Doom 3 !Help Me Please!

[DarkSoul]

I'm having problems with Doom 3. I just got myself a new Machine, and by rights, it should take Doom 3 and smash it into tiny sections of old quake code and run it like a dream. However, I keep getting GFX problems, snowy screen and all, and its making the game run slow regardless of what settings the game is set to. My old machine ran the game perfect on medium GFX settings. Please help me...

Current Rig:
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
1Gig Ram
400Gig Hd (x2 200)
Radeon 9800XT 256mb

Old Rig:
AMD Athlon 2800+
1Gig Ram
40Gig Hd
NVidia Ti4600 128mb

On the plus side, Half-Life 2 should run perfect, but this problem with Doom 3 is mainly through my Girlfriend. Ive already finished Doom 3 on my old Rig, but she has'nt. Short of going single or getting a new Girlfriend, im stuck on what to do. Thanks in advance :)

[Hiryuu]

"Snow" is generally artifacts due to the graphics card overheating, either improve airflow in your case or reduce the overclock (if it is overclocked), if it isn't overclocked and better airflow doesn't help then check that the heatsink is seated on the card properly and if nessesary underclock the gpu a little till the snow dissapears

[Attitudx]

I am gonna have to agree usually snowy screen is the card overheating... check what was mentioned my machine in my rig runs the game fine snow=heat=bad lol but that should get you back and going

[WiCKeD]

DOOM3 causes this on alot of the 9800 series cards. Better airflow or underclocking the card or your only solutions. Newest Catalyst drivers reduced the problem for me and I have heard people curing it by lowering the resolution. Good luck.

[DarkSoul]

Thanks ppl. I checked the cards temp and it runs at 72 Deg while Doom3 is running. Taking the case of reduced it 2 59, a big help as the game runs a damn site better, but, I think im gonna be needing a new cooling system. Funny thing is, I didnt even think about over-clocking it like you guys suggested might be causing it... heh. Never mind, Money's easily made I guess... :(

Appologies for not replying sooner, been on holiday (wish I saved the money now) and your input was much appreciated :)

[masterofpuppets]

72 Deg is tame for a 9800xt. My 9800xt with stock cooler ran at 83C caseless with a 120mm ran blowing on the back! I underclocked the core 10mhz and it plays for about 20 minutes before the red and white snow appeared. Same thing happens with Far Cry after about 3 hours except it looks like the memory buffer is leaking somehow with parts of the level rendering wrongly and tiling and generally looking ill. Luckily, with some decent cooling, both games run fine on my 9800xt.