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Second Life and giant squares everywhere

Rumancekk

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Rumancekk

Rumancekk

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For some reason every so often these giant squares or weird graphical glitches show up all over my screen and it seems to come from certain avatars. It started randomly, maybe after I updated firestorm but idk. I don't think I'm really overheating THAT bad? It never goes above 76C and if it does I minimize it. I always keep a fan pointed towards it too to make sure it doesn't really overheat.

 

It has never gone above that, but I was a bit worried at first about the graphics card. 

 

Here's a pic of it happening at the bottom. The boxes kind of flash off and on for a moment and then they will go away. Just now it happened with an avatar that wasn't mine. I was pointed towards him and all these pink spikes shot all over the screen and I started lagging horribly . When I faced away from him it stopped. I had to turn down the compelxity and it still was happening for a while but then eventually quit.

 

Anyone know what this is?

 

 

romanscondlife_342.png

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Rumancekk

Rumancekk

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11 hours ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

We need a little more info.

  • Which viewer are you using? (version too!)
  • What graphics card are you using?
  • What is the version of your graphics drivers?

As you might guess, those are important factors when it comes to figuring out what causes graphics glitches like that.

  • Firestorm 6.3.2
  • AMD Radeon HD 8650G
  • 15.200.1062.1004 is what device manager says
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Rumancekk

Rumancekk

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4 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

I suspect that one thing Fritigern may have in mind is the behavior of some AMD graphics cards.  On occasion, some of their cards have done funky things like you are describing.  They can usually be solved by updating the card's drivers.

that's kind of a relief then that it's just my graphics card being moderately weird and not like, dying..

edit:

apparently tho i can't update my driver according to what i'm seeing. it does not appear anywhere on the AMD website anymore and I can't use their auto-detector because I have neither windows 7 nor windows 10, I have windows 8.1 and it isn't supported. So I guess i'm just gonna have to live with it lol

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Rolig Loon

Rolig Loon

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Oh, that's sad.  Yes, neither Microsoft nor Linden Lab support In 8.1 now, so you are off the charts ... on your own. The obvious solution is to upgrade to Win 10.  I resisted it myself for ages, but am glad that I finally caved in. A small investment in the future saves you from an increasing number of problems with outdated software.

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Fritigern Gothly

Fritigern Gothly

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2 hours ago, Rumancekk said:
  • Firestorm 6.3.2
  • AMD Radeon HD 8650G
  • 15.200.1062.1004 is what device manager says

and

2 hours ago, Rumancekk said:

apparently tho i can't update my driver according to what i'm seeing. it does not appear anywhere on the AMD website anymore and I can't use their auto-detector because I have neither windows 7 nor windows 10, I have windows 8.1 and it isn't supported. So I guess i'm just gonna have to live with it lol

These two responses made me want to find out how good/bad your card is. Although the first thing I thought was "figures, I have seen that before with AMD cards".
So... When I looked up your card on https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ and compared it to my own card, this is what I noticed:
image.thumb.png.7472a82421084a915b37d62932e33055.png

Although your card is about a year younger than mine, it was clearly never intended to be a gaming card which is made quite evident by the G3D Mark score it received.
My advice is to upgrade your graphics card, assuming you are using a desktop computer instead of a (yuck!) laptop. You can get some pretty nice second hand cards for only a few dollars. 50 USD can get you some pretty good deals, even if they aren't the newest (mine is considered old, but works very well with SL).

P.S. If you have a choice, I would still recommend going with an Nvidia card, they support their older cards in their drivers longer than AMD does.

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DilliDallagio

DilliDallagio

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A search on the internet reveals the Radeon HD 8650G to be the graphics half of an AMD Richland series APU. As such, the GPU shares its memory with the CPU and system memory. The system memory needs to be configured as dual-channel to get all this GPU can give (which according to a 2018 Game-Debate.com review is nothing; it cannot handle modern games at all).

If this APU is part of a desktop system, it *might* be possible to add a separate, discrete GPU in it; if there is an available slot, it is using the appropriate PCI software, and the power supply can handle it.

And yes, the image from the OP is exactly how it looked when I ran Second Life in 2006 using an iBook and mobile Radeon graphics. The only way I could fix it was to get a different machine with better graphics.

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Rumancekk

Rumancekk

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9 minutes ago, DilliDallagio said:

 

 

50 minutes ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

 

I am using a laptop, because I don't currently have the space for a desktop though I do plan to get one, the price just isn't on the table right now. I still don't even know how to set one up. I mostly sit on my bed and lay down half the time because I actually can't stay sitting up for long... 

I would still like to keep my laptop for other purposes (I can't move a desktop with me if I plan to stay somewhere else for a night) so I'd like to keep my graphics card still working. That's why I was worried second life may be killing it, but I still want to play second life... It doesn't bother me if it doesn't look great. I have my stuff on medium and don't have advanced lighting on, and my draw distance is fairly low. 65 I think.

But the one I do have my eye on currently is this

 

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DilliDallagio

DilliDallagio

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48 minutes ago, Rumancekk said:

I'd like to keep my graphics card still working. That's why I was worried second life may be killing it, but I still want to play second life... It doesn't bother me if it doesn't look great. I have my stuff on medium and don't have advanced lighting on, and my draw distance is fairly low. 65 I think

I understand what you are saying. With that in mind, no, you will not *necessarily* kill your graphics card as long as you do as you are already doing; running SL viewers at medium settings or less. While I was viewing the Gaming-Debate.com site for your GPU I noticed they recommend using a game's lowest graphic settings for this GPU so you may want to try that. Of course, dropping your draw distance down even further should help. Even a 32m draw inside a building should be fine (unless it is a grand cathedral or cavern or something similar). Be mindful of heat build-up doing what you can to keep the air flowing around it.

As for the system you are looking at, it will be more than adequate for Second Life. Personally I am using an RX-480 GPU and it is fine. The CPU is fine; much better than what I am using and since Second Life is still predominantly a CPU-driven product, will be fine. I would, however, see if there are systems for about the same price that are using newer GPUs. The RX-580 was released in 2017. Something with a Vega 64 (an incremental improvement over the RX-580; released in 2018) may be price competitive to the RX-580.

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Lillith Hapmouche

Lillith Hapmouche

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Did you find this thread or this one in the AMD forums? There are a few suggestions on how to update the drivers for your APU. Might or might not work, but it's worth trying, considering your "current" driver is from 2015.

The PC system you're looking at is ok. Personally, I find it a bit expensive for past-generation hardware. For $100 less, it'd be a beautiful deal.

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Lillith Hapmouche

Lillith Hapmouche

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Hmm. Playing with the Vertext Buffers setting is also a nice idea.

I did a little browsing on Newegg's offers and picked a few deals which I find more attractive:

https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-technologies-rouge-se-ala142-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16883102826 ... the components are ok for below $600.

https://www.newegg.com/p/3D5-0005-004M7 ... with the 16 GB RAM option for roughly $ 680 = $ 20 more than the 8 GB config, definitely worth it.

 

Nice, but with flaws:

https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-technologies-mage-e-ala107/p/N82E16883102697R ... my problem is the "open box" status. Hardware-wise, it's quite my favourite.

https://www.newegg.com/p/3D5-000D-00052 ... a tad too expensive for the hardware. It also seems a lot like a refurbished setup.

https://www.newegg.com/hp-pavilion-690-0067c-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16883288687 ... definitely refurbished, no SSD, could be cheaper.

 

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