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I am noticing that objects in the distance pixelate-in rather than poping-in. Its happened in Assassin's Creed 3 and Farcry 3. Nothing yet in BF2 with enb. It started in Assassin's Creed 3 after playing for awhile. Its hard to get screenshots of this.

Haven't noticed any artifacts, discoloration, or misplaced textures. No freezing or BSOD.

I did recently move back home for summer, but I made pretty sure that my computer didn't hit anything.

Is this the sign of a dying video card?

My specs:
Processor: Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 4 Core(s)
RAM: 2GB (Yeah I need to upgrade this)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1GB RAM)
OS: Windows Vista

When was the last time you had a driver update for your video card? Did any of those games have any recent updates? I've had problems in the past where a game was updated using new graphics drivers that I was unaware of, so graphics would get funky in places because I was still running on a previous driver version. Updating graphics drivers after a game update sometimes fixes the problem, if that was in fact the cause.

I've also had graphics issues when my system started to overheat. Cooling fans either in the tower case or on the GPU itself were dying (or died), causing the GPU to overheat and bork the graphics at times. If you test all fans and they seem to work well, also check that there is nothing like dust/lint in the fans and inside the case, and that your cable placement isn't reducing proper air flow.

You might also want to physically remove the graphics card, blow it off, check the connections, etc. Then reinstall it (physically, not the software), making sure all connections are solid and that the card is seated properly. It's possible that during the move something might have come a little loose, not enough to disconnect the card or prevent it from working, but just enough to slew the output a bit.


If none of those seem to work, then it's possible your card has simply reached it's EOL cycle and is due for replacement. Is it still under warranty for an RMA? If not, it might be time for a new card.

One last option, if available, is to install a different (yet similar level) of graphics card into your system and see if those graphics issues are still present. Since it's happening on multiple games, it could be something other than the drivers. By testing with a second card, you should be able to confirm easier if it's actually the card at issue or something else.

Edit: nothing

[R-DEV]Ninja2dan wrote:When was the last time you had a driver update for your video card? Did any of those games have any recent updates? I've had problems in the past where a game was updated using new graphics drivers that I was unaware of, so graphics would get funky in places because I was still running on a previous driver version. Updating graphics drivers after a game update sometimes fixes the problem, if that was in fact the cause.

I've also had graphics issues when my system started to overheat. Cooling fans either in the tower case or on the GPU itself were dying (or died), causing the GPU to overheat and bork the graphics at times. If you test all fans and they seem to work well, also check that there is nothing like dust/lint in the fans and inside the case, and that your cable placement isn't reducing proper air flow.

You might also want to physically remove the graphics card, blow it off, check the connections, etc. Then reinstall it (physically, not the software), making sure all connections are solid and that the card is seated properly. It's possible that during the move something might have come a little loose, not enough to disconnect the card or prevent it from working, but just enough to slew the output a bit.


If none of those seem to work, then it's possible your card has simply reached it's EOL cycle and is due for replacement. Is it still under warranty for an RMA? If not, it might be time for a new card.

One last option, if available, is to install a different (yet similar level) of graphics card into your system and see if those graphics issues are still present. Since it's happening on multiple games, it could be something other than the drivers. By testing with a second card, you should be able to confirm easier if it's actually the card at issue or something else.

Hi thanks for the reply. My driver supports Assassin's Creed 3 (Nvidia 310.22). I think that it may be RAM running out or an overheating problem. I noticed my available RAM was really low (853mb). How do you monitor computer heat?

Anyways, I'll update my driver when I have the time. I'll consider upgrading my video card (receipt got destroyed, so no replacement possible), but should I wait until May to buy one? There doesn't seem to be many deals right now.

fromage99 wrote:Hi thanks for the reply. My driver supports Assassin's Creed 3 (Nvidia 310.22). I think that it may be RAM running out or an overheating problem. I noticed my available RAM was really low (853mb). How do you monitor computer heat?

Anyways, I'll update my driver when I have the time. I'll consider upgrading my video card (receipt got destroyed, so no replacement possible), but should I wait until May to buy one? There doesn't seem to be many deals right now.

You said you haven't modified your system since your move, and from what I understood about your post is that you are playing the same games as before but with lower performance, correct? If that's the case, RAM shouldn't be an issue if it was working fine before. Not unless the game itself had some major updates that crossed the line of what your GPU was capable of.

As for overheating, you can use BIOS to monitor general system temps. Most modern motherboards also have a CPU temp sensor that plugs into the board and the sensor wire goes between the CPU and the fan to offer more precise temp monitoring. But even if your board doesn't have that feature, you can still check BIOS for a fairly accurate system temp as well as monitor the fan speeds of any fans plugged into the board's fan plugs.

Some GPU also feature a temp and fan monitor as part of their management software.


A good indication that the issue is due to GPU overheating is that graphics appear fine for a while after you boot the PC and run a game, but after the game is running a while it starts to tard out. If the overheating is bad enough, your GPU will actually tell your PC to shut down for safety reasons, so you'll see your PC turn off without any warning. No "shut down", just a straight power-down. This is most likely to happen if your GPU fan is dead or failing badly enough that it can't cool your GPU below threshold.

One way you can check, keep the side cover off of your case. Have your PC shut down for a while so that it's completely cooled down, then boot it up and let it run idle on the desktop for about 20-30 minutes. Reach inside the case and place your fingers on the GPU heatsink and feel the temp level at idle. Then fire up your game and run it normally for another 15-20 minutes and feel the heatsink again. If it doesn't feel too hot and the graphics aren't glitching out, keep running the game until it does glitch. Once you start seeing graphics issues, feel the heatsink again. If it's lava hot, you're probably overheating. At that point, you'll want to check that the GPU fan is actually running, and that it's moving at a "normal" speed without making a lot of noise. If the fan isn't running, or is running very slowly or at irregular speeds, then your GPU fan might need replaced.

If your GPU fan is shot, check for replacement costs from places like ebay or Tigerdirect. You can usually get a replacement for a lot less than a whole new graphics card.

Hi just had a error, like 20min ago.

Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105

Files that help describe the problem (some files may no longer be available)
WD-20130501-1924.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt

View a temporary copy of these files
Warning: If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a copy of the files could harm your computer.

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 117
BCP1: 84CCC510
BCP2: 8D8FF4A2
BCP3: 00000000
BCP4: 00000000
OS Version: 6_0_6002
Service Pack: 2_0
Product: 768_1
Server information: e1ee5ba4-5116-46c4-8b9d-075877398ded

I got this error while just reading comments on ign. Do you think this is a driver issue or a hardware issue?

My screen just blacked out, and then went back to normal again.

Just curious, what power supply wattage are you using? Is it a 400W or higher?

The first thing you should do is check to see if there are updated drivers available for your card. I've spoken to a few contacts that work with MS, and they seem to have this same issue (BCCode 117) in their support lines fairly often. 90% of the time, driver update for the graphics card solves the problem.


The reason I ask about the PSU is because some people install newer graphics cards without upgrading their PSU at the same time, when in fact the new GPU requires a higher PSU output than their original PSU provides. A lot of the low-end systems I see all come with a 350W OEM, which is usually fine for onboard GPU or the no-frills cards that come with non-gaming pre-builds. Your specific card requires a 400W minimum.

Both overheating and insufficient PSU can give nearly the same problems, frequent card shutdown that results in either a black/blank screen or system power-off/reboot. So check your drivers first, and if those are up-to-date, we can move on with checking for other possible causes of the problem.

I updated my driver to 314.22, everything seems to be working. I had graphical glitches occur with windows aero, but now those are gone. I think it might have been a driver issue, I just got Arkham city, and I haven't noticed any graphical glitches with that.

Hopefully that was the problem I was facing. After updating my driver to 310.20, I had a BSOD, and a computer freeze. I think that was a bad driver overall, it seemed rushed. Thanks for your help.

As for my PSU, I upgraded that to allow my computer to support more powerful cards. I upgraded my PSU, when I upgraded my computer with a 8800GT, a few years ago. I don't know how to check the wattage on it.

Good to hear the driver has probably fixed the issue. I've been building and repairing my own computers for decades, and the most common problem that I've had has been video card failure. I'm a gamer, that's expected. But with cards needing updates so often now, it's hard to keep up. It's actually one of the first thing tech support will tell you to check.


As for the PSU wattage, it should be listed on the sticker on the unit. Low power levels usually result in a slightly different error message, so I didn't expect that to be the problem, but it was worth checking just in case. I don't think it's an issue if the driver fixed the problem.

fromage99 wrote:I am noticing that objects in the distance pixelate-in rather than poping-in. Its happened in Assassin's Creed 3 and Farcry 3. Nothing yet in BF2 with enb. It started in Assassin's Creed 3 after playing for awhile. Its hard to get screenshots of this.

Haven't noticed any artifacts, discoloration, or misplaced textures. No freezing or BSOD.

I did recently move back home for summer, but I made pretty sure that my computer didn't hit anything.

Is this the sign of a dying video card?

My specs:
Processor: Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 4 Core(s)
RAM: 2GB (Yeah I need to upgrade this)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1GB RAM)
OS: Windows Vista

i'd noticed that in FC3 the LOD's load up pixleated anyway (which looks hideous IMO)

the real tell tale of when graphics are on the way out is when you get pink and green lines running up and down the screen.