Graphics Doom 3 crashing problem on 9800 pro? help

I just got a Radeon 9800 pro 256mb running on a 2mhz, 768mb Dell. Doom3 looks great but in certain spots it seems, or every 10 minutes (not sure which one it is), the game freezes and the screen turns garbled with weird colored horizontal lines. What should i do, is it a card configuration problem, or do i need a driver update? Thanks for any help!

-Ben

 

a 2mhz dell eh?

humm i would update the drivers and make sure that the card isnt overheating (the good ol finger on heatsink test will do fine)

 

Esp latest mobo and gfx drivers, ideally be sure you have DX9.0b too. If you added the 9800Pro in yourself it's likely to be the Dell PSU which is usually marginal for the stock system they provide you with. You could also check BIOS and driver settings, let us know if you need specifics. The other big thing to check is that you're NOT o/c'ing. Carmack of Doom3 said it abuses your system like nothing else so previously stable hw (usually o/c'ed hw) may seem unstable with it. You could underclock just to verify?

 

I guess i'm a noob with tech talk. How do i tell if i'm overclocking and how do i lower it if it is the case. Also there's a update on ati which i was going to install but on another site they said it ****ed up doom 3 all together. hmm

 

O/c'ing (overclocking) is where you run a component faster than it is set to run at default. eg Pentium 4 3.0ghz will often run around 3.4ghz on average if you o/c. Many parts are set a fair deal slower than they are capable of, mostly to fulfill market demand. For gfx cards there's core and RAM speeds to consider usualy denoted 380/340 (380mhz core and 340mhz RAM), you simply use a sw tool to access these. The RAM is almost always DDR so 340mhz can also be denoted as 680mhz. You need to take a few precautions when o/c'ing but the risks are virtually nill when done correctly, however it does invalidate your warranty. Basically if you aren't aware of this you're almost certain to not be o/c'ing. However you can still underclock just to see if that helps stability, but it may not be worth your time.

AFAIK ATI's latest drivers (CAT4.8) help Doom III a fair bit, the only other Doom III ATI tweaks are the beta (untested) CAT4.9 but AFAIK they're only worth it for X800 series users. So ATI's official CAT4.8 drivers should be all you need, you can use the Omega version of these drivers which also comes with an o/c'ing tab. You'd also want to check you have DirectX (DX) 9.0b installed, go to RUN and type DXDIAG and it should tell you. AFAIK the latest DX9.0c is only worth it for nVidia 6800 cards and could cause you some headaches. WinXP SP2 has DX9.0c built in.

It would be ideal to enter your mobo BIOS, usually by pressing DEL when your memory is being counted up when the PC is powered on (POST stage). Be careful in there, it's ideal to set Fast Writes to OFF, AGP Aperture to 128MB or 256MB and in some rare cases use AGP4x rather than AGP8x for which there is no real perf penalty. Under the drivers settings (Display Properties -> Advanced) check Fast Writes are OFF, VPU Recover is OFF (can cause some probs) and that your monitor doesn't have 'Use DCC' ticked. It's also advised to not force on AA+AF settings here, the Omega drivers allow you to r.click shortcuts and set these independently for each program/game. The only other major thing is the mobo drivers, the chipset ones are best. These are usually VIA (Hyperion 4in1) or nVidia ( www.nvidia.com ). What mobo are you using, what about your system specs?

 

does the problem appear gradually? or just instantly?

edit: gah! i just read your re-read your post.

try upgrading to the 4.9 catalysts
i use them without problems.