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I hear alot of people talking about "artifacts" in regards to video card driver problems... my question is: what exactly ARE artifacts?
And if I have artifacts, what is the best way to completely remove my old drivers before I install new ones (I tried using Detonator Destroyer but I got some sort of an error message so I don't think it worked right)
I always thought artifacts were the result of overclocking your graphics card memory too high. They're quite easy to spot on the screen, look for polygon popping, surface tearing, texture distortion, and 'sparklies' (little white dots appearing all over the place). Also stuff like lines down the screen and overal reduced image quality.
Artifacts are graphic glitches that aren't supposed to be there. Like splotches of color in random places.
Simply putting it, u run 3d20001se at default g-card speeds. Then u run at highest possible, and u will know what artifacts are. (Remember to not fry ur g-card as I did with my Gainward G4 ti4200 GS)
When the video texture memory fails to switch(ussually becuase its going too fast or voltage is too low) it leaves that texture on the screen till it starts working again. Its very noticable so ussually a fairly reliable threshold indication.
Core failure can also create artifacts but those are quite different and varied. Often soon accompanied by a crash.
in many and most cases, artifacts are caused, as many people have already mentioned, by overclocking your card past its limits.
If you think it's due to software related issues, then dl a little program called RegCleaner. You can dl at www.guru3d.com or simply by doing a google search. what it does is remove any old registry files that aren't being used anymore which may be causing conflicts. i personally think it's a great program ;)
I think we all know what causes artifacts now but would anyone care to put some pics of various kinds of artifcats? Thank ya.
RegCleaner! A wonderful little program.:)
It's difficult to take pictures of artifacts because the screenshot is taken directly from the frame buffer on your graphics card, and you'll get a perfect representation of your game world minus the artifacts, at least I think that's the case. You'd have to get a digital camera and take a picture of your computer screen.