Artifacts

After a hard drive crash this weekend, I had thought that my artifacting issue had been fixed upon installing a new power supply. I was, sadly, mistaken.

That is, I get noticeable, albeit not too severe, artifacts in most things that require 3D rendering. (That is, games.) I'm confident--after nearly three years of this happening--that the issue is not heat-related, since it occurs if I play a game even right after my computer has started. (Also, it was fine--absolutely fine--right after I put the new power supply in. The artifacts spontaneously started coming back. Interestingly, it started right after I had opened Finale 2006...)
I had thought that my system RAM could be at fault here. I do need to run memtest to see if it is still 'good,' but I figure that, with artifacting so constant, some other aspect of system performance would also be hit: applications would behave entirely erratically, etc. It can be thus assumed--as I see it--that after about three years of this artifacting issue the problem would have caused some sort of an equipment failure, but such is not the case.
The strangest part comes in how artifacts will be gone on some days, even when the temperature within the room that the computer sits is the same as prior days (and, for all practical purposes, the machine's internal temperatures are about the same as well). (This is what perplexes me: to have this issue recur semi-sporadically prevents me from pinpointing the cause.)

So, I don't know which part to blame. The fact that artifacts are completely gone on some days seems to indicate that I have some sort of configuration setting wrong. (The graphics card, a Geforce Ti 4200, has never been overclocked--the same goes for my CPU and RAM.) I have been over all configurable options for the driver of my card a few times, but I have found no option that has corrected my issue.

In short, does anyone know what might be causing my artifacting issue?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Domino

Are the drivers for your graphics card up to date? This could sort out the problem. Or it could be that your graphics card is on it's last legs, or just simly out of date. I'm not too sure when it was first released, going by the number though it looks as if it's a few year old.

I doubt that it's "on its last legs," as, again, it's been doing this for about three years now. My drivers are the latest version; I have tried nearly every version that supports my graphics card.

I really need to run memtest to see if my RAM is at fault.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by pink

Artifacts are video card related only.

Either its not getting enough power, or its overheating, or the memory on the Video card is going bad and/or overheating.



Just because you just turned it on doesnt mean it cant generate heat.

Artifacts aren't just video card related: faulty system RAM is also an option. (This happened with a CAD workstation at school.)
I never said that it couldn't generate heat after I turned it on; I meant that the temperatures are far too low to cause a problem.

I will, though, try a different video card. Though, now that memtest has crashed on me, I'm betting that it's the RAM.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.