Radeon HD 2600XT trouble

galitz · Feb 16, 2008

Hi folks.

I have just installed Vista x64 with a Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card, and I am experiencing graphics corruption in, particularly in 3d apps.

I sometimes get white horizontal lines across the screen and sometimes white blocks. In some 3d apps portions of the environment flicker out... they seem to disappear and I can see what is behind whatever object has disappeared momentarily.

Using Catalyst I can see that the graphics card never breaks 40% GPU utilization and the temperature never exceeds 40 degrees C.

I also had a very low end Nvidia 7500LE using the generic windows driver which also had the white lines, but I never tested the 3d apps with it.

Currently, if using the 8.2 ATI drivers, all seems well until I launch a 3d app. I have a 500 watt power supply.

Any ideas? If other folks are using a 2600XT, can you tell me what driver version works for you?

-geoff

FightingScallion · Feb 16, 2008

That's interesting. I've got 2 of those cards in Crossfire mode. I get the little blocks from time to time in COD4, but I'm pretty sure mine come from weakness in the Crossfire file (it seems to have been partly fixed in 8.2, oddly enough) and from some oddities in how COD4 was created (a bit of experience in making a custom map explained a few things).

What kind of settings are you using in Catalyst? The root might be in there. Also, what's the rest of your set-up looking like?

gazz496 · Feb 16, 2008

i get similar problems running my hd 2600 xt and have tried tons of different settings in the catalyst control and got sploogy colours in crysis when i lowered the settings and fine quality when i raised it to high which didn't make sense but i get 3d app failures alot becuase of the graphics too and i have tried all the versions from dec through to feb on the 8.2 ver where i got more problems on some and better fps on othersi would like a solution other than get a better card like the 3870 which i am considering anyway.

FightingScallion · Feb 16, 2008

Are you guys running the same brand 2600 by chance?

gazz496 · Feb 16, 2008

FightingScallion said:
Are you guys running the same brand 2600 by chance?

may well be i'm running the saphire hd 2600xt
not sure what the other guy is running
do you have a thought???

FightingScallion · Feb 16, 2008

Not really. I have Sapphires too. I was just hoping it was a wonky brand, as that would explain things. No such luck.

How about motherboards? Could be northbridge issues?

gazz496 · Feb 16, 2008

it might be i want a new mobo with better upgrade-ability to what i have as it will soon be reaching it's limit with some upgrades i'm buying
what affect will the north bridge have on it as it's a newish mobo i just want a better one

FightingScallion · Feb 16, 2008

Northbridges affect how many channels can run in the bus, as well as how quickly they run. Typically, these are referred to as "chipsets", though you should remember there can be Southbridge chipsets as well.

Consider this: Comparison of AMD chipsets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm running an AMD 580X, which (at the time) was a little more expensive than a 480X. You can see in the Crossfire column why I'd consider it worth the money.

If you get a new one, the 790FX is basically the best. Then again, there was something about it (I can't remember what) that makes me think you might want to wait for the 800 series to come out. I believe it'll end up lasting you longer.

In any case, you two might have run into a point where your graphics card is just too fast for the motherboard and the MOBO is struggling to keep up. I really don't know, though I seem to recall having heard about some oddities like that arising. Without knowing all the equipment you each have, I'm kind of shooting in the dark. Even as it is, I'm no infallible expert (yet....bwahahaha!).

gazz496 · Feb 16, 2008

i'm going to look into that then it may be one of my many problems as i can't seem to get the full potential from my ram either oh you may know this though? why would reducing the quality of the graphics in crysis say by lowering the resolution create sploogy graphics (like what a kid would do by folding painted paper) best example i could think of i get massive green and blue bits instead of clouds and all i've done is lower the resolution would that be a case of the card being to fast for the board as the card doesn't get hot or run at full speed either??

FightingScallion · Feb 16, 2008

Lower resolution does that? Higher doesn't? Very odd. What you're describing would be artifacting (normally), but that doesn't fit the description of not overheating and being better at high-res. A screen-shot might make it easier to figure out, I guess. Could be something in options, maybe. Catalyst and Crysis never have played well together (took them ages to get Crossfire to work; to the point I never even bothered to buy it).

Are you using a DVI cable to an HD monitor? It could have something to do with forcing a low resolution on a high-res monitor. Starting to shoot in the dark here.

galitz · Feb 17, 2008

Hi there. My system specs:

ASUS M2R-FVM (OEM through Fuji-Siemens)
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4600+
4GB RAM DDR2 PC6400
GeCube Radeon HD 2600XT with 256MB DDR RAM
Samsung 500G Disk (also new)
Integrated Audio (Unfortunately I cannot seem to identify the type of audio hardware)

galitz · Feb 17, 2008

Doh! I found the audio hardware spec:

Sound Card: Realtek ALC883

FightingScallion · Feb 17, 2008

Hmm...I guess at this point all I can recommend are updates. I doubt it's a cooling issue. You may want to wander over to the ATI forums and see what they have to say.

This thread has some useful updates: http://www.vistax64.com/gaming/120997-new-ms-hotfixes-gamers-single-sli-cpu-memory.html

Other than that, I'm running out of ideas. There is a chance soemthign could be bottlenecking the card and preventing all data from getting in or out at any given time, but I'm not sure what would be doing that.

The commonality of the problem with that nVidia card suggests a couple possibilities. You may be having some kind of DirectX problem (maybe reinstall DX9, though it's tough, since it's integrated in the OS). Or, possibly, there's something wrong with the motherboard and one or more of the PCIe lanes is screwed up.

galitz · Feb 21, 2008

Hello.

After more troubleshooting, including reverting back to Vista 32bit, it seems my problem is that all video drivers have this same display corruption on my machine, but in Vista x64 only. Using the ATI Radeon HD2600XT PCIE, an Nvidia 7500LE PCIE and also the integrated ATI graphics, I get screen corruption.

Reverting back to Vista 32bit, I have no problem.

So the issue seems to lie somewhere in the combination of software and hardware on my system. Any ideas on PCIE settings I can try in BIOS? I sure do not want to have to replace my motherboard, it just another added expense and more time.

-geoff

DeXtmL · Feb 21, 2008

Maybe u are right.
I'm using a X2600XT and Vista ultimate 32bit, no problems yet.

FightingScallion · Feb 21, 2008

Very odd. I wonder how I avoided it with mine.

In any case, best of luck with that. Maybe they'll have it fixed with SP1, so after that comes out, you may want to try x64 again.

galitz · Feb 21, 2008

Surprisngly Vista SP1 just came down Windows Update for me. It did not fix the issue, though. I will give ATI Customer Support one more chance to help, but I suspect I'll have to go get a new motherboard. The docs for my current motherboard (an OEM job for Fujitsu-Siemens) only indicate support for 32bit operating systems.

galitz · Feb 23, 2008

Just for the record, changing the motherboard to a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H did the trick. The old motherboard was such an obscure design that there was very little support on it and Asus did not even have a record of it in their online archives. Fujitsu-Siemens was good about responding but said that 64bit OSs are not supported on that motherboard. Since the first online BIOS release that motherboard was in 2006, I suspect it was a modded, older design that simply was not meant for anything other than a 32bit world, in spite of the 64bit processor.

-geoff

bjk · Feb 23, 2008

hd2600xt gddr 256mb no problem vista super

hıght ferformance

gazz496 · Feb 25, 2008

galitz said:
Just for the record, changing the motherboard to a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H did the trick.

-geoff

i think i will have to do the same as i can't find any support info for my motherboard either may welljust be a redesigned version of an older model will change shortly thanks!!

Radeon HD 2600XT trouble

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