fix works for you you can use [even for BF2 !!] driver 77.30.

If you own an Nvidia NForce 3 chipset on a motherboard, you can expect problems, this chipset is very buggy. Sorry for the bad news, but you knew it already. NForce 4 is great though.
For proof on NForce 3 problems, just check out this thread -- which does offer some possible fixes for some people: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=4758
Having trouble with lockups running DVDs or any video with an NForce chipset?? You will need to download the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset. Thanks to Odogg for the heads-up on this.


Note: do you have a SIS chipset, either 645, or 648, or 651 ? These seem more problematic than VIA, actually more than anything as far as gamers are concerned. In post 404 in this thread Lt. Hill states: " Ihave a SIS648max mother board and 6600gt agp8x. here is where the problem starts. However with Riva Tuner SIS compatibitymode enabled, 256agp apeture in bios and 67.66 forceware drivers + SIS AGP drivers 119a this is where the problem ends." You can also use more recent video drivers. See also post 1016.

Assumming you are using recent SIS chipset drivers -- which you must --- go to this site and check: http://www.sis.com/download/

These tips can solve a bunch of problems. The link below has some solutions for people with recent drivers and still have problems:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=1159


10. Some people with performance problems have found that their monitors REFRESH RATE was set too low. [It will go to a default of 60 when you install the card or the drivers.] The monitor wasn't keeping up with the information being sent to it from the card. 85 is a great setting for this card and the human eye can't see above that anyway. There is no visible difference at higher levels, but there is more demand on the card, which you do not want because you will have to lower game settings. .

11. Clearing the CMOS can get you up and running. This is a last resort, but it works wonders if you need it. It is primarily for people whose systems will not even boot up. But reinstall the card a few times to make sure it is seated proplerly before doing this (see post 3 below). There are various posts in this thread on doing it, but I recommend IchibanB's post # 927 on P. 46 and 942 on p. 47. Anyone can do it. First, Bring up your BIOS, go to each section and write your settings down - do not change anything - and exit without saving. This is your backup. Then shut off the system, unplug it, and take the battery out. Leave it out for about 10 or 15 minutes. [You can also clear it using a jumper, but most people do not know which jumper, or how to do this]. When you start your system back up, it should reset what it needs automatically, and you are good to go. In the rare event that it doesn't boot up, go into the BIOS and compare settings with what you wrote down. Do not change the video settings though, that is why you cleared it in the first place.

As you Know, the wisest way to make these kinds of changes is one at a time, then check it. Otherwise you might make a good change, like #6 and a change that is not good for YOUR system, like #10, which helps some people, but not others.

USERS: Hopefully you can solve your problem, but if not, feel free to print this post and send it back with your card, identifying which things you tried to get it to work right.

I am running some very demanding games, at 1280 x 1024 resolution with most settings maxed out. I can even run the beautiful Nvidia Nalu and Luna demos. Nvidia makes the greatest demos! With modest overclocking (550/1000) this card performs close to the 6800 basic in most benchmarks. Do not overclock more than a 10% boost unless you have a 3rd party custom cooler, or your card will not last long. With 3rd party cooling and good circulation, I now overclock at 590/1130 and out perform a 6800 base card.

These solutions worked for my old mobo and CPU, they should work for you. Some solutions I found on other posts in forums. If none of this helps, you probably can conclude that you have a bad card, send it back before it is too late. Include a letter with everything you tried to make it work (do not try overclocking!)

Get this magazine, PC Gamer's The PC Building Bible. It will be the best $10 you ever spent on computing stuff. You will need to go to one of those mega book stores to get it. It has valuable information on installing motherboards, video cards and PSUs, video terminology, how to tweak windows for better performance, tips for running games as well as a bunch of other stuff. (I am not affiliated in any way with PC Gamer magazine, but they have good articles and very useful evaluations.) You should also check out Tomshardware.com before you buy hardware.

Note to Manufacturers: Please stop putting cheap heat sinks and lousy, small fans on these cards. They need to be kept cooler.
Please update your video BIOS on your web site support pages and enable temperature monitoring.
Please raise the power supply recommendation to 450 W, or specify 18+ amps on the +12 volt line.
Please make your card truly bakward compatable with 4X AGP. That means able to run at 1.5 volts as well as .8 volts (the 8X spec).
And DO expect to get some of your cards back for taking the cheap way out, and underestimating minimum requirements. See post #674, P.34.

Note to DRIVER writers: Some recent drivers, i.e. 78 and above, report (with a recurring pop up message) that there is not enough power to run the card. with the pop up comes comes a drastic reduction in memory speed, which Rivatuner does not override . I've been using my card for 11 months now and it is only with the updated drivers that I got this message. A fix that I have come up with, is to reboot, disable most of your memory resident programs, and replay the game. This problem is in the driver not the amount of power system actually has (unless you really do not have enough power).


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Any Card: How to solve Artifacting problems and tweak your system:

Do you get wierd looking artifacts -- lines, colors, and shapes on screen, and possibly hang or crash? The problem is probably solvable!
First, see how consistent this behavior is, check other games; some games are just buggy. Use diagnostic and benchmark helps like 3Dmark 3, or Mark 5, demos from Nvidia, etc.

GENERAL CAUSES: : (Double check to make sure all your connections are good.)
1) You are overheating. CPU or video: see the cooling section above for video.
2) You need more resources - usually system memory or video memory, but possibly CPU speed.
3) Some settings in your BIOS or in Windows (like your refresh rate) may need adjusted.
4) Thinking you have a more powerful card than you actually do. Lower those game settings!
5) You do have a new top-of-the-line card. These can take a while to get working properly with the latest drivers and their video bios. Check the forums for the card or Nvidia forums. Report your problems to Nvidia and the manufacturer of the card (tech support). Triple check your connections, try the things below, and keep your drivers updated with the latest beta drivers available at guru3d.com, laptopvideo2go.com, or other sites. Use common sense and do not overclock the card for a month or more.

Bottom Line: The overall system or the card's hardware is not equipped to do what you are asking of it. [The stuttering/skip screening is a bottleneck, not an artifact -- you need more speed.] But insufficient memory, or the same memory address accessed by more than one program, (or multiple parts of a single program) can cripple DX9 or fatally wound Windows. Incompatabilities between card- driver-video bios-and (rarely)motherboard bios will also cause problems.

If you need a great video utility, chenk out Powerstrip, it evenworks in MS Vista. http://search.hotbot.co.uk/cgi-bin/pursuit...=hb_loc&SITE=uk

MEMORY SOLUTIONS: If you do these first, you will be able to keep some software settings higher or gain more framerates.

1) Video memory is most important for battling artifacting, but you also you need decent system memory. You should have at least 1GB if you expect speed and stability on current games. If you don't, please do not whine about problems, which you WILL have. I can't believe that some people running today's resource hogging games expect just 512MB (or less) to run them well. [Never rely on minimum requirement specs on a any box. That figure is designed to produce sales.] Games (all programs) load into memory, memory runs faster than CPUs, stored info doesn't need reprocessed by the CPU. Even with an older CPU you can make up some major ground with increased memory. Benchmarks won't reveal all the advantages because they feed in new info all the time, but games love it because they re-read code already in memory!

Game manufacturers are using top end machines for testing, and letting the buyer scale down the video settings. Half Life 2, Counter Strike S., BF2, Splinter Cell CT, Doom 3, WOW, FEAR, NFSMW, Fable TLC, Quake 4, Oblivion, MS Flight Sim X, and recently released games can move toward eating 2 Gigs if given half a chance. Windows XP alone can eat up half of 512 Mb RAM, and dynamically increases memory use depending on how much memory you have. Then, every program takes its bite (address space your game could use), including the ones you do not know about that load on start up! Check this out:

--How to maximize your system memory and tweak your system

1) Open control panel, startup, and check each tab, especially the HKLM /Run tab. There you will discover what you really have starting up in your system - Surprise! Uncheck what you do not need, especially spyware -- but warning do not uncheck something simply because you don't know what it is. Reboot.
You will find some you want for regular computing, but not for gaming, keep them in startup, but before you actually play a game, right click on specific programs on your task bar and exit them. [Never exit your Anti Virus program though. If a game can't work with it then chuck the game.] These tips alone have solved various artifacting problems for me and others. Recently, I was able to get Fable TLC to run better this way.

2) Free up RAM by doing a fresh reboot before you play. Windows does not clean out all DLLs from memory when you quit a program. You can also load your game, close it back out, and reload it (not as good as rebooting though).

3) Deactivate: If you are running any programs that capture the screen such as Window Blinds, (temporarily) deactivate or exit them. I like to modify my cursor with Cursor XP (also from Stardock), but Prince of Persia does not like it and we have to deactivate it. A lot of screen savers (not the ones that come with MS Windows) can mess you up (and have spyware). Also deactivate programs that check the internet and update programs or information, like weather or news programs. Also deactivate any scheduler programs, or set them for a time when you definitly will not be playing -- if there is such a time

4) Increase your swap file size if you haven't done so already. In brief, Windows uses hard drive space as memory to store data. The default windows setting is not enough for gamers.
Go to control panel--- system--- advanced--- performance settings--- virtual memory. Ignore the warning if you have some hard drive space to spare. I was using 1792MB for the Minimum and 2816 for the maximum page file on a 200 Gig HD w/ 1 gig system RAM. Of course, actual RAM is better, but this still helps all games play better. Years ago, when Unreal and UT first came out, this was standard proceedure if you wanted to improve frame rates, it still gives a bit of an edge (for the same reasons Window uses it in the first place). No need to make it too big. Example - with a max page file of of 2816mb and 1 Gig system RAM, I have 3,818 mb to play with (plus video memory).


SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS
These provide the fastest way to eliminate artifacting.Open the game, open its Options menu, open its Video menu and begin.
General links for definitions and info: vojackpot.com, Tweakguides.com, and en.wikipedia.org

1) Lowering resolution has the greatest impact. But I like high res, so I start with #2.

2) Next in importance -- lower Anti-Aliasing and Antistropic Filtering. In most cases -- your artifacting problem is solved right here, already.
Antialiasing minimizes aliasing -- the jagged or blocky patterns most evident on angled lines or curved survaces. It smooths the edges making for beter appearance of textures. Its nice to keep some if your system can handle it.
Antistropic filtering enhances image quality of textures on surfaces that are far away and/or are angled with respect to the camera. It also reduces the shimmering effect that occurs when hi res textures are moved from foreground to background.
AA and AF settings can require large amounts of video memory and multiple pipelines. they also work with mip-mapping in amazing ways. Mip maps are precalculated bit map images (inferrior copies) of a main texture. They reduce in size and have a lower level of detail to aid in rapid rendering of an image. (Most obvious to the user as objects move farther away on screen -- they reduce in size and detail. The main texture is abandoned and the mip map is used.)

3) Lower shadow settings if your game will let you. Lowering these top 3 will remove artifacting and increase performance (framerates) in all games.

4) Lower various fog, reflection, etc. settings that are nice but not that important.

Tip: Better cards have better pixel and vertex shaders. These shaders provide those amazing graphics effects in the better games. They process geometric calculations that handle terrain morphing, reflections, some shadow, and some lighting calculations.

5) Lower texture or skin settings (I avoid this unless I'm desperate for frame rates)

5) Turn VSync off for most games, a few will work better with it on, especially with Pre-6600GT video cards. I never use it. Enabling VSync prevents the game from running faster than the monitor's refresh rate. Typically, if a game runs faster than the refresh rate, it causes textures to tear and look distorted. If you put Vsync on, you might want to up your refresh rate for performance sake, but high refresh rates heavily tax your video card (and can ruin your monitor if you set it higher than the monitor can handle -- check your specs).
A very good refresh rate is 85. Human vision cannot discern flickering above 80. If it is higher than 85 you are wasting resources that could be better served in performance or appearance. Analog refresh rates of 60 (windows default) or 70 are too low and cannot handle the data thrown at them by decent video cards. Most Flat panels use 60 only.

6) Check Bilinear and tri-linear filtering. This is 2 axis and 3 axis filtering. Bilinear only takes into account nearby pixels on a single mip-map level. Trilinear is more demanding because it considers proximate pixels on more than one mip-map level. Use trilinear if your card can handle use it, if not, back off to bilinear.

7) Check your audio settings; take the fancy stuff off. This does affect video performance! Does your sound cut out at times? Be sure you have consistency between your windows audio setting, audio software setting (i.e. the Creative soundmixer), and audio hardware (i.e. an external Amp or control unit). I had problems with one game because my windows and creative mixer setting were set for Digital Sound, 5 speaker, but the external amp turns on with a default of stereo. Match everything.

8) Switch video drivers (notice I did not say get the latest - but you should try them). Some drivers such as 77.72 caused artifacting not experienced with lower drivers. 78.05 works better on a wider variety of systems than many later drivers. Note: If your system is crashing, you can open Control panel --- Admin tools --- Event Viewer --- and check the time you froze up. If the error message says that the display driver was caught in an infinite loop, change the driver. Be sure to use both the Windows Add/Remove Programs and Driver Cleaner Pro to remove your old driver. Once the new driver is in, up the refresh rate to 85.
Are there settings you may have activated in your video driver settings options? Right click desktop -- then properties -- setings -- advanced -- [your video card name] -- and see what you enabled in Performance and quality, Desktop management, or effects. The defaults are fine, but if you activated a bunch of stuff you don't really need, take it back off. Including dual monitors.

9) Go online to a forum for your game and see if there is a patch and what others are doing. Most games/programs are buggy when they first come out.

>>Once stable, begin upping your favorite settings one at a time to see where the problem is. Decide if you want quality, performance, or a happy medium. I'm a sucker for good graphics and image quality, so I begin by upping resolution and textures/skin settings.

OK ,you seriously lower all important settings, it works for a little while ( or maybe not), and you still have artifacts and crashing. Well then my friend you have a memory deficiency or a hardware problem. You may be underequipped, or overheating. If you tried the fixes in the first half of this post and you can't get any decent 3D performance, you probably have a bad chip(set) and need to send the card back ASAP. (Check heatsink connections first.) Do get a different brand, some BIOSes are incompatable.

OTHER SOLUTIONS:

1) Shut off your internet connection, unless you are playing on the internet! Your operating system accesses the internet periodically, and can even check for updates while you're playing. If you have a good firewall, check the log and you will see what I mean.

2) Always defragment your hard drive before loading a new game. If it gives you an option, load as much of the program as possible to the hard drive.

3) Use a Virtual Disk program that lets you use place CD data on your hard drive and run from there (so you do not have to physically put the CD in the drive). The one I have accesses data at the speed of a 200X CD. This will not solve graphics card limitations, but it may let the program run a faster (depending on how much loaded to the hard drive to begin with).

4) Some BIOS tips: Be sure your mobo BIOS and video card BIOS are compatable. do some research.
Enable Fast Writes in your BIOS. Not everyone should do this (I can't). Fast Writes allows data to be sent directly from the CPU to the video card without frist placing it in main memory. It gives a slight performance boost, but must be supported by both the video card and the motherboard. [Most 6600Gt cards run better with it off.]
While you are in the BIOS, see if you have a Turbo-type setting activated. Only lower it as a last resort, but some mobo/ video card combos do not like it.

5) Numerous people report that upgrading thier motherboard solved their artifacting problems. Well, . . .Yeaah . . . . This is especially true for recently released games. People with these games should also check posts 727 - 729. on p.39, post 972,973. Unperf has some good recommendations on motherboards, check posts 910 - 912 on p. 46, or send him a Personal Message. In the comments on VIA chipsets, the link there affirms that changing motherboards was the only solution to some VIA problems.

>>>>>Why did your old card run a game but not the 6600 GT? . The main reason is based on the way the cards utilize DirectX 9 and game features. The older cards have limited or no access to various features, and the game recognizes this. Therefore these video processing calls in the program get disabled by default. Games evaluate your system when they load just like they do when you install them. The game performs as best as it can with that particular card, and with limited DX 9 functions. The newer cards can perform more complex video features of the game, so the game allows them access to all of the nice eye candy that we all appreciate. However newer games have too much of this for older video cards, and they choke. A 6600 GT is like a teenager, it has just enough power to get it in trouble. Games allow it to perform certain functions, but it simply cannot perform like a 7900. But, both cards allow DX9 capabilities that the game demands. Hence lowering game settings can solve numerous problems. This is the basic reason without getting too technical.


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See my second post below, #3, for a few more suggestions.

Please Note When early posters in the first 20 pages say that they have tried everything on these posts --- Well, no, actually, they havn't. That was a long time ago. Posts 1 and 3 have been improved dozens of times since they wrote those comments.

God bless and have fun.

********************* Stay right with God, one day you're going to meet Him!

This post has been edited by FALCON: Dec 18 2007, 04:45 PM