Graphics anomaly, but not graphics card problem

[parsona]

Hi all,

I've this really weird graphics problem where in many 3d games, character rendering has gone totally whack. An example from 3dmark05 here:
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/5107/graphicsglitchpd7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
When you see it moving, it looks horible, sometimes characters are blinking/transparent.

At first I thought it was a problem with my graphics card, so I took it over to a friends pc which has almost the same hardware as mine, and it ran fine without any weird glitches. What else can I suspect now? I've changed nVidia Forceware from 91.47 to 92.91, and its the same thing. Also, everything is stock, CPU@stock, GPU/Mem @stock (even tried massive underclocking).

Other weird things shown is like on games, some characters will have their arms/legs move up to some really weird positions, and return to normal in a very rapid manner... kinda like flailing limbs. I can play FEAR however, with almost no anomalies, except that lighting sometimes flicker at certain angles(when its not supposed to).

Really hope you can give me some ideas here as I can't solve this on my own. Thanks all.

My system:

C2D e6400
Gigabyte 965P-DS3
1GB Kingston DDR2
Galaxy 7900GS
CM Igreen 500W PSU

[Holst]

It looks like graphics card memory problem.

Can you give the specs of your friends system?

First try from me would be to grab a spare HDD and try a fresh windows install, might be driver related.

PSU problems might cause this I suppose, but thats pretty low down on the probability list.

[parsona]

My friends system has everything the same, except for the PSU (he's using an Enermax 430w FMA. Can it be a graphics card mem issue when it works fine on my friends system?

[Holst]

If it works on his system then the card is probably ok.

Can you reinstall windows.

If thats no good borrow your friends PSU.

[Holst]

Another thing would be to test your system outside of the case to rule out a short somewhere or the card not being 100% in the slot.

Is this a new sstem build, a new graphics card or has the sytem worked propperly prevoiusly?

[cadaveca]

DX or shader corruption, IMHO. Re-install DX and the affected APP. Could also be chipset/ram, although you can eliminated these once the software is fresh, and system is not overclocked.

[parsona]

Will be reinstalling windows soon. I really hope this isn't a hardware prob :(. This is a totally new system, software is as fresh as can be, but I'll reinstall Windows anyway. How does Ram affect the graphics displayed?

Ive reseated the card several times. DX has been reinstalled once. The system doesnt give out any current when touched.. so I doubt its coz of the card shorting inside the case.

Another thing I noticed as I was playing Prey... it is like as if for 1 frames in 10, the display is being rotated 90 degrees. And I dont know if its the game or what, but dead bodies seem to fly errratically after I hit them...
This is seriously weird

[cadaveca]

Sounds like me issue or DX, in that case. The CPU should be calculating collision effects, AFAIK. but this means that anything in the gpu-cpu pipeline can be causing the issue. The card working fine in another system elimites the card itself, but still leaves all the remaining hardware that share a bus with it, and all the parts/software in that pipeline...mobo, cpu, ram, DX, drivers, etc.

But maybe i'm worng...don't think so tho.

[parsona]

Just an update. I found out that the cause is due to my CPU. Plugged in my friends e6400 and it was totally ok.