I recently put a Nvidia 7600GS in my system. Has run great for the past week or so. Today, I fired up a couple programs, my aquarium screen saver, and particularly a game (flight sim 2004), and there are what I can best describe as artifacts everywhere. The screen just goes nuts. The aquarium isn't so bad, but you can see a small video here (wswd.net/bryan/fish.wmv) The card is getting plenty of power, and cooling is fine (temps. hover between 50-53C, I have yet to see it over 55 under load). After trying 3 different drivers and every possible setting imaginable on the card, I tried underclocking the card. After underclocking the card (especially the RAM) everything ran great. I tried slowly clocking the card back up. I can run the processor at or around its designed speed (400 MHz), but I can't run the memory anywhere near it's designed speed (540 Mhz). Is the card bad? Thanks in advance!!

Has run great... I'd consider a system restore to a time when it did work. If still fails then card may be bad. If works good then some other app interfeered with the card. Might see if the maker has any diags to test correctly from a clean boot from CD. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

Thanks for the reply Jefro. Tried system restore to no avail. Still does the same thing. Unfortunately, the mfg. doesn't have any diagnostic software. Looks like it's time to return it.

its designed speed (400 MHz), but I can't run the memory anywhere near it's designed speed (540 Mhz). Uh- one or the other is its 'designed' speed, not both...lol. Manufacturers will clock the same GPU at different rates depending on which memory is on the card and other things ( features, etc.) Search Engines Are Your Friends ☺ Morpheus: There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. "The Matrix"

"Uh- one or the other is its 'designed' speed, not both...lol." Ummmmm...actually no. Glad you got a good laugh though. The core clock is 400MHz, the memory clock is 540MHz. They're not the same thing.

"The core clock is 400MHz, the memory clock is 540MHz. They're not the same thing." Yep.

Just to update this, exchanged the card today for a new one and everything is working great. Tech. confirmed that the problem was most likely memory failure on the card. Nice to have everything working again.