What the hell is up with my graphics card?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

So, I recently picked up an Nvidia GeForce GT 520 card for 20$. It's a refurb, so I don't expect much out of it, I figured maybe it was a return because the seller upgraded to a new card and ditched the old one, who knows? It's on an older machine that isn't expected to play anything seriously new, so I didn't really care about buying a super expensive one.

Anyways, I'm seeing stuff like this happen in a few games. At first I thought it was just a settings issue, as it only appeared in one other game at rare intervals without seriously affecting gameplay, but now I've seen it in another and I'm wondering if the hardware itself could be slightly defective? Get what you pay for I guess.

What the hell is this called anyways? Artifacting? Basically the game shoots out jagged spikes from the 3D models instead of rendering them properly. It's especially absurd on a static map element as you'll see a wall shoot out and form a giant random triangle into space that blocks visibility (but you can move through it like normal) so it seems to be some kind of rendering fuckup...

Should I just bite the bullet and actually buy a new one (one with a massive fan, apparently this might be an overheating issue from some reading I've done)?

[shmuppyLove]

Should I just bite the bullet and actually buy a new one (one with a massive fan, apparently this might be an overheating issue from some reading I've done)?

Sounds like it could be overheating, does the card have a fan or is it passively cooled?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's got a fan, but from the looks of it it's quite tiny and a piece of shit (I can barely feel any air being moved by it when I put my hand near it). I was hoping an older card wouldn't need to worry about heat so much, and my computer case has fairly good air circulation (cleaned the fans before installing it, room temp isn't hot).

I've also made sure the bios is set to use the fans as aggressively as possible.

[shmuppyLove]

Ok so not likely an overheating issue then.

Besides I think the graphics drivers these days will monitor the temp of the GPU core and shut it down if it gets too hot, or the driver might crash.

Hard to say for sure without popping the card into another PC, or maybe even swapping in a spare hard drive and trying a clean OS install to see if you can reproduce it, but sounds like a bum card.

[Lord of Pirates]

Ok so not likely an overheating issue then.

Besides I think the graphics drivers these days will monitor the temp of the GPU core and shut it down if it gets too hot, or the driver might crash.

Hard to say for sure without popping the card into another PC, or maybe even swapping in a spare hard drive and trying a clean OS install to see if you can reproduce it, but sounds like a bum card.

They should, my guess is that this is an issue with the drivers. Have you tried using older version of the driver?

[dieKatze88]

That fan isn't going to be able to keep that GPU anywhere near cool enough I'd venture to say it's an overheating issue. That video card seems to be in the category of "I need to connect 4 monitors to this business computer, never to run a 3D app" and less "I Like fun software"

[nasty_wolverine]

I have the same card, but its passive cooled, so no fan. Even then it hasnt given me any trouble, runs everything fine (dual monitor setup, one is tate permanently). No driver version gave me any trouble.

Sounds like you have a defective card.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Ah well. Sounds like I got what I paid for. Granted, I can't complain too much about the occasional graphic bug when I picked it up for super cheap, but I was hoping to get away with a lower end budget card because I don't have too many things that need hardware 3D acceleration (I also have a horrible onboard card that does the job for most things, but lags badly even in some older 3D applications). I imagine I'll have to actually invest some money in a 'real' card at some point that actually can cool itself properly, etc.

I've tweaked some settings and made sure I've got the latest drivers, though I might try older ones. That, and moved the computer to a better ventilated part of the room, so hopefully it won't be a heat related issue. I haven't noticed anything too serious yet in terms of gameplay, and it isn't having this issue reliably, only occasionally, so I can't really say for sure what it is, but I'll keep in mind that I'm likely better off getting another card be it actually defective, shitty due to the fan, etc.

[Ed Oscuro]

Have you tried a clean install of the drivers?
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topi ... er-custom/

You also might look into downloading the latest DirectX 9 update, even if you are running a newer operating system with a newer version of DirectX (10 or 11); Microsoft fucked up the transition and now people don't realize you need DX9 (specifically, 9.0c updates) to run all programs. Get that here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... px?id=8109

GPU-Z might allow messing with GPU fan speed. I don't think the regular BIOS will have a fan setting for the graphics card but I could be wrong.

The card should definitely be able to handle what you're asking of it.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The clean install option (according to the installer when I first installed the Nvidia drivers) just removes any previous Nvidia drivers/profiles from the system to avoid any driver conflict. I had it checked anyways (even though I've never had any Nvidia stuff on it). I did the custom install because, as I suspected, it also wanted to install a bunch of drivers for stuff that I had no need of, so I made sure only to install the display drivers (audio drivers for a gpu?? it doesn't even have an audio jack and my monitor has no speakers, and I don't need anything with physx or the 'nvidia experience').

I'm updated to the latest version of DirectX 9, I've been for a while if I recall. Currently running XP, so newer stuff isn't an issue for me, but I'll try reinstalling DX9 just in case that helps.

So far I've not had any more weird graphical spiking, even when I've tried turning up the quality settings to purposefully induce it, so it could have been an overheating thing, a fluke, something I fiddled with fixed it, etc. Very confusing nonetheless.

[Lord of Pirates]

Have you tried a clean install of the drivers?
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topi ... er-custom/

You also might look into downloading the latest DirectX 9 update, even if you are running a newer operating system with a newer version of DirectX (10 or 11); Microsoft fucked up the transition and now people don't realize you need DX9 (specifically, 9.0c updates) to run all programs. Get that here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... px?id=8109

GPU-Z might allow messing with GPU fan speed. I don't think the regular BIOS will have a fan setting for the graphics card but I could be wrong.

The card should definitely be able to handle what you're asking of it.

I presume nVidia has fan options in whatever their control software is called, if not, MSI Afterburner should do the trick.

[shmuppyLove]

I presume nVidia has fan options in whatever their control software is called, if not, MSI Afterburner should do the trick.

No option in the drivers, as board manufacturers can implement whatever the hell they want.

EVGA Precision is also a good option for monitoring and tweaking, is free, and works with any nvidia card.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

EVGA Precision is also a good option for monitoring and tweaking, is free, and works with any nvidia card.

Interesting tool, what's the pros/cons to overclocking? I've literally never bothered to mess with any GPUs settings in this detail before. If I were to actually underclock it, would that possibly reduce its operating temp? Nothing I use requires too much processing power so it probably wouldn't take a big hit in that area if I did.

Is there any downside to having the GPU or even the case fan cranked up to 100% all the time? I can definitely hear it better that I've tweaked things. The GPU temp is currently sitting at 41 degrees Celsius when idle, up to 50 or so when it's working hard, and it does get a bit warm upstairs, I think I noticed the artifacting happening more when the ambient temp is up (it was warmer the past couple days).

[shmuppyLove]

Overclocking:
Pros - better framerates
Cons - less stability, possibly shorter lifespan

Underclocking isn't a bad idea if overheating is the problem. You might even be able to reduce the voltages and still keep it stable.

As with any tweaking, benchmarking and stress-testing are key. FurMark is a good tool.

As for running the fan full speed all the time, only downside is more noise and shorter lifespan.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Fuck the lifespan, I got it for 20 bucks.

I'm not sure how much I want to underclock it, I guess I'd have to see how much I can without affecting framerate negatively while still being able to play on relatively high graphics settings. Doing hardware logging while playing a game, I notice the board actually reaches 63-65 degrees celsius after extended play, which is probably on the high side.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It really is a bit of a shit card, 180 points with default clock speeds.

So, underclocked slightly, this is what happened. Horrific, jagged, spiky goodness appearing at random.

At normal clock speeds, the temperature was even higher but no obvious graphical glitching throughout the test, even though it went up to 78 degrees Celsius. WTF?

Maybe it's not a temperature thing and it is the card being flaky/defective. I might also give reseating it in the PCI Express slot another go...

[shmuppyLove]

Maybe it's not a temperature thing and it is the card being flaky/defective. I might also give reseating it in the PCI Express slot another go...

Add some rubbing alcohol for better conductivity

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Add some rubbing alcohol for better conductivity

Flames obviously make everything go faster! =D

what the fuck is the background behind that video, why was someone retarded enough to light something on fire in a carpeted room, whyyyyy ow my brain

[beatsgo]

Maybe it's not a temperature thing and it is the card being flaky/defective. I might also give reseating it in the PCI Express slot another go...

It is a refurb, so there's nothing you can really do to fix the glitchy graphics other than
1) Increase the clock speed
2) Decrease the temperatures

You can try reballing the gpu and see if that fixes the issue, but you're better off getting a new one in the future.

To be honest, the results shown from furmark seems normal, so I wouldn't be worried playing easy to moderate stress leveled games.

[BuckoA51]

I have seen a Let's Go Jungle cab do the same thing as this, so I doubt it's drivers just a faulty GPU.