Failing Graphic Card Question

[Samwolf]

Just a quick question from those more technically knowledgeable than myself, my graphic card is failing (Random freezes and bad artifacting in game).

Lately, I started having problems with RW3 scenarios loading very slow or not at all. I'm not getting SBHH when loading, the loading screen just runs forever (longest time I let it go was 30 minutes) and the blue loading bar jerks along slowly but the scenario never loads and I have to cancel with the task manager. If the scenario does load, my FPS is really bad. The slow and no loads problem is new.

My questions is "Could the bad graphics card be causing the scenario failure to load problem?"

I'm just trying to find out if I might have some other problem beside my graphic card.

TIA

[Machinist]

You forgot to say what your machine's specs are. It looks like RAM problem as well.

When I'm "working" with a scenario, sucessive loads after sucessive editings make the game screen become more and more dirty and loading slower untill the game freezes and I got the SBHH screen. Restarting the game and cleaning cache usually help. Keep an eye in your CPU usage when loading, if lower than 50% you are probably having a very serious bottle neck caused by your graphic card. And also the route your are loading impacts the performance, as huge it is, as longer the loading is, and as lower the fps is (especially in dense areas like yards etc.). I also have a low spec machine, but the longer loading I ever had was about 1m30secs, more than that means a big problem with your system specs.

Cheers.

[Samwolf]

Thanks for the reply here's my specs:

EVGA x58 SLI SE Motherboard
Intel i7 920@2.67GHz
6GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD5870
Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU Usage during loading of scenario is around 20 to 22%

I always clear the cache and exit and restart RW3 between scenarios. This has been happening on the first run of RW.

So a failing GPU could be causing my loading problems?

[arizonachris]

The artifacting, yes, that's a card getting too hot, driver locks up and Windows will lock up. Not sure what the tool for an ATI card is, but if you can crank up the card's fan speed it could cure that issue.

The game loading slow, I'm suspecting a hard drive issue. Go to the website of the maker of the hard drive and get their diagnostic tool. How long since you did a defrag?

[Samwolf]

Good idea. I'm running the defrag now. Thanks.

[simer4]

I just ran a defrag yesterday. I use Smart Defrag 2 from IOBit to get the job done. Quite a noticeable improvement since yesterday! It's great because you can do a startup defragger to defrag things that can't be defragmented whilst Windows is running. But before this, I run Advanced System Care 5 to clean up and defragment the registry. You can use CCleaner for this too I believe. Not to sure about the defragging though. If your registry is messed up, it will slow down your entire computer.

[Samwolf]

Thanks, I was 10% fragmented. I use CCleaner and PCTools to keep my registry straight. I just wish there was an easy way to test my RAM, just to make sure whether it's my card or MB RAM.

[Hawk]

I just wish there was an easy way to test my RAM, just to make sure whether it's my card or MB RAM.

Check out MemTest.

[Machinist]

Check out MemTest.

I use Mem Turbo, and like it.

[GaryG]

No one has mentioned this so...

When was the last time you blew the dust out of your computer? Those sympthoms could also be caused by poor cooling.

GaryG

[Samwolf]

No one has mentioned this so...

When was the last time you blew the dust out of your computer? Those sympthoms could also be caused by poor cooling.

GaryG

Cooling is fine, I blow the dust out regularly. Last time was about a week ago.

[Samwolf]

Hawk and Machinist. Thanks for the Memory testor links.

[Hawk]

I use Mem Turbo, and like it.

Mem Turbo is a memory optimization utility (I won't go into the debate of the effectiveness or usefulness of a utility like that). MemTest actually test your physical RAM to see if there's any problems.

[Samwolf]

Memtest showed no errors after a few hours, so looks like my GPU is what's going out.

[arizonachris]

Sam, did you run a utility to test your hard drive? I'm still not certain the long loading times are because of the video card, alto the random freezing and graphics corruption points to a failing card. Might even be a power supply failing and causing multiple symptoms. Just take it one step at a time I guess.