Artifacts in busy SIMs

[Impresario Beaumont]

I have been running without problems for a couple of years using a Gigabyte GAX58A-UDR3 motherboard, 6GB Corsair memory, an i7-920 CPU and a EVGA GeForce 8800GTS graphics card, using  a Viewsonic VX2453 monitor.

Then a few weeks ago I experienced artifacts on my screen when I visit venues with 6 or more avatars. The artifact typically starts at a point at an avatar, then crosses the screen forming a big triangle of a single color. As I cam around, these artifacts disappear and others form, sometimes almost filling the screen.

I had a similar issue when I first started in SL, using a entry level graphics card and that problem disappeared when I replaced it with something better. I concluded that my 8800GTS had given up the ghost after many years of good service and acquired a EVGA GTX970.

To my surprise, the problem didn't go away! I got in touch with EVGA support who walked me through various clean installs of the drivers. No luck. They offered to replace the card, but also suggested that I try the card in another PC to see if the problem moved with the card. It didn't. The 970 works beautifully in another PC (this one with a slightly faster CPU and 16GB of memory).

My question is, what other than the graphics card could create this problem? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

 

[Ohjiro Watanabe]

It is quite a big jump, it might be underpowered.

 

 

 

 

[Drake1 Nightfire]

Does this happen with mutiple viewers or just one?

[Impresario Beaumont]

I'm using a 750W supply. I think that's plenty. Thanks for the thought though.

[Impresario Beaumont]

I'm using Firestorm on both the PC on which the artifacts occur and the one where it doesn't. I can't try another viewer on the failing system for a week or so, but will try it then. Thank you for the thought.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

You might want to ask in the Firestorm Support Group as well, the devs are there to help.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

It'll take a while, but swapping the PSU might be a good idea. I had a failing PSU once and it gave all kinds of weird issues, which seemed to be related to sometimes motherboard, sometimes memory, sometimes screen, sometimes gpu etc.

Whether it's a 300W or 750W one makes no difference if it's broken.

[Impresario Beaumont]

I wish I'd taken Drake1's question to heart earlier.

The problem was not apparent on Viewer 2. After doing a clean re-install of Firestorm, no more artifacts there either.

I just couldn't confince myself that this was a software issue, but it was.

Thank you for the advice and particularly the suggestion to try other viewers.